| Sports Illustrated | |
|---|---|
The first issue of Sports Illustrated, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Mathews at bat and New York Giants catcher Wes Westrum in Milwaukee County Stadium. Edwin Lee "Eddie" Mathews ( October 13 1931 – February 18 2001) was a Hall of Fame Third baseman in Major The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in, that currently play in the National League West Division. Wesley Noreen Westrum ( November 28 1922 – May 28 2002) was an American Catcher, manager, coach Milwaukee County Stadium (or just County Stadium in context was a ballpark in Milwaukee Wisconsin from 1953 to 2000 |
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| Managing Editor | Paul Fichtenbaum |
| Categories | Sports magazine |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Circulation | 3,000,000 per week (within the U. This is a list of magazines by overall circulation. A Magazine 's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on average for each issue S. ) |
| First issue | August 16, 1954 |
| Company | Time Inc. (Time Warner) |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Website | sportsillustrated.cnn.com |
| ISSN | 0038-822X |
Sports Illustrated is the largest weekly American sports magazine owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) Time Inc is a major subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 Time Warner Inc ( is the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered in New York City. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States An International Standard Serial Number ( ISSN) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic Periodical publication. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Sport is an Activity that is governed by a set of rules or Customs and often engaged in competitively Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally "Popular press" redirects here note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint "The Popular Press" Time Warner Inc ( is the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered in New York City. It has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men, 19% of the adult males in the United States. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice.
Its swimsuit issue, which has been published since 1964, is now an annual publishing event that generates its own television shows, videos and calendars. The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic The word Calendar consist of two words 1 Cal ( in Pashto means Year in Hindi and Persian is Sal- also means Year
The magazine's cover is the basis of a sports myth known as the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx. A sports-related curse is the effective action of some power or evil that is used to explain the failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams players or even cities The Sports Illustrated Jinx is a myth that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine will experience bad luck at
Contents |
Two other magazines named Sports Illustrated were started in the 1930s and 1940s, but they both quickly failed. Following these events, there was no large-base general sports magazine with a national following. It was then that TIME patriarch Henry Luce began considering whether his company should attempt to fill that gap. Time (trademarked in capitals as TIME) is a weekly American Newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and Henry Robinson Luce ( April 3, 1898 &ndash February 28, 1967) was an influential American publisher At the time, many believed sports was beneath the attention of serious journalism and didn't think sports news could fill a weekly magazine, especially during the winter. Journalism is the profession of writing or communicating formally employed by publications and broadcasters for the benefit of a particular Community of people A number of advisers to Luce, including Life Magazine's Ernest Havemann, tried to kill the idea, but Luce, who was not a sports fan, decided the time was right. [1]
After offering $200,000 in an unsuccessful bid to buy the name Sport for the new magazine, they acquired the rights to the name Sports Illustrated instead for just $10,000. The goal of the new magazine was to be "not a sports magazine, but the sports magazine. " Many at Time-Life scoffed at Luce's idea; in his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Luce and His Empire, W. The Pulitzer Prize, ˈpʊlɨtsɚ PULL-it-sər is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in Newspaper journalism, A. Swanberg wrote that the company's intellectuals dubbed the proposed magazine "Muscle," "Jockstrap," and "Sweat Socks. " Launched on August 16, 1954, it was not profitable (and would not be so for 12 years)[2] and not particularly well run at first, but Luce's timing was good. Events 1384 - The Hongwu Emperor of Ming China, Emperor Dong hears a case of a couple who tore paper money bills while fighting Year 1954 ( MCMLIV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar) The popularity of spectator sports in the United States was about to explode, and that popularity came to be driven largely by three things: Economic prosperity, television, and Sports Illustrated.
The early issues of the magazine seemed caught between two opposing views of its audience. Much of the subject matter was directed at upper class activities such as yachting, polo and safaris, but upscale would-be advertisers were unconvinced that sports fans were a significant part of their market. Yachting is an activity involving boats It may be racing Sailing boats cruising to distant shores or day-sailing along a coast Polo is a team sport played outdoors on Horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team SAFARI was an attempt by the French government under the presidency of Georges Pompidou, to create a centralized database of personal data Advertising is a form of Communication that typically attempts to persuade potential Customers to Purchase or to consume more of a particular Brand [3]
From its start, Sports Illustrated introduced a number of innovations that are generally taken for granted today:
In 1956, Luce asked Time, Inc. senior European Correspondent André Laguerre to come to New York and help define the magazine's character. Many of the staff had serious doubts that the English-born Frenchman could possibly know anything about American sports, but Laguerre won them over, and during his term as Managing Editor (1960 - 1974), SI became a model for other middle-class American magazines. One of the first changes was the beginning of a segment honouring unknown athletes called Faces in the Crowd. Faces in the Crowd is a long-running segment from Sports Illustrated. Its writers developed their own characteristic style by daring to tell people what was important. Many would say that the magazine legitimized sports — and being a sports fan — for a huge segment of the American population. The steady creation of landmark stories (e. g. , "The Black Athlete — A Shameful Story" by Jack Olsen and "Paper Lion" by George Plimpton) showed that sports fans could be readers, and a generation of sportswriters patterned their own writing after what they read in SI. George Ames Plimpton ( March 18, 1927 &ndash September 25, 2003) was an American Journalist, Writer, [4].
