Upset (competition)

"Giant-killing" redirects here. For other uses, see Giant-killing (disambiguation).

For other uses, see Upset (disambiguation).

An upset occurs in a competition, frequently in electoral politics or sports, when the party popularly expected to win (the favorite), is defeated by an underdog whom the majority expects to lose, defying the conventional wisdom. The underdog then becomes a giant-killer.

Examples of major upsets in politics

• 1937 - Virtually unknown 29-year-old Lyndon B. Johnson won the special election over the House Seat of Texas Tenth Congressional District in a landslide. He achieved this by heavily campaigning the country side of the district.
• 1945 Winston Churchill called a snap election at the end of World War II to take advantage of his heroic status as a war leader and 83% approval rating in the polls. Labour had never had a majority in the House of Commons, but they took 239 seats, the Tories lost 190 and Clement Attlee became prime minister with an overall majority of 145. It was one of the biggest landslides in British politics and the most unexpected.
• 1948 - Unpopular Democratic United States President Harry Truman defeated the highly favored Republican candidate Thomas Dewey, which featured in a famous newspaper headline: "Dewey Defeats Truman". It is considered by most historians to be the greatest election upset in American history.
• 1972 - New York attorney Elizabeth Holtzman defeated 50-year incumbent congressman Emanuel Celler, who was also the Judiciary Committee chairman in the Democratic primary.
• 1989 - Ernesto Ruffo Appel was elected Governor of Baja California, defeating the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate and becoming the first state governor not belonging to the PRI since 1929.
• 1990 - Paul Wellstone, an underfunded professor, defeated popular Senator Rudy Boschwitz in the United States Senate race.
• 1992 - Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton overcame several damaging scandals to come in second in the New Hampshire Primary, famously calling himself the "comeback kid". Clinton went on to win the Democratic Primary and defeat incumbent President George H. W. Bush in a three-way race that also included Texas businessman Ross Perot.
• 1994 - Texas Republican George W. Bush defeated highly favored and popular Democratic incumbent Ann Richards in the race for Texas governor.
• The 1994 U.S. House of Representatives elections, during which Republicans gained 54 seats, featured a number of notable upsets:
  • Republican George Nethercutt defeated Democratic Speaker of the House and 30-year incumbent Tom Foley. It was only the second defeat of a sitting Speaker of the House in U.S. History and the first since 1860.
  • Plastic Surgeon Greg Ganske a Republican defeated 36-year incumbent Iowa Congressman Neal Edward Smith.
  • Steve Stockman a Republican defeated 41-year incumbent Texas Congressman and Chairman of Judiciary Committee Jack Brooks (politician).
  • Republican attorney Michael Patrick Flanagan defeated 36-year incumbent Illinois Congressman and Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Dan Rostenkowski.
• 1998 - Retired dairy farmer Fred Tuttle, who had starred in a independent mockumentary about a retired farmer who ran for Congress, won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Tuttle defeated Jack McMullen, a multimillionaire businessman who had spent most of his life living in Massachusetts, by ten points. Tuttle ran a tongue-in-cheek campaign that highlighted McMullen's perceived lack of knowledge about the state. After winning the primary, he endorsed his general election opponent Democrat Pat Leahy but received 22% of the votes nonetheless.
• 2000 - Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (Mexico) was elected President of Mexico in the 2000 presidential election defeating the Institutional Revolutionary Party candidate Francisco Labastida. It was the first time that the PRI lost a presidential election.
• 2006 - Dave Loebsack, a Democrat and a political science professor at Cornell College, defeated 30-year incumbent Iowa congressman Jim Leach.
  • Dawn Marie Sass, a parole officer and store clerk at Boston Store, defeated incumbent Wisconsin Treasurer Jack Voight a Republican. She had run for the office twice previously, in 1998 and 2002. In her 2006 campaign, Sass won in a narrow upset (8,648 votes, or 0.42%), with little party support. She had spent almost $4000 on the race, most of it coming from her own pocket.
  • Jim Webb, a Democrat who had served as Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, upset incumbent Republican senator and former Governor of Virginia George Allen, after Allen had made a series of mistakes, starting with the Macaca Controversy during the 2006 Midterm Elections in Virginia.
• 2007 - Greg Ballard defeated incumbent Indianapolis mayor Bart Peterson, despite being outspent by a huge margin.
• 2008 - New Orleans lawyer Joseph Cao a (Republican) defeated scandal-plagued nine-term Democratic U.S. Representative William Jefferson in a district that usually voted 75 to 80 percent Democratic.
  • Charlottesville attorney Tom Perriello a Democrat defeated incumbent Virginia Congressman
• 2010 - Republican Massachusetts state senator Scott Brown defeated Democrat state Attorney General Martha Coakley in a special election for the United States Senate seat vacated upon the death of long-time senator Ted Kennedy. Brown trailed in the polls by over 10% only a few weeks before the election, and, by winning, became the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in almost four decades.

