Best Underdog Athletes of All Time

Here is the short version before we get into it.

Key Insights:

• The most iconic underdogs in sports history include players who were undrafted, undersized, or written off entirely before they ever played a professional game
• Athletes like Kurt Warner, Muggsy Bogues, and Goran Ivanisevic prove that body type and draft stock have almost nothing to do with what someone actually delivers
• The best underdog stories share one common thread: opportunity met obsessive preparation, and the result made everyone who said no look very silly

The "Nobody Believed in Me" Club

These are the athletes who turned a low draft slot or zero draft interest into something nobody could ignore. The gap between camp body and all-time great is thinner than most scouts are willing to admit.

1. Tom Brady, 199th overall (2000) — Six Super Bowls. Seven total. Three MVPs. Picked in the sixth round behind Drew Bledsoe because he looked too skinny and tested too slow. The most famous draft day robbery in sports history and it is not particularly close.
2. Kurt Warner, Undrafted — Got cut, stocked shelves at a supermarket in Iowa, played in NFL Europe, and then won a Super Bowl and two MVPs with the Rams. The "Greatest Show on Turf" ran through a guy who was bagging groceries not long before it started.
3. Manu Ginobili, 57th overall (1999) — Last pick in the draft. Hall of Fame guard. Four championships. The Spurs took him as an afterthought and turned him into one of the most important players in franchise history.
4. Jeremy Lin, Undrafted (2010) — Cut multiple times, sleeping on a teammate's couch, and one game away from being cut again when Linsanity happened. The whole sports world stopped for two weeks because nobody had bothered to pay attention.
5. John Daly, 9th alternate (1991 PGA Championship) — Drove through the night from Memphis when other players withdrew. Had no practice round. Borrowed his playing partner's caddie. Won the major. Chaos has never been more efficient.

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Too Small, Apparently

These athletes heard "you're too small for this level" so many times they eventually stopped listening. Good call.

1. Muggsy Bogues, 5 foot 3 — The shortest player in NBA history carved out a 14-year career as a starting point guard. Played alongside Patrick Ewing and Shaquille O'Neal. Nobody could guard him and nobody could quite explain how he kept getting open.
2. Doug Flutie, 5 foot 9 — Too small for big-time quarterbacking, they said. He won the Heisman Trophy at Boston College, had a long NFL career, dominated the CFL, and threw the Hail Mary that still gets replayed every college football season.
3. Rudy Ruettiger, 5 foot 6 — A 165-pound walk-on at Notre Dame who battled dyslexia, scholarship rejections, and his own doubts just to make the scout team. Played two snaps in 1975. Became a national folk hero and got a movie made about him. Two snaps.
4. Goran Ivanisevic, Wild Card (2001 Wimbledon) — Ranked 125th in the world, coming off a shoulder injury, and needed a wild card just to enter the tournament. Beat four top players in a row and won his only Grand Slam title. The crowd in London absolutely lost their minds.
5. Mark Buehrle, 38th round — Never threw especially hard. Got drafted so late most teams had already forgotten they were still picking. Became a World Series champion and threw a perfect game for the White Sox through command and craft alone.

The One Moment That Defined Everything

Some athletes are not underdogs across their whole career. They just had one matchup, one stage, one afternoon where the circumstances were so stacked against them that winning felt impossible. These are those moments.

1. Jesse Owens, 1936 Berlin Olympics — Won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler at the Games designed to showcase Aryan supremacy. The most politically loaded athletic performance in history and he made it look routine.
2. Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson (1990) — Came in at 42 to 1 odds. Knocked out the most feared man in boxing in Tokyo. Still one of the biggest upsets in sports history and it happened because Douglas showed up ready when nobody expected him to.
3. Rulon Gardner, 2000 Olympics — An unknown American wrestler beat Aleksandr Karelin, who had not lost in 13 years and had three Olympic gold medals. Gardner had one moment. He made it count completely.
4. Eli Manning and the 2007 Giants — A 10-6 team that was not supposed to be there, beat an 18-0 Patriots team in the Super Bowl. Sacked Brady five times. Spoiled a perfect season. Eli Manning helmet catch. Enough said.

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Why Underdog Stories Keep Happening

The pattern is not random. Every athlete on this list was underestimated for a specific, explainable reason: draft position, body type, injury, or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of those things actually predicted what they were capable of delivering.

Being an underdog is not about ability. It is about context. Slot, size, timing, and politics all create underdogs out of athletes who were never actually limited. The ones who make this list did not overcome their circumstances by accident. They prepared like the opportunity was coming whether anyone believed it or not.

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FAQ

Who is the biggest underdog athlete of all time?

Buster Douglas at 42 to 1 odds against Mike Tyson gets the nod for pure numbers. But Kurt Warner going from bagging groceries to Super Bowl MVP is the most complete underdog arc in sports history.

Is Tom Brady really considered an underdog?

By every measurable standard on draft day, yes. Sixth round, 199th overall, considered a backup at best. The results are obviously well known at this point.

Are underdog stories more common in certain sports?

The NFL and NBA tend to produce the most famous ones because rosters are smaller and the stakes are higher. Baseball's long draft makes late round steals more common but less visible.

Can being an underdog actually help an athlete?

Based on the evidence, yes. The chip on the shoulder is real. Almost every athlete on this list mentioned motivation from being overlooked as a direct driver of their career.

Underdog stories keep happening because scouts, coaches, and front offices keep making the same mistakes. The combine does not measure heart. The draft board does not measure hunger. Someone is sitting in a gym right now that everyone has already written off. History says you should probably watch what happens next.

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