Origin of the sports term "Upset"

by **KnoxVegas** on Fri May 05, 2006 10:25 am

Comedian Robert Wuhl recently had a special on HBO titled Assume the Position. It documented a class he taught to actual NYC college students with the premise that history is pop culture. At the end he describes how the term "upset" came into being.

From http://www.WordOrigins.org
"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."

This apparently was disproven but makes for a good story.

Show link:
http://www.hbo.com/events/rwuhl/

Entimology of "Upset":
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordoru.htm