Wooden spoon (award)

The wooden spoon was presented originally at the University of Cambridge as a kind of booby prize awarded by the students to the person who achieved the lowest exam marks but still earned a third-class degree (a junior optime) in the Mathematical Tripos.

By tradition, they were dangled in a teasing way from the upstairs balcony in the Senate House, in front of the recipient as he came before the Vice-Chancellor to receive his degree, at least until 1875 when the practice was specifically banned by the university.

Students unfortunate enough to place below the wooden spoon, by achieving only an Ordinary degree, were given a variety of names depending on their number.

[6] The last wooden spoon was awarded to Cuthbert Lempriere Holthouse, an oarsman of the Lady Margaret Boat Club of St John's College, Cambridge, in 1909 at the graduation ceremony in the university's Senate House.

The handle is shaped like an oar and inscribed with an epigram in Greek which may be translated as follows:[citation needed] In Honours Mathematical, This is the very last of all The Wooden Spoons which you see here; O you who see it, shed a tear.

[6] In rugby union's Six Nations Championship, the wooden spoon is a metaphorical award won by the team finishing in last place.

In 1894, the South Wales Daily Post remarked that within the Home Nations Championships the Ireland-Wales match has been to decide which team should be recipient of the ignominious Wooden Spoon.

In the latter year, they lost all fourteen of their regular season matches, resulting in Dan Ryan being sacked as the club's coach.

[17] In Canada and the United States' men's Major League Soccer, the last place team in the overall standings is generally considered as the "wooden spoon champion".

[19] The Canadian Premier League has an unofficial trophy, awarded to the team that finishes with the fewest points at the end of the regular season.