On this day, Scottish football witnessed the biggest blowout in the history of official, professional sports. Arbroath FC smashed Bon Accord 36-0 in the first round of the Scottish Cup. This incredible result set a world record for the largest margin of victory in an official, unrigged match, a record that stood for well over a century.
The story behind this match makes the unbelievable scoreline even more hilarious.
Bon Accord was not even a real football team. Because of a major administrative mix-up, the organisers sent an official tournament invitation to a local cricket group called Orion Cricket Club instead of the actual football team, Orion FC.
Rather than turning down the invite, the cricket players decided to form a team called Bon Accord and give football a try.
They showed up to the ground completely unprepared. They did not have matching jerseys, proper football gear, or any tactical training. Arbroath showed them zero mercy from the opening whistle, scoring goal after goal against the helpless amateurs.
The match was so one-sided that Arbroath’s goalkeeper, Jim Milne Jr., had literally nothing to do. Because it started raining heavily during the game, he spent part of the match standing under an umbrella that he borrowed from a spectator in the crowd.
He did not have to make a single save or touch the ball with his hands for the full 90 minutes.
To make things even wilder, the score could have been much worse. The referee called off five more Arbroath goals for offside. If those goals had counted, the match would have ended in an embarrassing 41-0 victory.
