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Greatest Underdogs

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Zurp

Zurp

I have misplaced my pants.
So I was sitting in a hotel room the other night, flipping through the channels, and the only thing I could find at least mildly entertaining was the show on ESPN Classic that goes through the 20 Best whatevers. Wednesday night was 20 Best Underdogs. They go through a bunch of underdogs, usually using more recent people or teams. The 2001 Patriots were around #17, saying they were 13-point 'dogs to the Rams. So I was watching the rest of the show, looking for (who else) the 2002 Buckeyes. 13-point 'dogs to Miami.

I watched the entire flippin' show and no Buckeyes. I'm not saying that the 2002 Buckeyes should be in the top 20 all-time underdogs, but I think they should be ahead of 2001 Patriots.

(In case anyone has to ask, the #1 'dog of all time was 1980 US Hockey team.)
 
Agreed, particularly considering the fact that I saw several college football "analysts" say the week before the game not only that Miami would win, but that it will be such a blowout that people shouldn't even bother tuning in.
 
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Zurp: "So I was watching the rest of the show, looking for (who else) the 2002 Buckeyes. 13-point 'dogs to Miami."

I don't think the '02 Bucks should be on that list. If you put them there, then there are a bunch of eventual National Champs in CFB that would qualify as well: '87 Penn State, '91 Alabama, and (I think) '00 Oklahoma was a 13 point 'Dog to FSU as well.

How bout Buster Douglas as the # 1 'dog of all time? I would easily put him on the same level as the '80 US Hockey team. Douglas-Tyson was the biggest upset I've ever seen in sports by far.
 
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1980 Hockey team as #1 is not remotely contestable IMHO

The Soviets that year were awesome, even by their lofty standards. Their players were better than an NHL all-star team would have been that year. They had played together for their entire careers. Their goalie was un-freakin-believable.

Hockey back then was even more a backwater sport in the US than it is now. This was basically a college all-star team in a sport that gets very few of America's best athletes.

Think of a college all-star team playing an NFL all-star team. Now instead of a sport that gets all of our best athletes, make it hockey; where its our left-overs vs. their best. Now instead of an NFL all-star team make it a team that has played together since before they were shaving.

Folks this was like a team of RANDOMLY CHOSEN college football players playing the '85 Chicago Bears (or fill in other dominant NFL team here). All of the other upsets can argue about #2. This is the most one-sided argument in all of sports in my mind.
 
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Sloopy45 said:
Zurp: "So I was watching the rest of the show, looking for (who else) the 2002 Buckeyes. 13-point 'dogs to Miami."

I don't think the '02 Bucks should be on that list. If you put them there, then there are a bunch of eventual National Champs in CFB that would qualify as well: '87 Penn State, '91 Alabama, and (I think) '00 Oklahoma was a 13 point 'Dog to FSU as well.
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I don't know enough to argue those other teams, and I'd be VERY surprised if there are NOT 20 greater underdogs than the 2002 Buckeyes. Like I said, I wasn't arguing that Ohio State should have been on the list, but that they should be higher than the Patriots that year.

Sloopy45 said:
How bout Buster Douglas as the # 1 'dog of all time? I would easily put him on the same level as the '80 US Hockey team. Douglas-Tyson was the biggest upset I've ever seen in sports by far.
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Buster Douglas was #2 or #3. I can see that. I'm no boxing fan, but I've never even HEARD of him in any other fight, other than this one and then I'm sure he lost after this fight. And he goes and beats this guy who's been CRUSHING all the competition from A-Aardvarck to Z-Zebra.

But that Hockey team (I know it's grown way out of proportion thanks to Hollywood) was huge. Forget about the whole "great for America to finally feel good about itself" stuff. That's mushy and boring, and has nothing to do with what happens in the game. The American team had gotten beat something like 9-1 by that same Russian team. And they were getting slaughtered by other teams before the Olympics. They squeek into the medal round, and hope to put on a good showing against a team of Russians who were basically BRED to win that gold medal. The Americans were just some college kids who happened to play hockey. (Granted, they were arguably the BEST amature hockey players in the country.)

