6 Most Insane Underdog Stories in the History of Battle I don't believe we've done this before. Focus: Your favorite underdog story. In sports, war, whatever. Just spare us the story of how your parents said you were never good enough to get an edumucation and you showed them!
You know I'm sure at many points in Durbanite's life people said he would never get laid, but he did it.
For me personally it was pulling this Eva Longoria lookalike from the bar and to my place last night. Taco Tuesday rocks. Also, doesn't hurt living on the same block as the bar. Most of my other favorites are sports related. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl season was very unexpected. Our offense had Brad Johnson throwing the ball [who gets very underrated despite putting up great numbers for a few seasons there] and Michael Pittman running it, yet the defense was so tough that it was able to maul its way to a Lombardi Trophy. Take into account the full context of the Tampa Bay Yuckaneers as some had called them, who were known at the time for the only winless season ever. They were downright terrible in their first ten years and it took Tony Dungy to rebuild them from the ground up and Jon Gruden to come in and take them to the title. The other one that stands out to me is the lockout shortened NBA Finals when my New York Knicks as the eight seed made a run to the NBA Finals. They got beat 4-1 by the Spurs in the Finals but they honestly had no chance with all the injuries. All I can remember is Allan Houston's running jumper against the Heat with 0.8 seconds left to knock off the 1-seed in Game 5, and Larry Johnson's four-point play to seal a victory against the Pacers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. All this with Knicks star player Patrick Ewing out due to an Achilles problem. They did it with a makeshift roster of mostly dudes nobody wanted, including a 30 cents on the dollar Latrell Sprewell, an aging Larry Johnson, a far too often injury prone Marcus Camby, and Allan Houston. Not gonna lie though, Allan Houston was awesome. Boise State against Oklahoma was one of the most exciting games I have ever seen in my lifetime, and that game fits perfectly.
My favourite underdog story has to be that of the 1916 Easter Rising, Dublin. A reasonably small group of Irish men got together, with their respective military and armed-union organisations and set about creating an Irish Republic liberated from British rule. They planned this without the knowledge or consent of many of their members. As the the day approached for the insurrection/rising to take place one of the leaders got cold feet. This man, O'Rahilly, issued orders in the newspapers across the country saying 'Manoeuvres for this Easter Sunday are cancelled' and similar coded messages calling off the rising. The other leaders however ignored this and tried to organise as many men as possible. This meant that outside Dublin very little else went on. Then, one of the leaders Connolly took his men out on what they thought was a routine marching exercise through Dublin, a show of strength if you will. He marched them up to the GPO (general post office). Ordered "Halt", "Left-Face", "Charge!" and his men ran at the GPO. They managed to storm the general post office, remove the civillians and a policeman from inside and on the steps declare an Irish republic: "IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom." They then held out in Dublin for about a week heavily outnumbered. Once surrounded and with no hope of victory or escape, O'Rahilly led one last charge (he'd joined the rising anyway knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it), and was immediately shot down along with many other fine volunteers. After this, the newly established President of the Irish Republic ordered a surrender and everyone handed themselves over to the British. The British then in the coming weeks executed all the leaders of the rising turning Irish opinion against the British. What's most remarkable to me however was that those involved in the rising knew it would end in military defeat, but to them this wasn't failure. What they did was not an insurrection, but rather a blood sacrifice, restoring Ireland's honour and inspiring generations of future Irish men and women to fight for that republic which has yet to be realised. Even today, there is a small group called the Continuity Irish Republic Army who hold themselves to be the sole inheritors of that Republic and the only legitimate government in Ireland. Young men still risk death and life imprisonment to fight for that government. Now I don't support those men, it's time for peace, but that Republic still has a place in the heart of any true Irish man.
I don't think this could qualify as an underdog story since Illinois was ranked #1 at the time...but they were definitely the underdog with 4 minutes left: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmrvVQFGFlY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmrvVQFGFlY</a> Literally, could not contain myself after that game. Sure, we got screwed over by the officials in the championship game, but that memory will never die.
Forgive me for not keeping up with the gossip of the board, shouldn't this be happening relatively soon, or did it fall through?
