Underdog Facts

Dennis Anderson bagged grain for $3.65 an hour. He welded a monster truck from a wrecked 1950s Ford. Rivals mocked the junk heap, so he snapped back he'd dig them a grave with it. The name stuck. A booked truck no-showed a car-crush show, and his junker stunned the crowd instead. That truck became Grave Digger, the world's most famous monster truck. The weathered early Digger still sits in his family's truck museum.

A 61-year-old potato farmer named Cliff Young showed up at the inaugural 875km Sydney-to-Melbourne ultramarathon in work boots and overalls. The professional runners laughed - then slept the first night. Young had no idea runners were supposed to sleep, so he just kept going. He won by 10 hours. He gave $7,000 of his $10,000 prize to the other five finishers.

Harry deLeyer arrived late to a 1956 horse auction. He paid $80 to save a gray plow horse already headed for the dog food factory. He later sold the horse to a neighbor. The horse jumped five foot fences again and again just to walk home. So deLeyer bought him back. Two years after that auction, Snowman was the national show jumping champion. He won it again the next year.