That hockey team would be like taking the NFL pro-bowlers, get their heads out of their asses and quit thinking about money (yeah.. right..) and get them to practice together for four years. And tell them that if they lose, they and their families are going to be country-wide disgraces and maybe shipped to Siberia. Or, in this case, they're shipped to Michigan. Then take the college all-americans and get them to practice together for maybe 6 months. Do the college kids have a chance?
 
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clearly they got #1 right. if ever there was a david vrs. goliath story, that was it. as far as whether or not they dropped the ball in regards to the 02 bucks not being on the list depends greatly on how you look at the game. if its a question of persception then without question the bucks were easily in the top 10 biggest upsets ever. if you sit down and compair the teams with 0 bias its not so big an upset. its still an upset, but its not jaw dropping. the teams were actually pretty competitive position by position.

our d was much better than their o, our special teams was better than theirs but our offense wasn't nearly as capable as their d. that makes for a very even game which is exactly what we saw. so from that perspective, not only was it NOT an upset, it was actually reletively predictable.

perception on the other hand... the mass majority of the country didn't think we were the best team in our conference let alone the nation. most would have picked iowa over us let alone the all mighty canes. the canes were supposed to run circles around the bucks. the game was to be over by halftime. it wasn't even fair they said. so... yeah, from that perspective it was one of the greatest upsets in history and should have easily made the top 10. so it really depends on how you look at it *shrug*. while i do see it as another david vrs. goliath story. its not because i thought miami was a better "team". its because it was an us against what the rest of the country believed deal. the only people who thought we had a chance were those wearing scarlet and grey that day.
 
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Zurp: "I don't know enough to argue those other teams, and I'd be VERY surprised if there are NOT 20 greater underdogs than the 2002 Buckeyes."

I think the '87 Penn State team was a (approx) 17 point 'dog to the Canes in the Fiesta Bowl. Miami had the Heisman winner in Vinny Testaverde, Michael Irvin, Jerome Brown, etc. Ditto for Alabama in '91 (around 2 TDs) to the Canes in the Sugar Bowl. You can argue either of those teams as equal if not bigger dogs than the Bucks.

"Like I said, I wasn't arguing that Ohio State should have been on the list, but that they should be higher than the Patriots that year."

To me, its splitting hairs. Both teams weren't given a snowballs chance to beat the very overrated teams they were going to face.

"Buster Douglas was #2 or #3. I can see that. I'm no boxing fan, but I've never even HEARD of him in any other fight, other than this one and then I'm sure he lost after this fight. And he goes and beats this guy who's been CRUSHING all the competition from A-Aardvarck to Z-Zebra."

Douglas was a 64 to 1 Underdog. Think about that. At that point in Tyson's career, it was unfathomable that anyone could go 5 rounds with him. No one had even knocked him down before that. It was unthinkable that this machine could ever get beat. He was the youngest heavyweight champion of all time, and the most dominant heavyweight since Ali. The Douglas fight got no pub whatsoever because it was expected to be a 1st round KO. It wasn't even an afterthought.

Tyson wasn't fighting his opponents at that point: he was fighting history to see where he'd rank all time.

The US Hockey team was an enormous upset. But I'd easily put Tyson-Douglas on par with that. I've never been absolutely shocked by a sporting result before or since that fight. I remember where I was (watching the NBA Slam Dunk Contest) when I heard that Tyson lost: Verne Lundquist came on the air & said, "I suggest all you viewers sit down before I read this, its not a joke."
 
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I found this Top 10 list. I'm assuming it is the same list.

Page 2's List for top upset in sports historyPage 2 staff
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=772 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=772 colSpan=7 height=10><SPACER width="772" height="10" type="block"></TD></TR><TR vAlign=top><TD width=120>