Examples of major upsets in sports

American Football

• 1969 - Super Bowl III - In arguably the biggest Super Bowl upset to date, the New York Jets, 18½-point underdogs and champions of the lightly-regarded American Football League, shocked the National Football League's Baltimore Colts 16–7.
• 1976 - Rose Bowl Game - The UCLA Bruins, a 15 1/2 point underdog, upset the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, 23–10. Ohio State had beaten UCLA in Los Angeles early in the season by a score of 41–20.
• 1985 - College football - Oregon State beat Washington 21–20. What is most notable is that the Huskies were 37-point favorites, and this game was considered the largest reversal ever in spread betting until 2007 (see below).
• 1986 - 1985 AFC Championship Game - The wild card New England Patriots, who had lost 18 straight games in Miami, won their first-ever AFC title by shocking the defending AFC Champion Miami Dolphins 31–14 at the Orange Bowl.
• 1995 - 1994 AFC Championship Game - The San Diego Chargers clinched their first AFC Championship by stunning the top-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers 17–13 at Three Rivers Stadium. The Chargers spotted the Steelers a 13–3 advantage before battling back.
• 1998 - Super Bowl XXXII - The Denver Broncos shocked the heavily-favored defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, 31–24, on a 1-yard touchdown run by game MVP Terrell Davis with 1:45 to play. The win was the first by an AFC team in 14 years and the first for Denver in five Super Bowl appearances.
• 1999 - 1998 NFC Championship Game - The Atlanta Falcons clinched their first NFC Championship by rallying to shock the 16–1 Minnesota Vikings 30–27 in overtime at the Metrodome. The Falcons trailed 27–20 late in the 4th quarter, and rallied to tie the game and force overtime after Vikings kicker Gary Anderson missed a potential Championship-clinching field goal attempt, his first miss of an attempted field goal all season.
• 2002 - Super Bowl XXXVI - The New England Patriots, 14-point underdogs, shocked the St. Louis Rams to win 20–17 on an Adam Vinatieri field goal as time expired.
• 2006 - 2005 AFC Divisional Playoff - The sixth-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers shocked the top-seeded Indianapolis Colts 21–18, becoming the first sixth seed ever to advance to a conference championship game. The Steelers would set further precedent, going on to win the AFC Championship and Super Bowl XL.
• 2006 - The unranked UCLA Bruins defeated the #2 ranked USC Trojans 13–9, knocking USC out of the BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona and ending UCLA's seven year losing streak to the Trojans.
• 2007 - College football
  • In the opening week of the 2007 season, Appalachian State beat #5-ranked Michigan 34–32 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is the first time a Division I FCS (formerly known as I-AA) team beats a Division I FBS Associated Press ranked team.
  • Later in that season, USC was upset by Stanford 24–23 in Los Angeles. USC was ranked #1 in the Coaches Poll and #2 in the AP Poll and was a 40 point favorite to win the game. Stanford's backup quarterback, Tavita Pritchard, started the game and Stanford converted on two 4th downs in the final drive, scoring the tying touchdown and subsequent go-ahead PAT to go up by one point with 49 seconds left. A Stanford interception sealed the victory. The Cardinal's win was the greatest point spread ever overcome in college football history, surpassing the aforementioned 1985 Oregon State-Washington game.
  • On December 1, the Pitt Panthers toppled the 28½-point favorites West Virginia Mountaineers 13–9 at Morgantown, West Virginia. The shocking defeat cost West Virginia a berth in the BCS Championship Game (They would settle for a berth in the Fiesta Bowl). The loss to Pitt would mark the final game of head football coach Rich Rodriguez's seven year tenure at West Virginia University, as he resigned later on in the month to take the same job at the University of Michigan.
• 2008 - Super Bowl XLII - The wild card New York Giants defeated the 18–0 New England Patriots 17–14 with a touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left, denying New England's bid for the NFL's first undefeated season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. The 2007 Giants were the first NFC wild card team to win a Super Bowl and just the second one to win a conference title, after the 1975 Dallas Cowboys.
• 2009 - The unranked Washington Huskies, a week after ending a 15 game losing streak, defeated the #3 ranked USC Trojans 16-13 at Husky Stadium. This victory ended the Trojans 7 game win streak over the Huskies and would cap off the first season in seven years that the Trojans did not win the Pac-10 and subsequently attend the Rose Bowl.