That Cracked article about Isandhlwana isn't entirely accurate. I don't recall them mentioning that Chelmsford's relief column only arrived AFTER the battle (about 3600 of the 8000-strong British force they mentioned, who also had a LOT of the supplies). I'd know - I've been to the battlefield - my dad was one of the guys who built the architectural model in the museum adjacent to the battlefield and we were invited to the museum's opening. Anyway... Rorke's Drift. More Victoria Crosses were awarded for this individual battle/encounter than any before or since. England > Zulu.
The Battle of Stalingrad would be one my favourites. I don't see how the soviet forces could be considered anything other the underdogs even though it was on their home turf. Down at the most basic level at that time, unit for unit, the Wehrmacht had the best trained and equipped troops. Strategically speaking Zhukov and Chuikov's planning turned out to be incredible and tactically, ground and air troops were ferocious to say the least. You could even argue that this was the beginning of the end of the entire war.
The Bluegrass Miracle. While not exactly an underdog story because LSU was heavily favored going into this game, they found themselves down with 11 seconds left. They ended up winning on a 74 yard pass that was well short of the endzone with no time left on the clock. One of the most impressive hail mary plays I've ever seen.
My personal favorite was in high school. My school was playing against the top ranked team, with the best HS basketball coach in the nation (Coach Gene P, the coach from "Hoop Dreams") Oh yeah, they had three D-1 starters, two of them being Evan Turner(#2 overall NBA draft 2010) and Dmetri McCamby. We were playing in their gym, for their homecoming (or the equivalent). NBC was there covering the action, and before the game their student section was talking trash to the cameras. 5 white guys on our team, one of which is going to a mid-major D-1 School. Tallest person- 6'4". We beat them in the last minute, and stormed the court. The highlights on the 10 o'clock news were priceless. It started out with the fans talking trash about our team "who are these guys?" Which went to the sports anchor, "Well son, this is the team that beat you guys on your own court." Always remember that day, we even had the brothers (Catholic school) storm the court.
I've not a Mets fan, but I've liked the story of the 1969 Amazin' Mets. This was a team that had never finished better than next-to-last place and had put up some of the worst records in baseball history a few years before. Then all of a sudden they win 39 out of their last 50 games, take the division, sweep the NLCS, and win the World Series in five. And this was done without any real household names, aside from Tom Seaver and a very young Nolan Ryan. Almost a miracle: Gordon Hayward heaves a last second, half-court shot for the Butler Bulldogs. If it goes in, they will be NCAA champions. The ball hits the backboard, bounces off the rim and lands on the court. The fuckers from Raleigh have won. I grew up a mile from Butler. Both my parents are professors there. I used to play basketball at Hinkle Fieldhouse during summer camp. Just a few more inches...
Thirteen squabbling, broke, redneck, backwater colonies, without an army, navy, foreign service or government, up against the largest empire in world history. Suck it, England!
As much as I hate to admit it, they did have a lot of help from the French. We've paid them back since then though.
The Rams, favored by 14 points, with stars like Kurt Warner, Torry Holt, and Marshall Faulk vs. a back-up quarterback with no stars to throw to? No way in hell, right? Right?
Take a look at number 5 http://www.cracked.com/article_17232_un ... d-ass.html The siege of Malta is perhaps one of the greatese underdog stories ever. Suleiman the magnifecent sent the best of his army to invade Malta and get rid of the Knights of St.John. The invaders estimated that Malta would fall in a few weeks. The Ottoman empire's (who had been undefeated for the previous 100 years) fighting force consisted of approximately 40,000 soldiers, including 6,000 Janissaries. While on the christian side, the soldiers numbered to 6000, 550 were knights, the rest were soldiers from Malta, Spain and Italy. The only reason the Ottomans lost, was because of one man, Jean de Valette, the grandmaster of the knights, whose strategic plans and insane gambits paid off. At one point of the siege the muslims crucified the bodies of knights to demoralise the christians, de Valetta responded by beheading the prisoner's of war, and subsequently using their heads as cannonballs. If anyone is interested in reading on the subject I suggest Ernle Bradford's 'The great Siege'.