Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Thursday, March 31, 2006, Washington Post

The Patriots' Run for the Record Books

Just about everybody is a George Mason fan now.

The Patriots, the little team that could, have shocked the basketball world by winning four straight NCAA tournament games and advancing to the men's Final Four.

Big upsets are one of the things that make the NCAA tournament (and sports in general) so much fun. George Mason's streak has been a huge surprise and got me wondering: Is it the biggest sports upset ever?

I looked at the book "Dark Horses & Underdogs: The Greatest Sports Upsets of All Time." It's tough to find a team or game more amazing than George Mason and its tournament success.

Let's start with college basketball. Some people think the Chaminade Silverswords' 77-72 win over the Virginia Cavaliers in December 1982 was the biggest upset ever in college basketball. Virginia was the top-ranked team in the country and had the player of the year, Ralph Sampson. Chaminade was a 900-student school in Hawaii that no one knew. So the outcome was a huge upset. But it was only one game. George Mason has beaten four teams, including top-ranked Connecticut.

When North Carolina State beat high-flying Houston at the buzzer in the 1983 NCAA final and when Villanova beat Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in 1985 to win the title, hoops fans called those big upsets. But North Carolina State was a No. 6 seed and had won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Villanova was a No. 8 seed and had played Georgetown tough in two close Big East games.

George Mason is a No. 11 seed. The Patriots did not win their conference tournament. Lots of experts thought the Fairfax County university should not have been invited to the tournament.

How about upsets in other sports? How does GMU compare with those?

In 1950 a bunch of weekend soccer players from the United States beat a powerhouse team of pros from England in the World Cup, 1-0. When the score appeared on the newswire, some reporters thought it was a misprint. They figured that England had won, 10-0. Still, that's only one game. The Americans got clobbered by Chile in their next game, 5-2.

When the New York Jets beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, or when the Boston Red Sox came back to beat the New York Yankees four in a row on their way to the 2004 World Series, some sports fans were stunned. But the Jets and the Sox are pro teams, and pro teams are usually pretty even.

Probably the biggest upset was when the U.S. hockey team, a bunch of college kids, won the Olympic gold medal in 1980. The team from the Soviet Union (now Russia) had crushed the Americans, 10-3, a week before the Games. But the U.S. team came back to beat six teams, including the Soviets, and win the gold.

A George Mason championship wouldn't top that 1980 hockey upset, in my book. But it would be super exciting.

So let's hear it, everybody . . . GO, GEORGE MASON!