Baseball

• 1906 - Major League Baseball - World Series - Despite winning a major league record 116 games, the Chicago Cubs lost in six games to the Chicago White Sox (nicknamed the "hitless wonders") in the World Series.
• 1914 - Major League Baseball - World Series - Boston's "Miracle Braves", who were in last place on July 4, rally to win the N.L. pennant and shock Connie Mack's powerful, Hall of Fame laden Philadelphia Athletics team in 4 straight games in the World Series. Mack was so infuratied by the loss that he traded or sold many of his star players and the Athletics would not be a contender again until the late 1920s.
• 1954 - Major League Baseball - World Series - Facing the 111 win Cleveland Indians, the New York Giants swept them in the World Series, with the help of Willie Mays' famous behind the back catch in Game 1 at the Polo Grounds.
• 1960 - Major League Baseball - World Series - The heavily favored New York Yankees outscore the Pittsburgh Pirates in overall runs, 55-27, in the seven-game series. But Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 gives the Pirates a 10-9 victory and the World Series title. It is the first walk-off homer to clinch the World Series title in history.
• 1966 - Major League Baseball - World Series - The Baltimore Orioles sweep the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in their first World Series appearance. Dodgers Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax retires following the Series.
• 1969 - Major League Baseball - World Series - The New York Mets, an expansion team that never previously finished higher than ninth place, reached the World Series and upset the favored Baltimore Orioles in five games.
• 1988 - Major League Baseball - NCLS The Los Angeles Dodgers won the NCLS pennant in seven games over a New York Mets team that had beaten them ten of eleven times during the regular season. Then in the World Series, pulled off an even bigger surprise... a five game domination of the powerful Oakland Athletics.
• 1990 - Major League Baseball - World Series - The Cincinnati Reds, fresh off their first pennant since 1976, took out the defending world champion Oakland Athletics in four straight.
• 2004 - Major League Baseball - ALCS - Enroute to their first World Series Championship in 86 years, the wild card Boston Red Sox erased a 3-0 series deficit against the New York Yankees to win the ALCS pennant. Game 4 of the series saw Red Sox' Dave Roberts divert elimination by tying the game 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th on a stolen second base and subsequent single RBI. Boston would win the game on a home run by David Ortiz. This had been the MLB's first case in which a team came back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series.
• 2006 - Major League Baseball - NLCS - The St. Louis Cardinals, champions of the N.L. Central Division despite a record of only 83–78, won in seven games over the New York Mets, a strong team that was tied for the best record in baseball. The Cardinals would go on to win the World Series, defeating the Detroit Tigers in five games.
• 2008 - NCAA - World Series - Fresno State University (a #4-regional seed and the 89th-ranked team in the nation) became the lowest seeded team ever to win a College World Series title, as they defeated the University of Georgia 2 games to 1 in the championship series.

