NEW YORK GIANTS BEAT NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS, 2008 SUPER BOWL: Only seems right to finish this list with an NFL game. The Patriots, quarterbacked by Tom Brady and coached by Bill Belichick, boast an unprecedented 18-0 record heading in and are 12-point favorites. But thanks in part to David Tyree's helmet-catch of a desperation pass from MVP Eli Manning, the Giants pull off the 17-14 surprise.
BONUS: A half-dozen is a small sampling, so here's an extra six: BOISE STATE of the Western Athletic Conference beats Big 12 stalwart Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime at the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, a BCS-buster if there ever was one; the game features a bevy of trick plays and even a marriage proposal. FRANCIS OUIMET, a 20-year-old local amateur, beats two of golf's dominant figures,Nike Air Max Scontate, Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, in a playoff at the 1913 U.S. Open; the stunning victory puts the sport on the front pages of American newspapers for the first time. In a more recent example, JOHN DALY wins the 1991 PGA Championship as a PGA Tour rookie after getting into the field as an alternate. In tennis, zero-time major champ ROBIN SODERLING beats Rafael Nadal at the 2009 French Open, ending Nadal's 31-match winning streak there; it remains Nadal's only loss at Roland Garros, where he is 59-1 with a record eight championships. THE U.S. SOCCER TEAM stuns England 1-0 at the 1950 World Cup on a goal by Joe Gaetjens, a result so unfathomable that some English newspapers assume wire reports are mistaken and instead print that their lads won the game. In horse racing, MAN O'WAR loses for the only time in 21 career starts in the 1919 Sanford Memorial at Saratoga. The name of the horse that wins the race? Upset. |
