[Other Sport] The Biggest Shock in Sports History

[One Teddy Maybank]

USA beating Pakistan at cricket this year must be up there.

Went for USA beating England.

 

[Klaas]

The Harlem Globetrotters lost? lol, is that a joke?

 

[HangletonGull]

Has to be Leicester because it wasn’t a one off event

 

[Brovion]

The Harlem Globetrotters lost? lol, is that a joke?

January 5th, 1971. 100-99. Obviously the Generals were just part of the act, the stooges, but that night the Globetrotters lost track of the score. They realised they were losing with two minutes to go, they rallied but couldn't win. I do believe that the Globetrotter organisation sacked some/all of the Generals team as I think beating the Globetrotters put them in breach of contract!

Technically the poll option is wrong though. The 'Generals' played under a number of names and that night they were playing as the New Jersey Reds. Also it's possible that they won other matches prior to that, but the score was never a big thing.

The other (slightly) interesting thing is I have no clue how I know that as I have zero interest in basketball - although I did see the Globetrotters at the old 'Empire Pool' at Wembley in the days of Meadowlark Lemon.

EDIT: Just googled it and my memory is pretty good! Couldn't see anything about the aftermath though (where I believe they got sacked). Out of all the useful stuff I learned at school (and since) that I've forgotten I have no idea why that useless bit of information has stuck in my head.

 

[Klaas]

January 5th, 1971. 100-99. Obviously the Generals were just part of the act, the stooges, but that night the Globetrotters lost track of the score. They realised they were losing with two minutes to go, they rallied but couldn't win. I do believe that the Globetrotter organisation sacked some/all of the Generals team as I think beating the Globetrotters put them in breach of contract!

Technically the poll option is wrong though. The 'Generals' played under a number of names and that night they were playing as the New Jersey Reds. Also it's possible that they won other matches prior to that, but the score was never a big thing.

The other (slightly) interesting thing is I have no clue how I know that as I have zero interest in basketball - although I did see the Globetrotters at the old 'Empire Pool' at Wembley in the days of Meadowlark Lemon.

EDIT: Just googled it and my memory is pretty good! Couldn't see anything about the aftermath though (where I believe they got sacked). Out of all the useful stuff I learned at school (and since) that I've forgotten I have no idea why that useless bit of information has stuck in my head.

Lovely stuff, thanks for that!

Vaguely related, I saw this yesterday, quite funny.

 

[Baldseagull]

USA beating England 1-0 in 1950. It was before satellite broadcasting, so the match wasn't live, and apparently one newspaper, unable to believe the score that had come down the wire, printed the result as 10-1 to England. At the time it was the greatest of shocks.

Maybe in retrospect it wasn't quite the shock it appeared then because as per usual we weren't nearly as good as we thought we were. It was our first World Cup and the assumption was that, being England the inventors of football and finally deigning to take part, we would waltz home with the trophy. After all we had the players, Matthews, Finney, Mannion, Mortensen, Wright, Milburn etc, so how could we not win? (It was a lesson in hubris that of course we've never learnt).

I think England fielded a weaker side, and rested the better players. As we see every year in the FA cup, this can allow a supposedly weak side a chance.

 

[nicko31]

Like many I’m with Leicester. Anyone can have an off day but for a whole season PL after being relegation fodder months before.

Gives everyone hope

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Like many I’m with Leicester. Anyone can have an off day but for a whole season PL after being relegation fodder months before.

Gives everyone hope

I actually think this counts against it in the "shocking upset" stakes.

By the time Leicester won the PL, it was pretty clear that they were actually a good team and all the other sides who you'd normally expect to be up there were flawed in various different ways.

That they ended up on 41 points the previous season having seemed nailed on for relegation at one point does suggest that their side was solid and quite capable of winning plenty of games, even before they added Kante to it and whatever other additions they made.

Obviously nowhere near as many people would have commented on it at the time, but with hindsight it's probably more interesting to ask how on earth that side underachieved so badly for so long in the 2014/15 season.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Just read that the mighty USA basketball team came within a hairs breadth of losing to South Sudan in a warm up for the Paris Olympics.

‘We were embarrassed at halftime’: US relieved after escape against underdogs South Sudan

The US eked out a late 101-100 win thanks to a late LeBron James layup, staving off one of the biggest upsets in basketball history

www.theguardian.com

This got myself and the chaps at the Ship Inn contemplating what is the biggest upset in the history of Sport?