Basketball

• 1954 - Tiny Milan High School in Milan, Indiana, enrollment then 161, beat Muncie Central High School, enrollment then over 1,600, in the Indiana High School State Basketball Championships by a score of 32–30. The 1986 movie classic Hoosiers is loosely based on the story of the Milan team.
• 1966 - NCAA Championship - Facing the top-ranked University of Kentucky in the championship game, Texas Western's coach, Don Haskins, made history by starting five African American players for the first time in a championship game against Kentucky's all-white squad, coached by Adolph Rupp. The Miners took the lead midway in the first half and never relinquished it — though Kentucky closed to within a point early in the second half. The Miners won 72–65, winning the tournament and finishing the year with a 28–1 record.
• 1969 NBA Finals - The aging Boston Celtics, who barely made the playoffs by finishing 4th in the Eastern Division, upset the Western Division Champion Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games in the NBA finals, winning game 7 in Los Angeles 108–106.
• 1972 Summer Olympics Basketball - The Soviet team, in a highly controversial finish, defeated the USA team 51–50 in the gold medal game after 2 extra seconds were added to the gameclock, giving the Soviet team enough time to score the winning basket. This marked the first time in Olympic Basketball history that the USA team failed to earn the gold medal, and was their first loss in 62 games. The USA team boycotted the medal ceremony and their silver medals remain unclaimed and unwanted to this day, in a vault in Switzerland.
• 1974 - Notre Dame defeated the UCLA Bruins 71–70 as UCLA was held scoreless over the final 3 minutes of the game, ending UCLA's record 88 game winning streak.
• 1975 - NBA Finals - The Golden State Warriors, who had a regular season record of 48–34, shocked the Washington Bullets, who were 60–22, by winning the NBA title in a 4-game sweep.
• 1982 - 800 student Chaminade University upset the number one team in the country, the Virginia Cavaliers, 77–72, in what is considered the biggest upset in college basketball history.
• 1983 - 1983 NCAA Men's Tournament - The North Carolina State Wolfpack, a No. 6 seed, defeated the Houston Cougars in the title game, 54–52. The top-ranked Cougars, nicknamed Phi Slama Jama and featuring Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon, carried a 26-game winning streak into the title game. NC State, on the other contrary, had to upset North Carolina and Virginia in the ACC Tournament in order to make the postseason. From there, the Wolfpack would make the Final Four by beating Pepperdine, UNLV and Virginia after those opponents missed free throws down the stretch.
• 1985 NCAA Men's Tournament - Villanova, a No. 8 seed, upset Georgetown, the defending champion and consensus No. 1 team in America, to win the championship. Villanova had lost two close games to the Hoyas that season, but, in the title game, Villanova would make 22 of 27 shots (78.6%) from the field, to pull off the 66–64 upset.
• 1991 NCAA Tournament - The Richmond Spiders became the first #15 seed ever to upset a #2 seed when they defeated the Syracuse Orangemen, 73–69.
  • The Duke Blue Devils upset the unbeaten defending champion UNLV 79–77, in the Final Four. UNLV had humiliated Duke the year before in the 1990 title game 103–73, which was the largest victory margin in an NCAA championship game.
• 1993 NCAA Tournament - The #15-seeded Santa Clara Broncos, led by Steve Nash, upset the #2-seeded Arizona Wildcats 64–61.
• 1994 NBA Playoffs - The eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets (42–40) stunned the top-seeded Seattle SuperSonics (63–19) in the first round of the 1994 NBA Western Conference Playoffs, falling behind 2–0 in the best-of-five series, and then winning the next three games to become the first eighth-seeded team in NBA history to ever defeat a top-seed.
• 1997 - College basketball - NCAA Tournament - #15-seeded Coppin State upset #2-seeded South Carolina 78–65.
• 1998 — In the West Regional of the NCAA Women's Tournament, Harvard became the first (and, as of 2009, the only) #16 seed in either the men's or women's Division I tournament to defeat a #1 seed, stunning Stanford 71–67 on the Cardinal's home court.
• 1999 - The eighth-seeded New York Knicks (27–23) defeated the #1 seed Miami Heat in the first round of the 1999 NBA playoffs, and advanced all the way to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs
• 2001 NCAA Tournament - The Hampton Pirates, a 15th seed, shock the 2nd seeded Iowa State Cyclones and pull off a great NCAA Tournament upset.
• 2004 Olympic Basketball - Puerto Rico defeated the USA in the first game of the Olympics by 17 points in a game that was dominated from the beginning from the Puerto Rican national team. Several weeks before, the USA won a friendly match prior to the Olympics by over 40 points.
• 2006 NCAA Tournament — The George Mason Patriots upset four teams consecutively in the Washington, D.C. Regional to make it to the Final Four. The 11th-seeded Patriots beat #6 seed Michigan State, a participant in the previous year's Final Four; defending national champions and #3 seed North Carolina; #7 seed Wichita State; and top seed UConn before finally losing to eventual champions #3 Florida in the Final Four. The Patriots were given 400–1 odds to win the NCAA Tournament and were within two games of doing so.
• 2007 - Basketball - In the 2007 NBA Playoffs, the Golden State Warriors, who barely got into the playoffs on the last game of the regular season and entering the playoffs as the #8 seed, knocked off the Dallas Mavericks, who entered the playoffs as the #1 seed in the Western Conference with an NBA-best 67 wins during the regular season. The Warriors won in 6 games. This was the first ever #8 seed to defeat the #1 seed since the NBA started using a best-of-7 format in the first round.

