Cameroon = The Loyola Marymount University Lions (Basketball)

Roger Milla, Cameroon's star at the 1990 World Cup

Bo Kimble shooting a left-handed free throw in honor of fallen teammate Hank Gathers.

The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and the Lions of Loyola Marymount both lit up their respective sporting worlds like brilliant comets, streaking through the night sky to quarterfinal appearances in 1990... and we haven't heard much from either of them since. Led by an unlikely hero in 38-year-old striker Roger Milla, Cameroon shocked everybody at Italia '90 when they won the opening match of the tournament over Diego Maradona and defending champion Argentina. The Indomitable Lions also beat Gheorghe Hagi's (The "Maradona of the Carpathians") Romania team, won their group, and defeated Colombia in the round of 16 to become the first African side to reach the quarterfinals in a World Cup. England then knocked them out but needed extra time to do it. Cameroon accomplished all this while playing a fun, attacking brand of football, standing out as a breath of fresh air in a World Cup otherwise considered perhaps the dullest ever. (Various rule changes-- namely the "back pass rule," and awarding 3 points for wins instead of 2 in group play, were instituted in Italia '90's aftermath.)

That same year, Loyola's Lions were pretty indomitable, too. Led by Coach Paul Westhead (the "Guru of Go") and Philadelphia high school teammates Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers, Loyola played some of the most entertaining basketball in history from 1987-88 through 1989-90. Their combination of intense full-court pressing and fast breaking, high tempo, high volume offense made score lines of 120-115 commonplace. The team set a record by averaging 122 points per game in 1989-90 that will probably never be touched. Loyola won the West Coast Conference regular season, but tragedy struck in the semifinal of the WCC tournament when Gathers collapsed on the court and died of a congenital heart failure. Loyola made the NCAA tournament as an 11 seed, and advanced all the way to the Elite 8 (along the way, they beat defending national champion Michigan by 34 points!). Kimble paid tribute to his fallen friend and teammate by shooting his first free throw of every tournament game left handed, as Gathers had. He made all of them. Loyola has not played in the NCAA Tournament (or even the NIT) since.

Brazil 2014 will be the 5th of 6 World Cups since 1990 that Cameroon has qualified for, but they haven't advanced out of the group stage in any of them. Indeed, they've won only one match in that time span. This year, sadly doesn't look any better for them. Cameroon is the lowest ranked team in the World Cup by the FIFA rankings. While neither Mexico nor Croatia are world beaters, the Indomitable Lions' attack will lean very heavily on Samuel Eto'o, once perhaps the world's best striker but now 33 years old. He scored only 12 goals in 34 matches for Chelsea last season. Cameroon have a handful of useful players, but no one who really stands out in a crowd.

P.S. Cameroon also has suffered the horror of a player dying in the middle of a game.  Midfielder Marc-Vivien Foé died of a congenital heart failure while playing for Cameroon at the 2003 Confederations Cup.

If Cameroon is going anywhere in Brazil, Samuel Eto'o will take them there. In 5 years with Barcelona, Eto'o won 2 champions league titles. He scored Barça's first goal in both finals.