The Greatness of the Underdog

The Underdog, they’re the team that’s not supposed to win. Actually they are supposed to get blown out, destroyed, killed, embarrassed, romped and all in the same game. But every once in awhile they do the unexpected and pull of they upset. They remind that the game isn’t played on paper, but on the field where heart and soul are all that matter. So this weekend we saw two huge upsets that remind us to never underestimate the warrior spirit.
There is a great commercial on television lately that reminds us that even though your favorite baseball team didn’t make the playoffs its still okay because its October: a time to root against the Yankees. Well you Evil Empire haters definitely got your money’s worthy because the underdog Tigers ended New York’s season by winning their divisional series three games to one. The Yankees won game one but the Cinderella Tigers decided that it wasn’t quite midnight yet by winning three in a row and outscoring New York 14-3 in the final two games. They now face the Oakland Athletics and have a very good chance of making it all the way to the World Series. That means they would have gone from one of the worst to one of the best and that’s what being an underdog is all about: doing the most when everybody expects the least.
The underdog story so far this college football season was the Arkansas Razorbacks upset of the #2 Auburn Tigers. So get your “Pig Sooie” on all your Hogs fans because Arkansas is 4-1 and sits alone at the top of the SEC West with a very good chance to make it to the SEC Championship Game. Last year they lost Matt Jones to the NFL and had a losing record and this year they were still supposed to a year or two away. But new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has brought creativity and quarterback has been inspiring after getting the starting nod as a true freshman. But when they rolled into Auburn and dominated the highly-touted Tigers with a strong running game and a swarming defense they reminded everyone no never look past a team that’s playing with renewed vigor.
But of course these pair of games weren’t the first upsets we’ve ever had. So let’s take a look back into the history books for other great underdog stories.
One of the earlier one’s was Joe Namath’s guarantee for victory in Super Bowl III. His New York Jets then went out and beat the favored Baltimore Colts 16-7.
Maybe the greatest upset of all time was the U.S. National Hockey Team defeating the Soviets at Lake Placid in 1980. A bunch of college kids went out there and beat a Soviet team that had dominated for two decades. They thought we were inferior as a team and a country but Herb Brooks and his boys had everybody believing in miracles.
Keeping with the U.S.-U.S.S.R. theme, Rocky Balboa really had to box a heck of match to defeat that giant of a man Ivan Drago in number four. Maybe all those dopers should have dragged a sled through the snow like Rocky instead of taking steroids like Ivan.
Starting five African-American players, Texas Western beat Kentucky in the 1966 national title game. Those players won being underdogs as both players and people.
The movie Major League is another great upset flick. A manager hired to coach the Cleveland Indians who had previously worked at an auto garage using a player with bad knees, one that had been pitching in the California Penal League and another worshiping voodoo dolls in the club house. He led them from last place to winning the American League Pennant against you guessed it: the Yankees.
Of course sports isn’t the only place were you can find great underdogs; George Washington and company defeating the British in the American Revolution. The Viet Minh also pulled off a good underdog independence movement in running the French out of Vietnam in the 1950’s. Moses was definitely fighting an uphill battle in trying to free his people from Egypt. Their was also probably not a lot of people who thought Martin Luther was going to be successful in breaking away from the Catholic Church.
So go ahead and take that 20-1 bet the next time an underdog comes along that plays with a lot of heart. Because the beauty of sports is that when the game rolls around everything goes out the window because the game is played on the field right then and there.