On Monday night time, Indiana defeated Miami within the Faculty Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championship sport, finishing some of the exceptional turnarounds in sports activities historical past.
As lately as halfway by this previous autumn, the Hoosiers have been nonetheless school soccer’s all-time losingest program in Division I. They’d by no means loved a double-digit win season in program historical past, and had gotten near the benchmark solely a couple of half-dozen events. Indiana soccer was, by nearly any measure, one of many least profitable groups within the sport for many of its existence … till Curt Cignetti arrived.
Employed on the conclusion of the 2023 season, it took Cignetti nearly no time to reshape the Hoosiers. Indiana raced to an 11-2 mark within the head coach’s first marketing campaign after which, in case there have been doubts about that being a fluke, adopted it up with an undefeated nationwide championship run in Yr 2 — the primary crew to complete a season 16-0 since Yale in 1894.
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The Hoosiers’ triumph shortly impressed a lofty but affordable query: Was this the best story in sports activities historical past?
A definitive reply appears unimaginable. However we have been intrigued about which different squads examine alongside 2025 Indiana within the pantheon of unlikely champions.
So, we requested our consultants to supply essentially the most Hoosier-like title crew in different main crew sports activities — with solutions starting from teams that overcame unfathomable preseason odds, to those who ended century-long droughts and extra.
Listed here are a few of our consultants’ picks for Indiana’s firm within the all-time sports activities championship story Corridor of Fame (with the caveat that some sports activities haven’t got a transparent argument for a comparable run):
How inconceivable was Leicester Metropolis’s run to the Premier League title 10 years in the past? Well, one English bookmaker had Leicester at 5000-1 odds to win it — the identical odds it gave Elvis Presley being discovered alive and Barack Obama enjoying cricket for England.
Faculty soccer followers will probably be acquainted with the “haves vs. have-nots” dynamic of soccer, the place parity is a four-letter phrase. It is honest to say that few Premier League groups had much less expertise than Leicester in 2015-16, two seasons faraway from the second tier of English soccer and coming off a 14th-place end. As former Leicester left again Christian Fuchs informed ESPN: “Why ought to freaking Leicester win the Premier League? It would not make sense.”
It helped having superstars hiding in plain sight: striker Jamie Vardy, future World Cup-winning French midfielder N’Golo Kanté and winger Riyad Mahrez. The gamers additionally stayed remarkably wholesome. However maybe most significantly, the entire Huge Six golf equipment had down seasons. Every little thing needed to go precisely proper, and that is what made it inconceivable.
A crew of castoffs-turned-stars that upended the established order en path to a championship nobody noticed coming? There’s nothing extra Hoosier than that. — Nicholas Som
Growth groups aren’t anticipated to succeed. No less than, not instantly. However the Vegas Golden Knights confirmed it may be finished after they reached the Stanley Cup Ultimate in 2018 of their first season. Some franchises have spent many years attempting to succeed in a Cup Ultimate, however an enlargement crew in a “nontraditional market” did it in its first season.
The distinction between Indiana soccer and the Golden Knights on this occasion is how lengthy they’ve existed. Indiana, at instances, was the No. 3 soccer program in its state, nevertheless it has loved this two-year turnaround that has modified its outlook. The Golden Knights, who had been round solely 5 years earlier than successful a Stanley Cup in 2023, have maintained their win-at-all-costs mentality that has allowed them to be a perennial championship menace. — Ryan S. Clark
The case for: 1966 Texas Western … or 2021 Baylor
Two examples stand out in males’s school basketball, one on a shorter timeline and one from a long-term perspective.
Earlier than Don Haskins took over at UTEP — then known as Texas Western — in 1961, the boys’s basketball program had by no means been to an NCAA event. It had by no means even gained greater than 15 video games in a season. The Miners went 18-6 in Haskins’ first season, then reached the NCAA event for the primary time in his second (1962-63) and once more in his third (1963-64). Then, in his fifth season (1965-66), Texas Western gained the nationwide championship, upsetting No. 1-ranked Kentucky within the title sport.
As the primary crew to win the nationwide title with 5 Black gamers within the beginning lineup, the 1966 Texas Western crew impressed the guide and Disney film, “Glory Highway.”
