Loading ...Cinderella’s Slipper Fits Fresno State
Call them Bulldogs. Call them Underdogs. Call them Wonderdogs. Call them CHAMPIONS!
The College World Series was played in Omaha, Nebraska, but the way Fresno State pulled off upset after shocking upset to win the title was pure Hollywood. The Bulldogs had to win their conference tournament just to get invited to the field of 64. They stayed alive with victories in six elimination games. They knocked off #3 Arizona State in the Super Regionals, then #6 Rice and #2 North Carolina twice to get to the championship round. When they beat the other Bulldogs from Georgia, they became the first regional 4-seed to win a national championship and became the lowest-seeded team in college sports history to claim an NCAA team championship.
Their Cinderella run brings to mind other amazing sports feats that happened unexpectedly, including the 1969 NY Mets winning the World Series, the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team winning the Gold Medal, the 1985 Villanova Wildcats winning the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the 2006 George Mason Patriots reaching the NCAA Final Four and the 2007 NY Giants winning the Super Bowl.
Where this achievement ranks among those greatest Cinderella stories is debatable. That it should be mentioned in the same breath is not.
THERE IT IS!
How about 1966 NCAA tournament featuring an all black huge underdog Western Texas beating the Baron Adolf Rupp, Pat Riley and the #1 Kentucky Wildcats.
1966? okay maybe ..
But this is easily the best sports story of the year – and hardly anyone will remember it at teh end of the year .. Fresno State deserves amazing credit toppling all those big time schools .. a great story and fun to watch ..
more proof that college sports is better than pro
They beat the #1 seed LB State Dirtbags so they must be the greatest college baseball team of all time
Western Texas’ win over Kentucky pales in comparison to the other cinderella stories. It seems to get lost in each retelling but Western Texas was regarded as and, in fact, was a great team having lost only one game that season and ranking third in the nation. In contrast, Fresno State struggled all season finishing their regular season with a somewhat mediocre 34-26 record. BTW, Western Texas was not an all black team. Most of the starters throughout the season were balck and all of the starters in the championship game were.