Upset

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U.S. President Harry Truman holds up an edition of the Chicago Tribune prematurely declaring his defeat in the 1948 Presidential election.

Upset ("Zebra" in Brazil) is a term used when referring to a competition, frequently in electoral politics or sports. When an upset occurs, the party popularly expected to win (the favorite) the competition is defeated by an underdog the majority expects to lose, defying the conventional wisdom.

[edit] Examples of major upsets

1913 At the U.S. Open - Francis Ouimet, a 20-year-old American amateur and immigrant, defeats golf superstars Ted Ray and Harry Vardon.
1948 - Unpopular Democratic United States President Harry Truman defeats the highly favored Republican candidate Thomas Dewey.
1950 - Football (soccer) - In the World Cup, the United States shocks England in a legendary match considered one of the biggest surprises in World Cup history.
1950 - In the same competition Uruguay defeats Brazil with the latter nation needing only a draw to win the World Cup; this game is known as the Maracanazo (or Maracanaço).
1969 - American football - Super Bowl III - The New York Jets shock the Baltimore Colts to win 16-7 when they were the heavy underdog, representing the lightly-regarded American Football League.
1975 - In the open section of the World Open chess tournament, expert Alan Trefler (ELO rating 2075, 125 points below the lowest master rating) scores 8-1 to tie for first with International Grandmaster Pál Benkő.
1978 - Rugby-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 the day it happened, despite Limerick's ground holding only around 12,000. The game is immortalised by a stage play Alone it Stands and the book Stand Up.
1980 - Ice hockey - In the Miracle On Ice, the United States beats the Soviet Union in the semifinals at the 1980 Olympics.
1982 - U. S. college basketball - 800 student Chaminade University upsets the number one team in the country, the Virginia Cavaliers, 77-72 in what is considered the biggest upset in college basketball history.
1985 - U. S. college basketball - 1985 NCAA Men's Tournament - Villanova University, a No. 8 seed, upsets Georgetown, the defending champion and consensus No. 1 team in America, to win the championship.
1990 - Football (soccer) - In the World cup, Cameroon defeated the holding champions Argentina in the opening match and became the first African team to reach the quarterfinals. They then lost to England 2-3 due to an extra-time penalty kick.
1990 - Boxing - James "Buster" Douglas knocks out then-undefeated Mike Tyson in 10 rounds.
1990 - Politics - Paul Wellstone, an underfunded, little-known professor, defeats popular Senator Rudy Boschwitz in the Minnesota Senate race. In Texas, Ann Richards defeats Clayton Williams in the race for Texas governor. The conservative Williams had led her for most of the campaign.
2002 - American football - Super Bowl XXXVI - The New England Patriots, 14-point underdogs, shock the St. Louis Rams to win 20-17 on an Adam Vinatieri field goal as time expired.
2002 - Football (soccer) - In the World cup opening match, Senegal defeats defending champions France 1-0. The French subsequently left the competition in the first round, winless and scoreless.
2004 - Basketball-2004 NBA Finals- The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers 4-1. This is one of the biggest upsets in basketball history because the Lakers had won 3 of the last 4 NBA Finals and had a starting lineup of 4 potential hall of famers (Shaquille O'Neil, Kobe Bryant, Gary Payton, Karl Malone).
2006 - Ice hockey - In the semifinals of the women's tournament at the Winter Olympics, Sweden defeats 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 - Baseball - The St Louis Cardinals win the 2006 world series despite having the second worst regular-season record by a World Series contender and being heavy underdogs against the Detroit Tigers.

[edit] The first "upset" victory

1919 - Horse racing - The term "upset" is falsely thought to derive from a horse of the same name. In the 1919 Sanford Memorial Stakes, 100-1 longshot Upset handed racing hegemon Man O' War the only loss of the stallion's career. Man O' War had suffered an uncharacterisric poor start — he was still circling behind the starting line when the race began. (This was before mechanical starting gates were widely used. Horses circled behind the starting line, then lined up behind a cord strung across the track, which was jerked out of the way when the race starter dropped a flag. Race courses which do not use a starting gate still use this method today. Steeplechase races do this due to the high number of starters.)

2002 - George Thompson, a lexicographic researcher, used the full-text online search capabilities of the New York Times databases to disprove the classic 1919 horse race. The verb to upset and the noun upset, were traced to the years 1865 and 1877, respectively.