UPSET!!!!!!!

[Mike Minetti]

Quick sports trivia quiz.

What is the origin of the term "upset" as it relates to sports?
Why do we call it an upset when the underdog beats the favorite?

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[bue]

"Mike Minetti" <mikem...@gmail.com> wrote

> Why do we call it an upset when the underdog beats the favorite?

Because Sharapova & Williams x2 seem very upset when it's about to happen?

[Gordon Cameron]

Well when you "upset' something, you turn it upside down (e.g. "he
upset the table"), so it doesn't seem to me like much of a reach to use
the term for a match in which the "underdog" beats the "overdog."

[Mike Minetti]

It has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word. The meaning as
it relates to sports has a distinct origin.

FIRST HINT

It happened in 1919

[Man o Tea]

Mike Minetti wrote:

> It has nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word. The meaning as
> it relates to sports has a distinct origin.
>
> FIRST HINT
>
> It happened in 1919

Upset
One of the legendary origins of sports terminology is that the term
upset, meaning an unexpected defeat of one favored to win, is from a
classic 1919 horse race that pitted Man o'War, probably the greatest
race horse of all time, against an unlikely opponent named Upset.

During his career, Man o'War lost only one race, the 13 August 1919
Stanford Memorial at Saratoga. Man o'War was heavily favored to win,
but lost to a horse named Upset. This, the legend goes, is where the
sports term upset comes from. Man o'War would face Upset in five other
races, winning every one, but this one loss early in his career would
be the one to make lexicographic history.

Most lexicographers and etymologists thought the story too good to be
true, but no one could disprove it. Sporting usages of upset prior to
1919 just could not be found. Then in late 2002, researcher George
Thompson, using the newly available tools of full-text online searching
of the New York Times databases, turned up a string of sporting usages
of upset dating back to the mid-19th century. Thompson traced the verb
to upset to 1865 and the noun to 1877. There are numerous uses of the
term in 19th century sportswriting, proving beyond a doubt that it was
well-established by the time Man o'War lost his only race. Upset did
not father a term, he was just well named.

[Mike Minetti]

I stand corrected. Damn - that was one of my favorite little stories.

[Man o Tea]

Mike Minetti wrote:

> I stand corrected.

I just put '1919' and 'Upset' into
google, and there it was.

> Damn - that was one
> of my favorite little stories.

But all those people believing it
for so many years is still a good
story, and now you know the real
ending.