A Brief History
On January 12, 1969, the New York Jets of the AFL beat the Baltimore Colts of the NFL, a monumental upset that spurred a merger of the two major pro football leagues. Today, we list some of the biggest sports upsets.
Digging Deeper
Baseball: The 1969 “Miracle Mets” beat the Orioles to cap their miracle season.
Basketball: The woeful 1972 Cleveland Cavaliers beat the record setting LA Lakers 124 to 120, an incredible upset of a team that boasted Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West.
Boxing: Mike Tyson got knocked out by 42 to 1 underdog “Buster” Douglas in 1990.
Hockey: The US Olympic team beat the heavily favored Soviet team at the 1980 Olympics and went on to win Gold.
Horse Racing: A 100 to 1 betting line did not stop Upset from upsetting the field that included undefeated Man o’ War in the 1919 Sanford Memorial.
Wrestling: Undefeated Aleksandr Karelin finally lost in the 2000 Olympics to Rulon Gardner of the US.
(Bonus Trivia: Major Dan was at the memorable Cavs vs. Lakers upset, the first NBA he ever attended.)
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Krantz, Les. Dark Horses & Underdogs: The Greatest Sports Upsets of All Time. Warner Books, 2005.
Trent, Tyler. The Upset: Life (Sports), Death…and the Legacy We Leave in the Middle. Core Media Group, Inc, 2019.
The featured image in this article, a football card from the 1986 Jeno’s Pizza NFL football card stickers set of New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath running a play against the Baltimore Colts during Super Bowl III, is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1978 and March 1, 1989 without a copyright notice, and its copyright was not subsequently registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within 5 years.
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