Good thread Crodo. Sensible. Interesting question. Some good options.

Are you well?

Leicester all day and all night, isn't it?

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Just read that the mighty USA basketball team came within a hairs breadth of losing to South Sudan in a warm up for the Paris Olympics.

‘We were embarrassed at halftime’: US relieved after escape against underdogs South Sudan

The US eked out a late 101-100 win thanks to a late LeBron James layup, staving off one of the biggest upsets in basketball history

www.theguardian.com

This got myself and the chaps at the Ship Inn contemplating what is the biggest upset in the history of Sport?

I saw on Sports Illustrated last night that in 1992, the USA "Dream Team" faced only 9 other NBA players on Olympic rosters - this year there are 61 NBA players spread across the competing nations. No surprise the gap is closing - and wouldn't be surprised if the US doesn't win Olympic Gold this year.

 

[Nicky Rust Fan Club]

Of the options...has to be leicester

but I may have added Foinhaven winning the grand national in 1967 at 100/1 after every other horse came a cropper or similarly Steven Bradbury winning gold at the winter olympics speed skating after all the other competitors took each other out.

 

[nwgull]

Has to be Leicester because it wasn’t a one off event

Agree. Sport is brilliant becuase there's always the potential for an upset on the day, whether that's because the underdogs play the game of their lives or the favourites have a bad day, or a combination of both. To manage such an upset over a 38 game season is incredible.

The pre-event bookies' odds are a fairly objective way to measure these upsets. Leicester were 5000-1, and I can't imagine that any of the others listed were even close to that.

 

[crodonilson]

Agree. Sport is brilliant becuase there's always the potential for an upset on the day, whether that's because the underdogs play the game of their lives or the favourites have a bad day, or a combination of both. To manage such an upset over a 38 game season is incredible.

The pre-event bookies' odds are a fairly objective way to measure these upsets. Leicester were 5000-1, and I can't imagine that any of the others listed were even close to that.

The Harlem Globetrotters are said to have beaten the Washington Nationals more than 14,000 times and the Nationals (or in a different guise depending on the city they were paying in) so I'd have said if the bookies were offering odds on the Nationals to win it would be in excess of 5,000/1.

 

[nwgull]

The Harlem Globetrotters are said to have beaten the Washington Nationals more than 14,000 times and the Nationals (or in a different guise depending on the city they were paying in) so I'd have said if the bookies were offering odds on the Nationals to win it would be in excess of 5,000/1.

I Googled this, as I couldn't believe that they'd played each other that many times in their 100 year history. The hit did however suggest that it's 13,000 victories by the Globe Trotters and only 6 wins for Washington, so true odds 2167 - 1.

I'm struggling to see how they managed that many fixtures though. That's something like 2-3 games a week!

 

[Brovion]

I think England fielded a weaker side, and rested the better players. As we see every year in the FA cup, this can allow a supposedly weak side a chance.

Hmm. I'm not sure. It was exactly the same team that beat Chile 2-0 in the opening game, as the selectors (the manager, Walter Winterbottom didn't actually pick the side) didn't want to change a winning team. After the USA debacle they did make four changes for the next game though - all to no avail as we lost 0-1 to Spain and went out at the group stage.

 

[METALMICKY]

John Hilton winning the European Table Tennis championship in 1980 at odds of 1000-1. His shock win forced a fundamental change in the regulations about bat rubbers in that you must have different colours on each side. Similarly they clamped down on excessive stamping at the point you strike the ball.

 

[METALMICKY]

I Googled this, as I couldn't believe that they'd played each other that many times in their 100 year history. The hit did however suggest that it's 13,000 victories by the Globe Trotters and only 6 wins for Washington, so true odds 2167 - 1.

I'm struggling to see how they managed that many fixtures though. That's something like 2-3 games a week!

Not sure you can count anything with Globetrotters as they were predominantly an exhibition team with most games scripted.

 

[bhafc4eva]

Has to be Leicester.

Wigan beating Citeh in the cup final also shocked a few. However odds of 5000-1 will never be repeated.

Biggest odds this year is around 1500-1 for Leicester and Southampton.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Leicester out of that list, although its almost forgotten how Spurs amongst others effectively imploded that season.


For the older ones amongst us, Sunderland vs Leeds took some beating back in the day.

 

[The Rattler]

The biggest shock… for him it must have been Gus Poyet getting the sack on live TV