There’s something uniquely thrilling about witnessing the impossible unfold before your eyes. When everyone says it can’t be done, when the numbers scream defeat, yet somehow victory emerges from the shadows. These are the moments that define sports, business, and human achievement.
Throughout history, underdogs have delivered the kind of stories that Hollywood scriptwriters would hesitate to pitch. Let’s be real, some victories are so improbable that even the most optimistic fans didn’t dare to dream. What follows are fifteen instances where the unthinkable became reality.
Leicester City’s 2016 Premier League Miracle
A team given 5,000 to 1 odds at the start of the season had done the unthinkable. In the summer of 2015, Leicester City were fresh from a relegation fight, tipped at 5,000–1 to win the Premier League, having survived the 2014–15 campaign by the narrowest of margins after spending 140 days at the bottom of the table.
By May 2016, they were champions, having lost 19 matches the previous season, fell to just three defeats on the way to a stunning triumph. Prior to the start of the 2016 season, Leicester City was 5,001.00 to win the title at most sportsbooks, meaning that a £10 wager would have produced a total profit of £50,000. For perspective, the odds that Kim Kardashian would become the next U.S. President were only 2,000-to-1.
Their salary bill for the 2016 campaign was just £66 million, which gave them one of the lowest payrolls in the league, while there were four teams in 2016 with total salaries of over £200 million. At the start of the 2015/16 season, given its wage spend relative to the league average and the team’s finishing position, Leicester City was expected to win the English Premier League title with a probability of 0.004%, meaning the ‘fair’ odds that would reflect the true likelihood were around 20,000 to 1.
Greece Stuns Europe at Euro 2004
Football rarely delivers fairy tales quite like Greece’s triumph at Euro 2004. Greece, ranked 35 in the world and which had never won a single game in international competition, was seen as easy fodder for the European juggernauts, but then beat hosts Portugal 2-1 in the opening game.
Greece’s pre-tournament odds were as long as 150–1 with some bookmakers, with BBC Sport labelling it the greatest upset in the history of the European Championship. Heading into the tournament, only Latvia had worse odds to win the tournament than Greece, and they were thrown into the “group of death” with hosts Portugal, Spain, and Russia.
Greece won the match 1–0 and were crowned European champions, with all of Greece’s wins in the knockout stage coming in an identical manner: a 1–0 win, with the goal being a header off a cross from the right wing. The spirit of Greece’s band of brothers was key to their astonishing success, the national team having never previously won even a single game at a major tournament, yet they went on to beat hosts Portugal in both their opening game and the final.
Buster Douglas Topples Iron Mike
The then-undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson lost by knockout to the 42-1 underdog Douglas, in a fight widely regarded as the biggest upset in boxing history and one of the biggest in sports history. On February 11, 1990, the boxing world stood still in Tokyo.
Mike Tyson was 37-0 with 33 knockouts coming into this fight, undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and was very popular at the time, holding the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. The Mirage race and sports book director opened the fight at 27/1, with the widest odds on Douglas reaching 37/1.
Douglas measured Tyson with a few jabs before landing an uppercut that snapped Tyson’s head upward, immediately following with four punches to the head, knocking Tyson down for the first time in his career, and referee Octavio Meyran counted him out, making Buster Douglas the new undisputed heavyweight champion. In the time leading up to the fight, Douglas faced a number of personal setbacks, including the death of his mother, Lula Pearl, 23 days before the fight.
The Miracle on Ice at Lake Placid
The “Miracle on Ice” took place during the 1980 Winter Olympics when the United States ice hockey team, composed largely of amateurs and collegiate players, defeated the Soviet Union, who were considered the best hockey team in the world and had won the gold medal in six of the previous seven Olympics.
The Soviets were so dominant that calling the game a mismatch would have been generous. Most observers viewed it as a glorified exhibition. The U.S. team’s 4-3 win in the medal round was a monumental achievement and became a symbol of pride and resilience.
This wasn’t just about hockey. It transcended sport, becoming a Cold War narrative played out on ice. The young Americans, many of them college kids, faced a Soviet machine that had crushed NHL all-stars just months earlier.
Appalachian State Shocks Michigan
In one of college football’s biggest upsets, Appalachian State, a Division I-AA team, defeated Michigan, a top-ranked Division I-A team, 34-32 in Ann Arbor. This 2007 contest redefined what was possible in college football.
Michigan, one of the sport’s most storied programs, entered as massive favorites against a team from a lower division. The Wolverines were expected to roll to victory in front of more than 100,000 fans at the Big House. Instead, they suffered a humiliation that still echoes today.
The final play featured a blocked field goal that preserved Appalachian State’s lead. Honestly, the images of Michigan fans sitting in stunned silence became iconic symbols of sports’ unpredictability.
Northern Illinois Stuns Notre Dame
#12 Notre Dame were picked to walk over Northern Illinois with a huge 28.5 point spread, but the Northern Illinois Huskies walked into South Bend, Indiana and shocked the world, stunning the Fighting Irish with a late field goal to win the game 16-14. This happened in 2024, reminding us that underdog magic never goes out of style.
Notre Dame, with all its tradition and talent, simply couldn’t contain a hungry opponent. The Huskies didn’t just compete; they executed when it mattered most. That late field goal sent shockwaves through college football and gave bettors who dared to believe a massive payday.
Howard Pulls Off Historic College Football Upset
Howard University, a FCS team, entered as a 45-point road underdog against UNLV and stunned the Rebels 43–40 in Las Vegas, which by point-spread standards was the biggest upset in modern college football history. This 2017 victory defied everything experts thought they knew.
