The first live televised FA Cup final
This day in football history
Published in
1 min readMay 1, 2017
On 30 April 1938, Preston North End defeated Huddersfield Town 1–0 in the FA Cup final before a crowd of 93,497 at Wembley Stadium. The match is notable for being the first FA Cup final to be broadcast live on television.
The first 90 minutes were scoreless, so the teams went to extra time. In the last minute of extra time, the match was still scoreless and a replay seemed inevitable when BBC commentator Thomas Woodrooffe famously said, “If there’s a goal scored now, I’ll eat my hat.” Seconds later, Preston North End were awarded a penalty, which forward George Mutch scored by bouncing it off the underside of the crossbar, giving Preston the win.
Woodrooffe later kept his word, eating a hat made from cake.
