It's time to celebrate that unsung, underestimated, and often unappreciated hero—the underdog! National Underdog Day has been celebrated on the third Friday in December since the 1970s, and this year it falls on December 16. The holiday was created by Peter Moeller in recognition of unsung heroes.
While the holiday is only in its 46th year, the term underdog is much older. Originally, underdog was used in the context of dog fighting in the late 19th century referring to the dog least likely to win. Now underdog, as well as a Cinderella Story if the underdog wins, typically refers to someone or a group of people who are least expected to succeed in a competition or a victim of persecution of some kind. It is commonly used when we talk about sports, but it can be used when we talk about any conflict of a global or personal nature.
Check out the following items from our collection that celebrate the underdog, remind us of our potential in spite of the odds, and give us all hope that we can overcome adversity in whatever form it may take. Never give up!
Fearless : How an Underdog Becomes a Champion
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Doug Pederson is the very definition of an underdog. He was an undrafted rookie free agent who would go on to play fourteen years in the NFL as a backup quarterback. He was cut five times, yet kept getting back up and into the fray. He would win one Super Bowl, with the Green Bay Packers. When he retired, he decided to coach, but not at the pro level. Instead, he was head coach of Calvary Baptist Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana. After a successful four-year stint there, he returned to the NFL as an assistant coach under Andy Reid with the Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, where he was instrumental in the development of quarterback Alex Smith and his string of 3,000-plus-yard seasons of passing.
When he was offered the job as head coach of the Eagles, he jumped at it, though few thought he would succeed. In the first season, a year of rebuilding, they finished 7-9. Some doubted his abilities, and before the 2017 season, one "expert" called Pederson the least qualified coach in thirty years. Plagued by the sidelining of seasoned players and devastated by quarterback Carson Wentz's season-ending knee injury, the Eagles managed a 13-3 record and home-field advantage in the playoffs. Yet they were still the underdogs in every single game, including the Super Bowl, against the New England Patriots, one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the NFL. It wasn't until they stunned the Patriots that people finally believed in Pederson and his team.
In Fearless, Pederson reveals the principles that guided him through the ups and downs and tough times of his career, and what it took to become a champion. Through it all, Pederson sustained himself with his faith and the support of his family. He shares the defining stories of his life and career, growing up with his disciplinarian Air Force dad and his tender-hearted mom, developing friendships with Dan Marino and Brett Favre, and learning from mentors, such as Don Shula, Mike Holmgren, and Andy Reid, who helped mold him into the man and coach he is today.
Wallace: The Underdog Who Conquered a Sport, Saved a Marriage, and Championed Pit Bulls—One Flying Disc at a Time
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Today, Wallace is a champion. But in the summer of 2005, he was living in a shelter, a refugee from a suspicious pit bull–breeding operation. Then Andrew “Roo” Yori entered the picture. A scientist and shelter volunteer, Roo could tell immediately that Wallace was something special. While on his honeymoon, Roo learned that Wallace was about to be put down. Frantic—and even though they already had two dogs—Roo and his wife fought to keep Wallace alive until they could return home to adopt him.
Once Wallace made it home, Roo knew the dog needed a mission, and serendipity led them to the world of competitive Frisbee dogs. It seemed like a terrible idea. Pit bulls are everything that most Frisbee dogs aren’t: large and heavy with thick muscles that can make them look less than graceful. But that was fine with Roo—because part of his mission was to change people’s minds about pit bulls. After overcoming everything from injuries to prejudice against the breed, the unlikely pair became World Champions.
Movingly told by bestselling author Jim Gorant, Wallace will capture the hearts of animal lovers everywhere—and help rescue this popular breed’s unfairly tarnished reputation.
The Great Debaters
In 1935, Melvin Tolson, a professor at Wiley College in East Texas, inspired students at his school to form the school's first debate team. Tolson turns a group of underdog students into a historically elite debate team that goes on to challenge Harvard in the national championship. Inspired by a true story.
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
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Native American Jim Thorpe became a super athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Indomitable coach Pop Warner was a football mastermind. In 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work. Sheinkin provides a true underdog sports story—and an unflinching look at the U.S. government's violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures.
Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
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After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks—long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule—to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.
Rudy
Rudy Ruettiger wants to play football at the University of Notre Dame but has neither the money for tuition nor the grades to qualify for a scholarship. Rudy redoubles his efforts to get out of the steel mill where his father works when his best friend dies in an accident there. Overcoming his dyslexia thanks to his friend and tutor, D-Bob, Rudy gains admission to Notre Dame and begins to fight his way onto the school's fabled football team.
The Karate Kid
Daniel moves to Southern California with his mother, Lucille, but quickly finds himself the target of a group of bullies who study karate at the Cobra Kai dojo. Fortunately, Daniel befriends Mr. Miyagi, an unassuming repairman who just happens to be a martial arts master himself. Miyagi takes Daniel under his wing, training him in a more compassionate form of karate and preparing him to compete against the brutal Cobra Kai.