First Wrangler and Wooden Spoon

 First Wrangler and Wooden Spoon

Growing up in Texas we knew of the word wrangler as a ranch hand, someone who worked with cattle.  It would have seemed both strange and yet somehow appropriate if I had looked up the word in a dictionary and found, “a person engaging in a lengthy and complicated quarrel or dispute.“ 

In fact, on the North side of Fort Worth in the Stockyards atrea, there is a statue by artist Lisa Perry of Bill Pickett, a famous black wrangler who invented the idea of "bulldogging" a steer.  Now that's a "lengthy and complicated dispute.

Years later when I read about brilliant English mathematicians who had been “Senior Wranglers”, the top person in their year on the written mathematical examinations, the Mathematical Tripos, I had no idea what the relation was.   “ By way of example, in 1854, the Tripos consisted of 16 papers spread over eight days, totaling 44.5 hours. The total number of questions was 211. It was divided into two parts, with Part I (the first three days) covering more elementary topics.”  The successful graduates were divided into three groups, the Wranglers, 

The first known appearance of  “Wrangler” in print seems to have been in 1751, in a pamphlet (Friendly and Honest Advice of an Old Tory to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge) circulated around Cambridge.  He addresses the term as if it might not be known to his readers outside Cambridge., “When the scholars take their first Degree in Arts, they are distinguished by their different improvements, by several marks of Honour and Disgrace.” The mark of the top performing students was “Wrangler”, the title derived from the original system of “oral disputations”.  The recognition of being the highest scorer led to the title “Senior Wrangler”, an event to be celebrated and feasted by the members of his (or her) College.

“Philippa Fawcett was educated at Bedford College, London (now Royal Holloway) and Newnham College, Cambridge which had been co-founded by her mother.   In 1890, she became the first woman to obtain the top score in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos exams. The results were highly publicised, with the top scorers receiving great acclaim. Her score was 13% higher than the second highest, but she did not receive the title of Senior Wrangler (Geoffrey T. Bennett in 1890), as only men were then ranked and women were listed separately. Women had been allowed to take the Tripos since 1880, after Charlotte Angas Scott was unofficially ranked as eighth wrangler. When the women's list was announced, Fawcett was described as "above the senior wrangler". No woman was officially awarded the first position until Ruth Hendry in 1992.” *Wik

A description of the event is recorded in the North Hall Diary of Newnham College:-

"The great event of the year was Philippa Garrett Fawcet's achievement in the Mathematical Tripos. For the first time a woman has been placed above the Senior Wrangler. The excitement in the Senate House when the lists were read was unparalleled. The deafening cheers of the throng of undergraduates redoubled as Miss Fawcett left the Senate House by the side of the Principal. On her arrival at the College she was enthusiastically greeted by a crowd of fellow-students, and carried in triumph into Clough Hall. Flowers, letters, and telegrams poured in upon her throughout the day. The College was profusely decorated with flags. In the evening the whole College dined in Clough Hall. After dinner toasts were proposed: the healths drunk were those of the Principal, Miss Fawcett, her Coach (Mr Hobson) and Senior and Junior Optimes. At 9.30 p.m. the College gardens were illuminated, and a bonfire was lighted on the hockey-ground, round which Miss Fawcett was three times carried amid shouts of triumph and strains of "For she's a jolly good fellow." *SAUAnother term developed at the examinations went to the lowest scoring person who passed the exam,the last name before the line separating the successful from the “Gulph”, the unsuccessful examines.  To this lowest of the high, was awarded the title (and often an actual) Wooden Spoon.  The name appears somewhat widely in English speaking nations for an individual or team that has come last in a competition. "

The First written record of “Senior Wrangler” in print seems to be in 1791, and the “Wooden Spoon” in 1793.

The spoons themselves, actually made of wood, grew larger, (like the wooden spoon shown below) and in latter years measured up to five feet long. 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.

The Last Spoon

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:

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.

This spoon is now in the possession of St John's College, Cambridge, with an earlier version being kept at the Selwyn College Library. From 8 June 2009 to 26 June 2009, St John's College held an exhibition of the five surviving wooden spoons in College hands, from St John's (the last one, dating from 1909), Selwyn's (1906), Emmanuel's (1889) and Corpus Christi's (1895 and 1907) in its library to mark the centenary of the "awarding" of the last spoon of all. There are five known wooden spoons in private hands.

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". However, unlike other Wooden Spoon awards, there is a physical "trophy" for the award. Before the start of the 2016 MLS season, the Independent Supporters Council decided to create an actual official "trophy" for the lowest place team in the league, as a complement to the Supporters' Shield which the ISC also manages.