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</TD><TD width=10><SPACER TYPE="BLOCK" WIDTH="10"></TD><TD width=55><SPACER TYPE="BLOCK" WIDTH="55"></TD><TD width=435 bgColor=#ffcc33>Sports upsets live vividly in our memories, taking us back to that day when we were stunned to see a mammoth underdog take out an unbeatable favorite.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER width="5" height="1" type="block"></TD><TD width=250>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD width=250>[FONT=verdana, arial, geneva]The upstart Americans knocked off the mighty Soviets in the Olympic medal round.[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Page 2 is out to crown the greatest upset in the history of sports. Here's our list of the top 10.
1. The Miracle on Ice
"Do you believe in miracles?" asked Al Michaels, and everyone did after the U.S. beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Soviets, who had won eight of the previous nine Olympic gold medals, had blown away the American college kids 10-3 in a pre-tournament exhibition just days before.
2. Super Bowl III
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER width="5" height="1" type="block"></TD><TD width=275>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD width=275>[FONT=verdana, arial, geneva]Jets quarterback Joe Namath backed up his boast in Super Bowl III.[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Joe Namath guaranteed victory at poolside, and the Jets shocked the Colts 16-7, striking a blow for AFL equality and laying the groundwork for the NFL merger.
3. Villanova stuns Georgetown
The eighth-seeded Wildcats shot 78.6 percent (making 22 of 28 field-goal attempts) -- including 90 percent (9-for-10) in the second half -- to stun defending NCAA champion Georgetown and Patrick Ewing 66-64 in the 1985 NCAA finals.
4. Buster Douglas KOs Mike Tyson
The weight-challenged journeyman was a 42-to-1 underdog against the undefeated Tyson. But when the smoke had cleared on Feb. 10, 1990, in Tokyo Japan, the "baddest man on the planet" was lying on his back, and his heavyweight championship belt was missing.
5. Upset hands Man O' War his only loss
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER width="5" height="1" type="block"></TD><TD width=250>
a_busta.jpg
</TD></TR><TR><TD width=250>[FONT=verdana, arial, geneva]Buster Douglas gained his 15 minutes of fame by knocking out Mike Tyson.[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Man O' War is generally considered (with Secretariat) one of the two best racehorses ever. But when 100-to-1 shot Upset handed Man O' War the only loss of his career in the Sanford Memorial in 1919, he coined a sports expression for an underdog beating a vastly superior foe.
6. Nuggets embarrass Sonics in 1994 NBA playoffs
Who can forget the image of Dikembe Mutombo lying on his back, kicking his feet in pure joy, after Denver knocked off Seattle in the first round of the playoffs, the first No. 8 seed ever to beat a No. 1 seed? Denver had been blown out in the first two games of the five-game series, but rallied to win the last three, including Game 5 in overtime.
7. Jack Fleck wins the 1955 U.S. Open
A total unknown, Fleck beat Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff to win the 1955 U.S. Open, still the most shocking upset in golf history.
8. The Miracle Mets
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5 rowSpan=2><SPACER width="5" height="1" type="block"></TD><TD width=275>
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</TD></TR><TR><TD width=275>[FONT=verdana, arial, geneva]American Rulon Gardner, left, will go down in wrestling history for his stunning 1-0 defeat of Russian great Alexander Karelin.[/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Only seven years after they came into existence as one of the worst teams in baseball history, the Mets stunned the Orioles in the 1969 World Series. The perennially awful Mets trailed the Cubs by 9½ games on Aug. 13 before rallying to win the pennant and reach their first World Series.
9. Rulon Gardner beats the unbeatable
Three-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin of Russia was unbeaten in international competition and had lost only once -- as a 19-year-old in the 1987 Soviet championships. Karelin was expected to wrestle his way through an unbeaten, unscored-upon tournament when the unknown American shocked him -- and the world -- to win Olympic gold in the Greco-Roman heavyweight division last September.
10. N.C. State over Phi Slamma Jamma
Lorenzo Charles' putback of Dereck Whittenburg's short 30-foot desperation shot at the buzzer in the 1983 NCAA finals left N.C. State coach Jim Valvano running around like a maniac, looking for someone -- anyone -- to love.
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The Villanova vs. Georgetown is the only one that came to mind for me other than "The Miracle on Ice" and "Tyson-Douglas"
 
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Bucky Kat- That's not the same list. The Nuggets weren't even on the list that was on that show, and the only racehorse on the list was whats-his-name with the movie with spiderman as the rider. I can't remember his name, now.
 
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I don't think the 2002 Buckeyes should be anywhere near that list. They were a very talented team with an otherworldly defense that had already shown what they could do in a tough schedule. Just because the media foolishly hyped the Canes doesn't mean the Buckeyes were REAL underdogs. They were a great team that simply were recognized for their greatness a game late.
 
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