Cricket

• 1882 - Australia had never won a test in England, where they had to face the cream of amateur players rather than professionals seeking winter employment, but at the Oval in August 1882 they beat the finest team England could put on the field. Dismissed for 63 in the first innings they made 122 in the second and England's 101 and 77 gave Australia a 7 runs victory. "The Demon" fast bowler Fred Spofforth taking 14–90 in the match. As a result the Sporting Times published a fake obituary to "English Cricket which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882...the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia" - the origin of the Ashes.
• 1983 - In the 1983 Cricket World Cup, newcomers Zimbabwe shocked Australia in England in their first ever ODI game, winning by 13 runs. Duncan Fletcher, the Zimbabwe captain, was man of the match.
• 1983 - Later in the 1983 World Cup, underdogs India shocked favourites and two-time defending champions West Indies in England, winning by 43 runs; the upset was deemed as the greatest upset in cricketing history.
• 1996 - 1996 Cricket World Cup: Kenya, playing in their first World Cup, comprehensively defeated the West Indies in the group stages, establishing Kenya's then-presence as a leading Associate nation.
• 1999 - 1999 Cricket World Cup: Bangladesh beat tournament favourites Pakistan. This result was influential in Bangladesh achieving test status.
• 2003 - In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the minnow team Kenya defeated one of the top teams in the world, Sri Lanka, and, with that victory, advanced to the Semi-Finals of the tournament, becoming the first non-Test-playing nation to advance to a semi-final. Kenya beat Sri Lanka by 53 runs. This was one of the greatest cricketing upsets because of the comprehensive way in which Kenya won, with bowler Collins Obuya taking record figures 5–24 and Kennedy Obuya scoring a patient 80.
• 2005 - Bangladesh beat Australia at Cardiff. Mohammad Ashraful, the Bangladeshi captain, scored his first international century to put Bangladesh on-course to defeat the reigning world champions.
• 2007 - Cricket World Cup 2007: Ireland, playing in their first World Cup, beat top seed and world number 4 Pakistan, to advance to the Super 8 stage of the tournament. The Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, died after the match.
• 2009 - World Twenty20 Championship 2009: In the opening match of the tournament, the Netherlands, playing in their first Twenty20 international tournament, defeated hosts England, by four wickets off the last ball of the match.

Football (soccer)

