The 5 greatest underdog teams in Philly sports history
Philly loves a good underdog story. I’m not sure if it centers around the city's blue collar, earn-what-you-want mentality or if those Rocky movies really had more of an effect than we think.Either way, those something-to-nothing teams and overachieving players always seem to tug at our heartstrings a little more than the average fan. Especially when they’re the teams or athletes who are connected to the Delaware Valley.This wasn’t an easy list to make. A Top 5 keeps it exclusive, but also gives everyone who should be mentioned an invite to the party. Here’s the rundown of Philly teams who were the best underdogs.
To put it bluntly, these guys didn’t win anything... except the hearts of Philly sports fans the world over. They weren’t the Atlantic 10 regular season champs. They didn’t win the A-10 tournament title. But their signature victories over Villanova, 9th-ranked Butler, and No. 19 VCU earned them an at-large bid by the NCAA tournament committee as a 13-seed in the Big Dance.
I know a few schools who probably wish that never happened. The bracket-busting upstart La Salle hoops team played three games in two states over five days culminating with the “Southwest Philly Floater” against Ole Miss. The moniker forever immortalized in a Craig Sager interview with the architect of the shot, Ty Garland.
The Explorers' Cinderella run came to an end in the Sweet 16 against Wichita State, but not too shabby for a private Catholic school with just over 5,000 kids at 20th and Olney. Epic underdog status, confirmed.
Macho Row. What a mystique. The hair, the partying, the swag. It was all there in plain sight. A real worst-to-first team that formed a bond with each other and the fans. Hard to duplicate the vibe they infused the city with during that season.
You know the names and faces like it was yesterday: Dutch, Nails, Wild Thing. One-of-a-kind, Philly-style athletes who left it all out there and made no excuses for competing and playing hard. There’s nothing like that moment as a fan when you realize: “Hey, this team can really win it all.”
They won the National League pennant and were two outs away from forcing Game 7 at home in the Fall classic. You know the rest. Joe *bleeping* Carter.
But, give credit where it’s due! The ‘93 Phillies went from last place in the NL East the previous season to the World Series the following year. That’s one hell of an underdog story.
“Allllllleeennnnn IIIIIvvveeerrrsooooonnnnnn!” I can hear Matt Cord echoing The Answer’s name right now.
A.I. was the catalyst for an electric time in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. The comeback victories. The highlight reel plays. The hand cupped to his ear. It all sort of bundled up together, forming a certain aura of excitement and anticipation with the team.
The Sixers had the MVP, Coach of the Year, Defensive Player of The Year, 6th Man of the Year and a hard-fought Eastern Conference championship that season. It seemed destiny was riding shotgun on the road to an NBA title. Shaq, Kobe and the Lakers quickly put the kibosh on those dreams.
In retrospect, Allen Iverson’s famous stepover of Tyronn Lue in Game 1 was the climax of their storybook season, falling to the Lakers in five. No title, but a super solid underdog.
I’m not sure there’s an underdog on this list quite as deserving as the 2010 Flyers. They were average at best to start the year. They dealt with injuries up and down the roster conceivably from start to finish, though still squeezing all of the potential out of a hodge podge season.
They fired their coach early in the campaign to try and inject some “jam” into the team with Peter Laviolette. At first, that didn’t work either. Things did come together somewhat. The orange and black were “good enough” to lock up the 7th seed in the playoffs after a shootout win over the rival Rangers on the last day of the season.
An opening round series win over New Jersey was bittersweet as the victory cost the Flyers some key players in Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne. The 2nd round of the playoffs against Boston was a massacre. They quickly fell behind 3-0 in the series.
But with their luck running on fumes, the Flyers miraculously rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win the series, even after spotting the Bruins a 3-0 lead in Game 7. You gotta love parity in sports.
That proved to be their biggest test en route to the final round, beating the 8th seeded Canadiens to reach hockey’s holy grail. The Flyers advanced to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against Chicago on pure grit, determination and will power. But fate was with the Blackhawks and Patrick Kane much like it was Joe Carter and the Toronto Blue Jays against the '93 Phillies.
The Flyers overtime loss was a doozy. The end of a rags-to-riches tale that could only properly be written with a Philly twist. Classic underdog angst, but a legendary underdog nonetheless.
Frankly, the term underdog and anything involving Philly’s Main Line don’t often go together in the same sentence. Although, in the world of basketball, one of the greatest David vs. Goliath matchups in American sports history was written by the '85 Villanova Wildcats.
To many, the 8th-seeded Wildcats played the perfect game in the 1985 NCAA championship. Nova beat No.1-ranked Georgetown, who had only lost two games all season against 35 wins. The Hoyas were the defending National Champions. Their two losses that season came by a total of three points. They also boasted the imposing force of Player of the Year and future No. 1 NBA Draft pick Patrick Ewing. David, meet Goliath.
The game was played on April Fool’s Day, but Villanova’s NCAA championship record 78.6% team shooting was no joke. The Wildcats shot 22-28 from the floor in the title match including a blistering 90% in an intense second half, securing a 66-64 victory.
Ed Pickney was the NCAA tournament's outstanding player. Names like Rollie Massimino, Dwayne McClain and Harold Pressley were immortalized in Philly sports lore and one of the greatest underdog stories, ever, was written in stone.
You don’t have to think that far back to recall the underdog supreme, the 2017 Eagles. Hungry dogs run faster. No one likes us, we don’t care. The Philly Special.
Take a moment and soak it in.
What a season. What a team. What happened to them? That’s another conversation entirely. But no matter what the Birds look like now, you can’t take away their improbable Super Bowl 52 victory against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
The Birds were 7-9 the year before and missed the playoffs altogether. Then, in 2017, they went 13-3 and won the whole thing.
Along the way to victory lane in 2017, the Eagles lost their franchise quarterback in Carson Wentz to a season-ending knee injury in Week 14. Even great teams, like the Eagles were that season, don’t bounce back from those types of setbacks that late in the season. It just doesn’t happen.
That’s partly why Nick Foles has a nine-foot bronze statue of his likeness outside of the stadium. An homage to the “Philly Philly” fourth down scoring play he suggested to Doug Pederson, which turned the tide of the game.
Foles did what no other Eagles quarterback has ever done. A Super Bowl loss apparently so bitter for New England, Brady still hasn’t given Nick a congratulatory handshake nearly three years later. Pardon me while I sip from my mug of Brady tears. Underdog Status: The elite of the elite.
