World Sports Almanac

A future's secrets printed on paper that changed the past forever.

The World Sports Almanac is a book containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. It is purchased by Marty McFly in 2015, but Doc Brown discovers it and warns Marty about profiting from time travel. Before Doc can dispose of it, they are interrupted by police, and elderly Biff Tannen overhears their conversation and retrieves the discarded almanac.

Quick Facts

Primary user: Biff Tannen
Timeline impact: Created Alternate 1985

Lore & Background

The almanac becomes the central catalyst for the conflict in the film. Elderly Biff steals the DeLorean time machine and gives the almanac to his younger self on November 12, 1955. Armed with this information, the 1955 Biff places winning bets over the following decades, becoming one of the country's wealthiest and most corrupt men. He turns Hill Valley into a chaotic dystopia, secretly kills Marty's father George in 1973, forces Marty's mother Lorraine to marry him, and sends Marty to boarding school in Switzerland. This alternate 1985 is erased when Marty retrieves the almanac in 1955 and burns it, nullifying the changes to the timeline.

Reader's Guide

The almanac is a physical book containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. It does not possess any special properties beyond the information it contains. Its utility depends entirely on the user's ability to act on the information before the events occur in their current timeline. When used by Biff Tannen, it enabled him to place winning bets consistently, accumulating vast wealth over thirty years. The book is vulnerable to fire; Marty destroys it by burning it in 1955, which erases the alternate 1985 timeline.

Did You Know?

Elderly Biff overhears Marty and Doc's conversation about the almanac and retrieves it after Doc discards it.
Biff receives the almanac on November 12, 1955, the same date Marty had recently visited in the first film.