In an extended turnaround, Scott Drew led arguably essentially the most difficult rebuilding effort in current school sports activities historical past at Baylor. Earlier than Drew took the helm in 2003, Baylor had been the third-losingest energy convention program over the earlier 53 years, making only one NCAA event over that span.
This system was additionally mired in an enormous scandal. After Patrick Dennehy was murdered by teammate Carlton Dotson throughout an argument in June 2003, then-head coach Dave Bliss tried to border Dennehy amid an NCAA investigation into funds to gamers, claiming Dennehy was dealing medication to pay for his tuition. It was later revealed that main violations have been dedicated by Bliss, who obtained a 10-year show-cause penalty, and this system was hit with vital sanctions.
After being banned from enjoying nonconference video games in 2005-06, Drew had Baylor within the NCAA event simply two seasons later. It was the varsity’s first look in 20 years — the Bears have been to 12 of 16 tournaments since — capping the exceptional turnaround with a nationwide championship in 2021. — Jeff Borzello
On the time, it was thought of the Holy Grail {of professional} sports activities: a Chicago Cubs World Collection title. Many years had handed with no championship, whereas generations of Cubs followers had come and gone between titles. It resulted in a 108-year drought — the time between the crew’s 1906 World Collection title and its 2016 victory, the longest-running title drought in American skilled sports activities historical past. Not not like Indiana soccer’s timeline, the Cubs have been a last-place crew simply two seasons earlier than its championship. However by the start of 2016, the Cubs have been one of many favorites to win the World Collection.
Nonetheless, previous Cubs groups had failed miserably below excessive expectations, and this title wouldn’t come simply. Down 3-1 within the sequence, the Cubs ultimately pulled it out in seven video games, however not earlier than blowing a late lead in that last contest. A rain delay after 9 innings added to the drama, which ended within the Cubs’ favor one inning later. Essentially the most elusive championship in skilled sports activities historical past grew to become actuality. — Jesse Rogers
It took greater than 100 years for the Chicago Cubs to take pleasure in one other World Collection title. Jim Vondruska/NurPhoto by way of Getty ImagesThe case for: the 1999 St. Louis Rams … or a New York Jets squad to be named later?
I do not assume any NFL crew might expertise a turnaround just like the Hoosiers as a result of groups within the NFL have not existed as lengthy and with as a lot of a dropping historical past as Indiana soccer had earlier than 2024. One of many longest-tenured and least profitable NFL groups was the Rams earlier than 1999, and so they’re seemingly our greatest comparability. The Rams gained titles in 1945 (because the Cleveland Rams) and in 1951 (in Los Angeles, towards the Cleveland Browns) earlier than the Tremendous Bowl. However they by no means gained a Tremendous Bowl till ’99, when Kurt Warner — very similar to Curt Cignetti — revolutionized the crew and have become a nationwide determine. The Rams had posted a dropping file within the 9 seasons earlier than Warner’s Tremendous Bowl run, for a collective file of 45-99 (.313). Even on the dimensions of dangerous soccer groups, that is fairly dangerous.
Oddly sufficient, I believe the league is likely to be within the midst of making essentially the most Indiana-esque turnaround in NFL historical past. The Jets are mired in a 15-year playoff drought with no indicators of aid. If and when a coach (Aaron Glenn? Or another person?) turns across the Jets in a single fell swoop, there might be an argument that they are the Indiana of the NFL. That is conditional, after all, on that turnaround taking place in a single season. — Ben Solak
The case for: the 2003 Detroit Shock
What do Indiana head soccer coach Curt Cignetti and former “Unhealthy Boy” Detroit Pistons middle Invoice Laimbeer have in frequent? The reply lies in a 2003 WNBA crew: the Detroit Shock. (And, no, Cignetti would not have a secret basketball teaching profession.) However identical to Cignetti and the Hoosiers, Laimbeer turned the Shock from a dropping crew to a championship franchise.
In 2002, the Shock began the season 0-10, which led to the firing of coach Greg Williams. Laimbeer took over, and the Shock completed the season 9-23. Earlier than his second yr on the helm, Laimbeer proudly predicted within the offseason that his 2003 crew would “win the championship subsequent season.” Seems, he was proper. The Shock completed the 2003 common season with a league-best 25-9 file after which went 6-2 within the playoffs earlier than taking down the Los Angeles Sparks for the title. Dare we are saying, Laimbeer shocked the basketball world as a head coach? — Charlotte Gibson