• 1924 - At the Olympic games in Paris, Sweden defeated Belgium, a higher ranked team, 8–1. This is still ranked as the biggest international soccer upset ever, according to Elo ratings [1].
• 1950 - In the World Cup, the United States shocked England in a match considered one of the biggest surprises in World Cup history.
• 1950 - In the same competition, Uruguay registered an upset of Brazil in the World Cup final, with the latter nation needing only a draw to win the World Cup; this game is known as the Maracanazo (or Maracanaço).
• 1954 - In the World Cup final, underdogs West Germany came back from two goals down to defeat the heavily favoured Hungary team (who had remained unbeaten in their past 32 games, and had previously defeated the Germans 8–3 in the group stage), 3–2, in a game now known as The Miracle of Bern.
• 1966 - North Korea upset Italy 1–0 in the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
• 1982 - In the World Cup, newcomers Algeria registered the second victory in the tournament by an African side, when they defeated two-time world champions West Germany 2–1.
• 1988 - 1988 FA Cup Final, arguably the greatest upset in the history of the FA cup, with unfancied Wimbledon defeating league champions Liverpool 1–0 thanks to a Lawrie Sanchez header.
• 1990 - In the World Cup, Cameroon defeated the holding champions Argentina in the opening match 1–0, and became the first African team to reach the quarter-finals. They then lost to England 2–3 due to an extra-time penalty kick.
• 1992 - In Euro 92, Denmark, a last-minute replacement for the Yugoslavia team banned due to sanctions resulting from the Yugoslav wars, won the title.
• 1992 - In the FA Cup third round, defending champions Arsenal were beaten 2–1 by Wrexham, who had finished bottom of the league the previous season.
• 1998 - In Bundesliga the newly promoted Kaiserslautern suddenly won the league
• 2000 - In the 1999/2000 French Cup semi final, Calais RUFC, a team playing in the fourth division of the French football league (CFA), knocked out reigning French champions Girondins Bordeaux 3–1, after extra time. Calais later put in an admirable performance in the final, unluckily losing 2–1 to Nantes.
• 2001 - In the Copa America 2001, the last minute replacement team, Honduras, defeated Brazil 2–0, in the quarter-finals. In Brazil, upsets are called "zebras" (because of the lottery-tipe "Animal Game", in which there are 25 animals, but no Zebra - Zebra is a impossible result).
• 2002 - In the World Cup opening match, Senegal defeated defending champions France 1–0. The French subsequently left the competition in the first round, winless and goalless.
• 2004 - Greece, a 150–1 long shot according to some bookmakers, won Euro 2004 by defeating hosts Portugal, twice, as well as giants France and the Czech Republic.
• 2009 - United States beats #1 ranked Spain in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup. Prior to that, the Spaniards had not only 15-game winning streak, but a streak of 35 games without a loss. In the same tournament's group stage, Egypt defeated world champions Italy 1-0.
• In the late 2000s, Spanish superpowers Real Madrid were embarrassingly knocked out of the country's cup competition, the Copa del Rey, in successive years by third-division sides:
  • 2008 – In the round of 32, they faced Real Unión away in the first leg, losing 3–2. In their home leg, Real Madrid won 4–3, with Raúl contributing a hat trick, but Unión advanced on away goals.
  • 2009 – After spending over €250 million on new players in the 2009 offseason, Real again faced a third-division side in the round of 32, this time nearby Alcorcón. As in the previous season, the first leg was at the smaller club's home ground. Although only one of Real's major summer acquisitions was in the squad (Karim Benzema), they fielded a very strong side with nine internationals in the starting 11. Alcorcón proceeded to destroy Real 4–0. Real's 1–0 win in their home leg was not enough to overcome the first-leg deficit.
• 2010 - Manchester United were defeated by bitter rivals Leeds United 0-1 in the third round of the FA Cup at Old Trafford, suffering arguably their most humiliating defeat under Sir Alex Ferguson. The last time Leeds had won a match at Old Trafford was in 1981, and Leeds had since slipped to the third flight of English football. Manchester had not previously been defeated in the third round of the Cup nor had they been defeated by a third-flight team under Ferguson. Although Man United had some defensive players missing through injury, they had their first-choice strikers, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, on the pitch for the full duration of the tie and were unable to beat Leeds' second-choice goalkeeper Casper Ankergren to cancel Jermaine Beckford's 19th minute effort.

Golf

• 1913 - U.S. Open - Francis Ouimet, a 20-year-old American amateur, defeated golf superstars Ted Ray and Harry Vardon.
• 2008 - Ryder Cup - The United States Golf team, without their best player, Tiger Woods, defeated the heavily favored European Golf team.

