# Coin Tosses where the Winner Ends up Worse Off **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211 "2020-12-30T01:19:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/1 "2020-12-30T01:19:33Z")
And example would be when Ritchie Valens and Tommy Allsup flipped a coin for an airplane ride. Ritchie Valens “won” and died in the crash of that airplane on February 3, 1959. Tommy Allsup “lost” and lived until 2017. > **[The Day the Music Died](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson.\[a\] The event later became known as "The Day the Music Died" after singer-songwriter Don McLean referred to it as such in his 1971 song "American Pie". > At the time, Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and C... Anything else come to mind? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/2 "2020-12-30T01:25:47Z")
Not necessarily what you were looking for, but one NFL team won the toss in overtime, _ **deferred** _ possession of the ball, and lost. Bears-Lions, 2002. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/3 "2020-12-30T01:32:10Z")
In the 1990 Super Bowl, Denver won the toss but lost the game by 45 points. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/4 "2020-12-30T05:59:10Z")
I could have saved Holly, Valens and Bopper. I got a call at my station in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, from their booking agent. Did we want to book them for that night. We would have, but could find no suitable venue available. So we declined, and they went to Iowa instead. If I had worked it out, I would have no way to know how I had changed history. Maybe I did, another time and place. ---
**Author:** ![brachyrhynchos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brachyrhynchos/32/376_2.png) [@brachyrhynchos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brachyrhynchos)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/5 "2020-12-30T10:27:35Z")
Horseracing: Ogden Phipps won the coin toss and ended up with the first product of Bold Ruler and Somethingroyal in 1969, a filly called The Bride. She never won a race, but did produce some runners. Penney Chenery got the next two offspring of Bold Ruler in 1970, the first was Rising River (from Hasty Matelda), who didn’t earn a cent, and the second was Secretariat (Somethingroyal). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/6 "2020-12-30T17:23:44Z")
Ah, this brings back memories of a day exactly 37 years and three days ago… ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/7 "2020-12-30T17:45:08Z")
What happened then? ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/8 "2020-12-30T18:30:58Z")
Not a coin toss, but in the Aztec ball game _ōllamalitzli_, [the winning team may have been sacrificed](http://www.aztec-history.com/aztec-ball-game.html)… _It is believed that the losing coach, or even the whole team, might be sacrificed. Some historians have disputed this - because it was an honour to be sacrificed, it may have been the winning team that lost their lives._ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/9 "2020-12-30T19:26:37Z")
Wilbur and Orville Wright flipped a coin to see who got to make the first flight. Wilbur won, but had a minor crash and wasn’t successful. Orville made the second, successful flight and by losing the toss received that credit. ---
**Author:** ![Enjoy\_Slurm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enjoy_slurm/32/3937_2.png) [@Enjoy\_Slurm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enjoy_Slurm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/10 "2020-12-31T07:01:05Z")
One time a buddy and I came across a perfectly good sandwich. We tossed a coin to see who would get to eat it. I lost the toss and he won the sandwich. He also won the tale of eating that perfectly good sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/11 "2020-12-31T09:39:13Z")
New Orleans Saints lost eleven straight coin tosses in 2011, but the team had a winning record. Imperfect memory tells me that Tulane lost every coin toss for two straight years, but I can’t find it, They probably lost every game, too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coin-tosses-where-the-winner-ends-up-worse-off/929211/12 "2020-12-31T14:56:17Z")
1962 AFL Championship game, Dallas Texans vs. Houston Oilers. When it went into overtime, Abner Haynes of the Texans was instructed that if he won the toss, he’d choose the side of the field facing the clock to put the wind at their back. When he won the toss, he said, “We’ll kick to the clock.” Since he said “We’ll kick” first, it meant the other team would get the football facing the clock – exactly what the team wanted to avoid. It would have gone down as a major mistake, except his team shut out the Oilers in the first overtime and won the game in the second (with the wind at their back). Haynes later said “I knew we’d need the wind behind us in the sixth quarter.”