No one expects you to know the name “Michael Block” but we do expect you to know the joy of an accidental sporting hero.

Whether it’s speed skater Steve Bradbury, ski jumper “Eddie the Eagle” or cricket’s loveable 127kg big man Dwayne Leverock, there is nothing like it.

The sporting world has lost a little of its magic over the past few decades in terms of throwing up the totally unexpected figure from left field.

Sure, there are plenty of upsets with underdog pros beating pros but the sort of upset fashioned when an amateur beats a millionaire favourite have gone the way of the dinosaur.

You can’t just go from park footy to the Origin arena. Or hope to be selected for the Wallabies at the Rugby World Cup because your form for the Roma Echidnas has been exemplary.

In golf, you still have a chance and didn’t an unknown 46-year-old club pro named Michael Block take his at the US PGA Championship this week.

The event has spots for 20 club pros. Block duly qualified but if he followed the script he would have missed the cut like the 19 other guys.

Instead, he danced with the greats, played the last round with former world No.1 Rory McIlroy, slam-dunked a hole-in-one and finished joint 15th. World No.1 Jon Rahm was in Block’s slipstream and former world No.1 Dustin Johnson was eight strokes behind.

That’s winning not winning.

Block has already fielded an offer of $76,000 for the near-10-year-old seven iron he used for his ace. That would be a tidy little bonus on top of the $400,000-plus he won in prizemoney.

That’s an awful lot of $225 per hour lessons he now doesn’t have to give.

He got a congratulatory text from Michael Jordan, who’d noticed him wearing Jordan golf shoes. More important was the message he had charged the air with that thing Jordan has always found so magnetic in golf.

“I’m just your local club pro”, ”I’m done! I can retire, I don’t have any more goals in goal” and “the amount of times I hit a bucket of balls is not even once a week” were some of Block’s endearing lines.

The guy with the least money at the tournament looked like he was always having the most fun. He was trading gags and gestures with the galleries and had a few beers at local spots between rounds.

How to build a fan following from nothing.

Remember Matthew Dellavadova and his dream run with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2014-15 NBA Finals?

All eyes were on Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry but the gritty Australian guard, who fought to earn his spot in basketball’s elite league after going undrafted, was the guy who shut down the shooter supreme in Game Two. The Cavs lost the series but “Delly” had his night of nights.

As a young cricket fan, tours of the sub-continent always threw up fascinating stories.

Captain Greg Chappell might have thought so too but for Pakistan unexpectedly discovering a net bowler on the eve of 1980’s First Test in Karachi.

The unknown Tauseef Ahmed walked in off the street with an invitation to warm up the Test players. His biting off-spinners so impressed skipper Javed Miandad and senior players that a selected player was dropped and room found for the mystery man.

Ahmed had to borrow boots to play and didn’t even know the names of most of the Australians he dismissed en route to figures of 4/64 and 3/62. He got Chappell too.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a procession of Chinese divers strode to the top of the podium to receive their gold medals.

The 10m platform was heading the same way until Aussie Matt Mitcham’s somersaulting, twisting masterpiece on his final dive.

The highest single-dive score in Olympic history to that point, with a bunch of perfect “10s”, beat the Chinese in their own pool for gold.

Retelling State of Origin history is never tiresome at this time of year. When an inspirational figure was needed to lead Queensland out of the doldrums in the inaugural game in 1980, Queensland Rugby League boss Ron McAuliffe knew the right man was a 35-year-old playing reserve grade for Parramatta.

Even Arthur Beetson thought he might be past it but he answered the call. The rest became the start of Origin’s rich tapestry.

Thank goodness for horse racing. The sport of kings and queens still provides the rags-to-riches stories we all adore.

Find another sprinter like Takeover Target and we can all retire. The gelding won over $6 million and cost a former taxi driver-cum-trainer less than $1500 to buy.

Perhaps the most magnetic message that Block left us with was written on his golf balls.

“Why Not?” it reads. Block explained the story to American golf writers as stemming from a qualifier for the 2007 US Open.

He had to make a 7m putt to win a play-off just to qualify for the US Open. “Why not?” is what he said to his caddie before rolling in the putt.

Sport is all about “Why Not?” It’s an almost constant theme to Queensland’s mindset in Origin.

It’s what every Olympic underdog will believe is possible if they get everything right on the night at next year’s Paris Olympics.

Matt Mitcham did and Michael Block certainly restored faith in the might of the underdog.

JIM TUCKER has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media. He regards Jon Sieben’s gold medal in the 200m butterfly at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as one of the greatest underdog feats in Australian sport.