Ice hockey

• 1967 - In the Stanley Cup Finals, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the favored Montreal Canadiens, a game that saw the pinnacle of the Habs-Leafs rivalry.
• 1980 - In the Miracle on Ice, the United States beat the Soviet Union in the semi-finals at the 1980 Winter Olympics, considered by some to be one of the greatest upsets in American sports history.
• 1982 Stanley Cup Playoffs - The Los Angeles Kings, who finished a whopping 48 points behind the Edmonton Oilers in the regular season, upset the Oilers in the first round of the playoff, 3 games to 2. In game 3 of the series, known as the Miracle on Manchester, the Kings trailed 5–0 after 2 periods, tied the game with 5 seconds left, and won in overtime, 6–5.
• 1993 - In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the New York Islanders staged one of the greatest upsets in NHL playoff history when David Volek won Game 7 of the Patrick Division Finals against the two-time defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins, who won the Presidents' Trophy during the regular season, with an overtime goal.
• 1994 - Stanley Cup Playoffs - The 7th seeded Vancouver Canucks upset the #2 seeded Calgary Flames, the #4 Dallas Stars, and the #3 Maple Leafs, en route to a Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Presidents' Trophy champion New York Rangers.
• 1995 - The New Jersey Devils, seeded 5th in the east and without home ice advantage in any of the 4 rounds upset the the Boston Bruins in 5 games, the Pittsburgh Penguins in 5 games, and the Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games to get to their first ever Stanley Cup Finals where they swept the heavily-favoured Detroit Red Wings in 4 games to win the Stanley Cup. In the following 1995-96 NHL season the New Jersey Devils missed the playoffs.
• 1996 - In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche (47–25–10) beat the Detroit Red Wings (62–13–7) in the Western Conference Finals, The Red Wings won 62 games that season and were heavily favored to win the series. The Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup in a four game sweep of the Florida Panthers.
• 2000 - In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the #8 seed San Jose Sharks (35–30–10–7) stunned the #1 seed St. Louis Blues (51–19–11–1) in the Western Conference quarter-finals. The Blues won a franchise record 51 games that season, which clinched the President's Trophy and were heavily favored to win the series.
• 2004 - Stanley Cup Playoffs - The 6th seeded Calgary Flames defeated three division champions, the #3 seeded Vancouver Canucks, the #1 seeded and President's Trophy champion Detroit Red Wings, and the #2 seeded San Jose Sharks, only to lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup finals.
• 2006 - In the semi-finals of the women's tournament at the Winter Olympics, Sweden defeated the USA 3–2 in a shootout. This marked the first time that either the USA, or eventual gold medalist Canada, lost in an international women's hockey competition to any third nation.
• 2006 - Stanley Cup Playoffs - The 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers shocked the #1 seeded Detroit Red Wings, the #5 San Jose Sharks, and the #6 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim en route to a Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup finals to the Carolina Hurricanes.
• 2009 - Stanley Cup Playoffs - The #8th seeded Anaheim Ducks, having barely qualified for the playoffs, upset the President's Trophy winning San Jose Sharks. The Sharks had set a franchise-record 53 wins and 117 points that season and were the heavily favored to win the Stanley Cup since the beginning of the season.