The 45.5-point spread suggested this would be a massacre. Nobody outside Howard’s locker room gave them a chance. Yet they played with heart, skill, and determination that statistics couldn’t measure. The final score showed a three-point margin in a game that was never supposed to be competitive.
Rich Strike’s Kentucky Derby Shocker
The 148th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs will go down in history as one of the greatest upsets in modern sports history. Rich Strike was an 80 to 1 dog in the 2022 Kentucky Derby, and the announcers were stunned as the longshot horse barreled ahead of the odds-on favorite down the home stretch.
In 2009, at the Kentucky Derby, there was a horse named Mine That Bird, which aside from the funny name, had no unique bloodline, nor did it have testicles, with odds of it winning the derby at 50-1, but it was worth $9,500 and soon amassed over $2.2 million in winnings after the race. Horse racing continues to produce these magical moments where bloodlines and odds mean nothing.
St. Louis Cardinals’ Impossible 2011 Run
The Cardinals were left for dead midseason before rallying to win the World Series, with their incredible late surge, capped by dramatic comebacks, defying nearly 1,000-1 odds. St. Louis Cardinals pulled one of the biggest longshot wins in 2011, winning the World Series at odds of 999-1.
They weren’t even supposed to make the playoffs. A series of unlikely events had to unfold just for them to qualify. Then they had to face elimination multiple times during their postseason run. Each time, they found a way. The Cardinals won the series four games to three.
Boston Red Sox Break the Curse
The Boston Red Sox were 120 to 1 underdogs to win the World Series in 2004, surprising considering the “Curse of the Bambino”. The Red Sox were actually down 3-0 to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series leading up to the World Series, but they were able to win 4 straight games to overcome their deficit, becoming the only team in the Major League Baseball to do so in the playoffs.
Nobody comes back from 3-0 in baseball. That’s what everyone believed. The Yankees were celebrating before the series was over. Then Boston did something that had never been done in playoff history, rallying from the brink of elimination.
Stanford’s 41-Point Upset Over USC
As 41-point underdogs, Stanford shocked No. 2 USC with a late touchdown to seal the improbable win, a victory still remembered as one of the biggest point-spread upsets in college football. This 2007 game happened during the Pete Carroll era at USC, when the Trojans seemed invincible.
Most sportsbooks don’t bother posting moneylines for games with such large point spreads, and this game was no exception, with Stanford able to win in the final minute 24-23 on a go-ahead touchdown pass to Mark Bradford, as the QB, Tavita Pritchard, was making his first career start. A first-time starter leading his team to one of college football’s greatest upsets? You couldn’t script it better.
Fairleigh Dickinson Stuns Purdue
The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights were 23.5-point underdogs heading into their March Madness matchup against the #1-seeded Purdue Boilermakers in 2023, and according to ESPN, FDU had longer odds to win this game (25 to 1) than Purdue had to win the entire tournament (10 to 1).
March Madness lives up to its name because of games like this. A 16-seed had never beaten a 1-seed until recent years, and even after that barrier was broken, it remained shockingly rare. Fairleigh Dickinson joined that exclusive club with a performance nobody saw coming.
New York Jets in Super Bowl III
The first match to be named the Super Bowl was always going to go down in history but the New York Jets made sure the match was to be remembered for more than just lexicology, as the Indianapolis Colts were 18-point favourites heading into the clash but were stunned by the Jets, who won 16-7 to validate Joe Namath’s famous guarantee that New York would triumph.
Broadway Joe’s guarantee became legendary, but it was backed up by his team’s performance. The victory was notable not only for the upset, but also for validating the AFL’s quality, speeding up the merger which would lead to the NFL becoming the global spectacle it is today. One game changed the entire landscape of professional football.
UMBC Defeats Virginia in March Madness
The Virginia Cavaliers entered the 2018 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament with the Number 1 overall seed, posting a record of 31–2, including both an ACC regular season title and ACC tournament title, while their opponent, Number 16 seed UMBC, entered the tournament with a 24–10 record and an America East tournament title.
Before this night, no 16-seed had ever beaten a 1-seed in the men’s tournament since the field expanded to 64 teams. Virginia was supposed to be unstoppable. Instead, UMBC didn’t just win; they dominated, becoming the first team to shatter that barrier.
Macclesfield’s FA Cup Giant-Killing
As of January 2026, the largest upset in terms of league position was the National League North’s Macclesfield beating the Premier League team and title holders Crystal Palace 2–1 in the third round of the 2025–26 FA Cup; the teams were separated by five leagues and 117 league positions at the time of the match.
The FA Cup has always been famous for these David versus Goliath clashes, but this one stands out even among that storied competition. Five leagues separated these teams. Macclesfield wasn’t just punching above their weight; they were defying gravity. The defending Premier League champions fell to a team 117 positions below them in the football pyramid.
Buffalo Bills Upset Detroit Lions
Josh Allen and the Bills were 2.5-point road underdogs against the Lions, who were on an 11-game win streak, but in a football game-turned-track meet, Buffalo got out to a 14-0 lead and maintained a two-score advantage most of the way, ultimately winning 48-42. This December 2024 victory showed that momentum means nothing when two elite teams collide.
According to John Murray, vice president of The SuperBook, the Bills outright victory was a terrific result for sportsbooks. Detroit had looked unstoppable, rolling through opponent after opponent. Then Buffalo arrived and reminded everyone that in the NFL, any given Sunday truly means something.
These fifteen moments prove that numbers, predictions, and expert analysis can all be rendered meaningless when human determination meets opportunity. What do you think makes these underdog victories so captivating? Is it the triumph of belief over statistics, or something deeper in our collective psyche?
