Biggest upsets

[chazp]

Almost forgot one more, Notre Dame 35, Army 13 in 1913.

 

[chazp]

One more, don't remember the year, probably 1973, a horse named Onion upset Secretariat.

 

[Chi City 81]

One more, don't remember the year, probably 1973, a horse named Onion upset Secretariat.

LOL! Onion! Yes!

 

[Songbird]

UCLA 13, USC 9 last December. (That's for you, Matt Foley).

 

[chazp]

One more. Clay over Liston, who at the time was considered invincible.

 

[spnited]

One more, don't remember the year, probably 1973, a horse named Onion upset Secretariat.

August 4, 1973 ... Onion beat Secretariat in the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga in Big Red's first start since the incredible Belmont romp two months earlier

 

[TyWebb]

One more. Clay over Liston, who at the time was considered invincible.

Was thinking a bout that one, but I figured that people didn't know enough about Clay at the time. True, Liston was the man back then, but Clay was on his way up and was better than Liston before and after that fight.

If you compare that fight with Douglas/Tyson, Douglas never went anywhere after that fight, and Tyson probably would have beaten him 9 times out of 10. Clay, I think, would have beaten Liston 9 times out of 10 back then, so I didn't consider it a great upset in hindsight.

 

[broadway joe]

Working on a list of the biggest upsets in sports for either a column or blog entry. I'm sure this has been covered repeatedly, but I was wondering what the SportsJournalists.com crowd thought was the biggest upset in sports of all time.

The two at the top of my list are 1980 US Hockey over Russia and Buster Douglas over Tyson. Is there anything that tops either of those?

Jets over Colts in '69 might not top those two, but it should be right there alongside them. I'd say the others that have been mentioned are all at least a notch below.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Working on a list of the biggest upsets in sports for either a column or blog entry. I'm sure this has been covered repeatedly, but I was wondering what the SportsJournalists.com crowd thought was the biggest upset in sports of all time.

The two at the top of my list are 1980 US Hockey over Russia and Buster Douglas over Tyson. Is there anything that tops either of those?

Jets over Colts in '69 might not top those two, but it should be right there alongside them. I'd say the others that have been mentioned are all at least a notch below.

I disagree.

The line was driven by wise-guy money.

No one had any idea how good the AFL was, just disrespected it.

They won SB III... then IV... and then V.

I don't think it is in the same ballpark.

 

[chazp]

Forgot another one, Notre Dame stopping UCLA's 88-game winning streak.

 

[broadway joe]

Working on a list of the biggest upsets in sports for either a column or blog entry. I'm sure this has been covered repeatedly, but I was wondering what the SportsJournalists.com crowd thought was the biggest upset in sports of all time.

The two at the top of my list are 1980 US Hockey over Russia and Buster Douglas over Tyson. Is there anything that tops either of those?

Jets over Colts in '69 might not top those two, but it should be right there alongside them. I'd say the others that have been mentioned are all at least a notch below.

I disagree.

The line was driven by wise-guy money.

No one had any idea how good the AFL was, just disrespected it.

They won SB III... then IV... and then V.

I don't think it is in the same ballpark.

Aren't most lines driven by wise-guy money? Forget it, don't answer that. I don't want to get into a debate about it.

I put SB III up there because of how overwhelming an underdog the Jets were -- much more so than, say, the Reds vs. the A's in the 1990 WS -- and because of the significance of the game in that it was the first real blow to the superiority of the NFL. Very few upsets can match it in terms of both shock value and historical significance. Maybe one or the other, but not both.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Not for consideration for No. 1, but at least worthy of an others receiving votes spot: Harvard women's basketball over Stanford in the first round of the NCAAs a few years back. Only 16 over a 1.

 

[zeke12]

Just so someone has come out and said it:

The 1980 U.S. over U.S.S.R upset is far and away the greatest of all time. Everything else is fighting for second.

 

[sportschick]

Not for consideration for No. 1, but at least worthy of an others receiving votes spot: Harvard women's basketball over Stanford in the first round of the NCAAs a few years back. Only 16 over a 1.

But Stanford had lost 2 (or maybe 3) of its top players after the seedings were announced. It was almost expected that they'd lose.

 

[bigbadeagle]

Beyond U.S. 4, USSR 3 (no more calls, we have a winner).

Harvard 29, Yale 29.
Patriots over Rams in the Super Bowl.
Boris Becker's first Wimbledon title. Came out of nowhere, no?
How bout Cardinals over Tigers in last year's World Series?
Cleveland State and Kevin Mackey over Indiana in the NCAAs.
And one of my favorites - Princeton over UCLA, with Jim Harrick responding to the question "Were you outcoached?" with "I don't believe you're qualified to ask that."

 

[Mystery_Meat]

And one of my favorites - Princeton over UCLA, with Jim Harrick responding to the question "Were you outcoached?" with "I don't believe you're qualified to ask that."

If I didn't think I'd ever have to deal with that guy again, I so would have responded "well, are you qualified to answer?"

 

[broadway joe]

For what it's worth, here's ESPN's Top 10.
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/topupsets/010525.html

1. U.S. beats Soviets Olympic ice hockey, 1980

2. New York Jets defeat Baltimore Colts, Super Bowl III, 1969

3. Villanova tops Georgetown to win 1985 NCAA championship

4. Buster Douglas KOs Mike Tyson for heavyweight championship, 1990

5. Man O' War loses only race, to 100-to-1 shot Upset, 1919

6. Denver Nuggets eliminate Seattle SuperSonics in 1994 NBA playoffs

7. Jack Fleck beats Ben Hogan at 1955 U.S. Open

8. New York Mets defeat Baltimore Orioles for 1969 World Series

9. Rulon Gardner overpowers Alexander Karelin for Greco-Roman wrestling gold, 2000

10. N.C. State knocks off Houston to win 1983 NCAA championship

 

[93Devil]

Dan Gable losing his final match?

Milan High School?

George Mason making the Final Four?

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Nuggets over Sonics at SIX? Ahead of the '69 Mets and N.C. State-Houston? It's a nice upset, sure, but nowhere near the top 10 (team with a defensively dominant center wins three of five, not exactly stop-the-presses material given the company it's keeping).

 

[expendable]

Correct MM. Four-of-seven, then it's plausable, but not a three-of-five.

Hell, Golden State over Dallas has to be there before Denver/Seattle.