Other

• 1919 - 2-year-old Phenomenon Man o' War loses his first race to the coincidentally named Upset. In theory, this coined the term "Pulled an Upset".
• 1967 - Foinavon became an unlikely winner of the Grand National horse race when a pile-up at the smallest fence on the course allowed it to come from the back of the field and pass 17 other horses on the way to winning the race.
• 1975 - In the open section of the World Open chess tournament, expert Alan Trefler (Elo rating 2075, 125 points below the lowest master rating), and ranked 115th in the tournament, scores 8–1 to tie for first with International Grandmaster Pal Benko, rated 2504, ahead of Grandmasters Nicholas Rossolimo and Walter Browne.
• 1978 - Rugby union — Munster beat the All Blacks 12–0. Munster are the only Irish side ever to have beaten New Zealand, including the Irish national side. More than 100,000 people claim to have been there on the day it happened, despite Limerick's ground holding only around 12,000 at that time. The game is immortalized by the stage play Alone it Stands, and the book Stand Up.
• 1986 - Snooker - Joe Johnson, who began that year's World Snooker Championship as a 150–1 underdog, reached the final and defeated World number 1 Steve Davis 18 frames to 12, to win the title.
• 1990 - Boxing - James "Buster" Douglas knocked out then-undefeated Mike Tyson in 10 rounds.
• 2000 - Olympic wrestling - American Rulon Gardner defeated Russian Alexander Karelin at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Prior to the match, Karelin was undefeated in 13 years without having given up a single point in six years, and had previously defeated Gardner in 1997.
• 2002 – Olympic short track speed skating: Australian Steven Bradbury, considered a longshot to medal in the 1000 metres, becomes the first Winter Olympics gold medalist from any Southern Hemisphere country after the following events:
  • He finished third in his qualifying heat, outside the qualifying places, but was elevated to second with the disqualification of Canada's Marc Gagnon.
  • In his semifinal, he was in last place on the final lap, only to have three of the other four competitors crash out, allowing him to advance as the second-place finisher.
  • In the final, he was well back from the field on the final lap, but all four other competitors crashed on the final turn, allowing him to cross the line first.
• 2004 - Tennis - Unseeded Gastón Gaudio recovered from two sets down to defeat #3 seed Guillermo Coria in the final of the French Open, saving two match points in the process.
• 2005 - Formula One - Fernando Alonso and his team Renault F1 unexpectedly defeated seven time champion Michael Schumacher and his team Scuderia Ferrari, for both drivers and constructor's championship, while Ferrari struggled all year with a poor car and crippling tyre rule changes.
• 2007 - Mixed martial arts - UFC - At UFC 69: Shootout, Matt Serra defeated heavily favored Georges St. Pierre via TKO at 3:25 in the 1st round.
• 2007 - ICC World Twenty20 Zimababwe beat Champions Australia in their first match ever in the World Twenty20. Brendan Taylor mastered the upset with a patient half century.
• 2008 - In the 2008 Summer Olympics, Japan defeated the United States in the final of women's softball, who seemed unbeatable. It was their first loss since 2000.
• 2009 - Formula One - Brawn GP With Drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello score a 1-2 finish in their first ever race the 2009 Australian Grand Prix with Button winning again the next week in Malaysia to put himself and Barrichello 1-2 in Drivers Standings and Brawn GP on top of the Constructors standings. Button then won the Bahrain Grand Prix.
• 2009 - Tennis - Robin Söderling dethroned the 'King of Clay', Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of Roland Garros in four sets, who beforehand, seemed unbeatable at this Grand Slam. This ended Nadal's amazing streak of 31 matches at this tournament dating back to 2005, when he made his debut. Therefore, it was Nadal's first ever loss in this tournament, and notably, being knocked out so early in the tournament.

Other major upsets

Although upsets usually occur in both politics and sports, there was one particular upset that caused an outcry on a monumental scale. On December 15, 2007, in the finale of the British television series, The X Factor (UK series 4), Scottish singer Leon Jackson won the series, with the heavily favoured Welsh tenor, Rhydian Roberts as runner-up. One interesting aspect was while Leon had the most votes in the series, he had the least betting odds before the finale.

Although there have been similar upsets in shows like American Idol, when Ruben Studdard beat Clay Aiken in season 2, and when David Cook beat David Archuleta in season 7, the runner-ups were expected to win because they were more popular, while Studdard and Cook won because they had the more acclaimed voices. This result, on the other hand, defied all of that. Not only did many people think that Rhydian was the best contestant in the series, but they also thought that he was one of the most valuable contestants, if not the most valuable, in all the four seasons, making it a historic event if he had won.

In 2005, Crash was chosen over Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture at the Oscars, after most experts believed Brokeback Mountain would win.

Origin

In 2002, George Thompson, a lexicographic researcher, used the full-text online search capabilities of the New York Times databases to trace the usage of the verb to upset and the noun upset. The latter was seen in usage as early as 1877. [2] Thompson's research debunked one popular theory of the term's origin, namely that it was first used after the Thoroughbred racehorse Upset became the only horse to defeat the legendary Man o' War in 1919. The actual origin remains unknown.

See also

• Cinderella (sports)
• NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Upsets