Top 10 Most Unexpected Victories in Sports

The only Game 7 walk-off home run in World Series history gave the Pittsburgh Pirates one of the most improbable titles of all time. Up against a Yankees squad that featured three future Hall of Famers and led by legendary manager Casey Stengel, nobody expected the Pirates to last, let alone play seven games. Well last they did, despite being outscored in the series 55 to 27! Perhaps the best example of how well the Yankees played and adding further to the improbability of the Pirates’ win was the fact that the World Series MVP award was given to Bobby Richardson, the Bronx Bombers’ star second baseman! That same Yankees squad would go on to win two World Series titles in the ensuing years, while the Pirates wouldn’t win another until 1971.

This Lakers team was stacked from top to bottom with Hall of Fame talent. Led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, they were just two years removed from winning three straight NBA Championships when they ran into the Detroit Pistons in the ’04 Finals. By contrast, the Pistons were made up mostly of depth players, lacking the star power of their opponents. As such, the Lakers were heavily favored, with many predicting a blowout. Well, they got the blowout part right, but not the team! Detroit’s stingy defense kept the Lakers’ stars in check, and the team cruised to a 4-1 series victory. It remains one of the most shocking upsets in NBA history.

We’re going back more than a century for our next entry. Between 1919 and 1920, no horse on the planet was as revered as Man o’ War. He posted a record of 20-1-0 and set a world record when he won the Belmont Stakes by 20 lengths in June of 1920. Only one horse was able to defeat Man o’ War, the aptly named, Upset. Upset beat the thoroughbred by a neck in 1919, disrupting Man o’ War’s winning streak in the process. Upset was unable to recapture the magic of that day ever again, while Man o’ War immediately went back to his winning ways.

Prior to 2004, the Boston Red Sox were most often synonymous with one thing: The Curse of the Bambino. The team hadn’t won a World Series in 86 years. Meanwhile, their long-time rivals, the New York Yankees, had won a whopping 26 titles in that same span. So when the Sox found themselves down 3-0 in the 2004 ALCS to the Yankees, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of hope in the air. The Yankees hadn’t lost four straight games all season, and no major league baseball team had ever erased a 3-0 series deficit before. Back-to-back extra innings wins in Game 4 and 5, a nail biter in Game 6, and a blowout in Game 7 changed all that. The Sox would go on to win their first World Series since 1918 in the following round.

There have been many shocking upsets in European football over the years. From Liverpool’s incredible comeback in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, to Chelsea upsetting Bayern Munich in 2012; we could probably make an entire video dedicated to them. However, we put Leicester City’s 2016 Premier League Championship on this list due to the perceived unlikelihood of them accomplishing anything that year. Prior to the season, the odds of them winning the championship were a staggering 5,000-1, with many assuming they had a better shot of being regulated! Facing stiff competition, Leicester started to string together wins, ultimately finishing the season with 81 points – ten more than the next closest club. It may have taken 132 years, but Leicester City were at long last Champions of the Premier League!

Led by MVP / Offensive Player of the Year Matt Ryan, the Atlanta Falcons entered Super Bowl LI as 3-point underdogs. This was not all that surprising considering their opponent, the New England Patriots, finished the season 14-2 and proceeded to cruise through the playoffs. However, midway through the 3rd quarter, the Falcons found themselves up 28-3. With less than 22 minutes left in the game, a Falcons Super Bowl victory seemed inevitable…until it wasn’t. Tom Brady orchestrated a comeback for the ages aided by stellar defensive play, a miraculous catch by Julian Edelman, and three touchdowns from James White. The largest comeback in Super Bowl history, the score “28-3” will forever haunt Matt Ryan and the Falcons.

Super Bowl upsets are nothing new. Just ask the 1969 Jets, who won Super Bowl III despite being 18-point underdogs. However, you’d be hard pressed to find a more shocking Super Bowl upset than the one the New York Giants pulled off in 2008. Their opponents, the New England Patriots, finished the season 16-0, and boasted one of the most lethal offenses in NFL history. Led by Tom Brady and Randy Moss, the Pats appeared unstoppable, and many assumed the Giants would simply be a stepping stone on their path to football immortality. Apparently the G-Men didn’t get the memo. Aided by David Tyree’s improbable “helmet catch”, the Giants snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the final moments, and delivered a Super Bowl upset for the ages.

Buster Douglas was a 42-1 underdog when he fought Mike Tyson in 1990. To put that number into context, when Muhammad Ali defeated Sonny Liston as a 7-1 underdog in 1964, it was considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Douglas was an experienced fighter with a decent record, but he was about to step into the ring with Iron Mike. Tyson was a perfect 37-0, with 33 of those victories coming by way of knockout. It wasn’t just his record that was scary. Tyson hit like a freight train, often ending fights in minutes, not rounds. But Douglas wasn’t going down easy. He took it to Tyson early and often, finally knocking out the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in the 10th round.

The UEFA European Football Championship had seen unexpected victories before. In 1992, Denmark went on an insane run, capped off by a 2-0 win over a powerhouse German squad in the finals. However, what Greece did at the 2004 Euro is the stuff of legend. Like the Detroit Pistons, the Greek squad was comprised of relative unknowns – players that nobody felt could keep up with the likes of superstars such as Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo. But when push came to shove, Greece was ready. Led by a stingy defense and an opportunistic offense, Greece blanked France and the Czech Republic before delivering a stunning defeat to a stacked Portugal squad in the Finals. To this day, it remains the most unexpected victory in the history of the Euro.

Before we unveil our number one pick, here are some honorable mentions:

’69 Mets Become the First Expansion Team to Win the World Series
They Started the Season with a Record of 18-23

The Comeback
The Buffalo Bills Overcome a 35-3 Deficit to Defeat the Oilers on Wild Card Weekend

Miracle at the Meadowlands II
The Eagles Win on a Punt Return After Trailing by 21 Points with Eight Minutes Left in the 4th Quarter

Landon Donovan Scores in the 91st Minute to Help the United States Advance at 2010 World Cup
This Was the First Time the United States Won Their Group Since 1930

The Flyers Overcome 3-0 Series Deficit to Defeat the Bruins in 2010 NHL Playoffs
They Became Just the Third NHL Team to Accomplish the Feat

You know you were a part of a special sports moment when Hollywood makes a movie about it. At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY, the U.S. Men’s Ice Hockey Team had their work cut out for them. Unlike recent Olympics, the team was made up entirely of amateurs. This proved problematic when they drew the Soviet Union in the Semi-Final. The Soviet team was a well-oiled machine made up of players who’d been playing together for years. They’d won four straight Olympic Gold Medals, and just one year earlier, defeated an NHL All-Star team 6-0. Still, the unheralded Americans didn’t give up. They fought back from a 3-2 deficit to win the game 4-3, causing Al Michaels to utter the iconic words: SB “Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!”]