By Brian Scott Queen Victoria had died the year before, the Boer War was just drawing to its bloody conclusion, while the Model T motor car remained a figment of Henry Ford's imagination. Their enduring disappointment in the competition surely supports the notion that more than good players are required for any side to prevail.
Good luck is needed, also.
Were this not the case, then the superb Hibs team of shortly after the Second World War would have added the Cup to the three championship titles which they claimed between 1948 and 1952. Bizarrely, that ensemble which gave birth to the Famous Five forward line of Gordon Smith, Bobby Johnstone, Lawrie Reilly, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond didn't even manage to contest a Final after 1947. The Easter Road side of around 30 years ago, with players as worthy as Pat Stanton, Alex Cropley, Alex Edwards, Alan Gordon and Jimmy O'Rourke, only reached that of 1972 and had the gross misfortune to lose it 6-1 to Celtic. A subsequent Hibs team, though not quite as good, took Rangers all the way to extra time of a second replay in 1979, only to go under 3-2. Never, in 99 years, can the Easter Road club have got closer to claiming the oldest piece of silverware in Scottish football.