The magazine's photographers also made their mark with innovations like putting cameras in the goal at a hockey game and behind a glass backboard at a basketball game. Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team Sport played on Ice. Basketball is a team Sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m In 1965, offset printing began to allow the color pages of the magazine to be printed overnight, not only producing crisper and brighter images, but also finally enabling the editors to merge the best color with the latest news. Offset printing is a commonly used Printing technique where the Inked image is transferred (or "offset" from a plate to a rubber blanket then to the By 1967, the magazine was printing 200 pages of "fast color" a year; in 1983, SI became the first American full-color newsweekly. An intense rivalry developed between photographers, particularly Walter Iooss and Neil Leifer, to get a decisive cover shot that would be on newsstands and in mailboxes only a few days later. Photojournalism is a particular form of Journalism (the collecting editing and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast that creates images in order to tell Walter Iooss Jr (born 1943 has been a professional photographer since the age of 19 Neil Leifer (b December 28, 1942 in New York New York) Neil Leifer is a noted photographer for the Time family of magazines [5]
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, during Gil Rogin's term as Managing Editor, the feature stories of Frank Deford became the magazine's anchor. Frank Deford (born December 16, 1938, in Baltimore Maryland) is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, Author "Bonus pieces" on Pete Rozelle, Bear Bryant, Howard Cosell and others became some of the most quoted sources about these figures, and Deford established a reputation as one of the best writers of the time. Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle ( March 1 1926 – December 6 1996) was the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL Howard William Cosell (born Howard William Cohen; March 25 1918 - April 23 1995 was an American sports journalist [6]
First Person: A feature that has been added in the spring of 2007 features a question and answer session with a featured athlete accompanied by an unusual photo of the athlete holding a hand mirror (the hand mirror concept in First Person donates the athlete as the center of attention). It's also the only photo taking by the athlete himself.
Who's Hot, Who's Not: A feature on who's on a tear and who's in a slump.
Inside the NFL, Baseball, NHL, NBA, College Football, College Basketball, Motor Sports, Golf and Tennis (sports vary from issue to issue) has the writers from each sport to address the latest news and rumors in their repective fields. The National Football League ( NFL) is the largest professional American football league. Baseball is a Bat-and-ball Sport played between two teams of nine players each The National Hockey League ( NHL) is a professional Ice hockey league composed of 30 teams in North America College football is American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, Colleges and military academies College basketball most often refers to the American Basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA Tennis is a sport played between two players ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles)
Faces in the Crowd: honors talented amateur athletes and their accomplishments.
The Point After: A back-page column featuring a rotation of SI writers as well as other contributors. Content varies from compelling stories to challenging opinion, focusing on both the world of sports and the role sports play in society.
Creative freedom that the staff had enjoyed seemed to diminish. By the 1980s and 1990s, the magazine had become more profitable than ever, but many also believed it had become more predictable. Mark Mulvoy was the first top editor whose background contained nothing but sports; he had grown up as one of the magazine's readers, but he had no interest in fiction, movies, hobbies or history. Mulvoy's top writer Rick Reilly had also been raised on SI and followed in the footsteps of many of the great writers that he grew up admiring, but many felt that the magazine as a whole came to reflect Mulvoy's complete lack of sophistication. Richard "Rick" Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958 in Boulder Colorado) is an American Sportswriter. Mulvoy also hired the current creative director Steven Hoffman. Critics said that it rarely broke (or even featured) stories on the major controversies in sports (drugs, violence, commercialism) any more, and that it focused on major sports and celebrities to the exclusion of other topics. [7]
The proliferation of "commemorative issues" and crass subscription incentives seemed to some like an exchange of journalistic integrity for commercial opportunism. More importantly, perhaps, many feel that 24-hour-a-day cable sports television networks and sports news web sites have forever diminished the role a weekly publication can play in today's world, and that it is unlikely any magazine will ever again achieve the level of prominence that SI once had. [8]
Another example of a big change in direction for the periodical is in its capitalizing on alternate covers. The concept took off in the 2000s. There was an alternate issue in fall 2000 for the 2000 World Series. The 2000 World Series featured a crosstown matchup between the two-time defending champion New York Yankees and the New York Mets, with the Yankees winning 4 One issue featured Derek Jeter with the heading Subway Series. Derek Sanderson Jeter (ˈʤitɚ born June 26 1974 is an American Major League Baseball player The Subway Series is a series of Major League Baseball games played between teams based in New York City. In January 2004, the controversy over USC and LSU's share of the National Football Championship, resulted in SI creating one issue for the West Coast with USC as champions while the state of Louisiana had an alternate cover with LSU as National Champions. In 2006 alone, there have been three different weeks in which alternate covers have been featured. The August 21 issue featured the College Football Preview and had five alternate covers. The October 23 issue was the NBA Preview and featured three covers with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. LeBron Raymone James (born December 30 1984 in Akron Ohio) is an American professional Basketball player who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers of Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr (born January 17 1982) is an American professional Basketball player who currently plays for the Miami Heat Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (born May 29 1984 is an American professional Basketball player for the Denver Nuggets, of the National Basketball Association The College Basketball Preview was dated November 20 and had five alternate covers.
Since its inception in 1954, Sports Illustrated magazine has annually presented the Sportsman of the Year award to "the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement. Since its inception in 1954, Sports Illustrated magazine has annually presented the " " Roger Bannister won the first ever Sportsman of the year award thanks to his record breaking time of 3:59. Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE (born 23 March 1929 is an English former athlete best known as the first man to run the Mile in less than 4 4 for a mile (the first ever time a mile had been run under four minutes).
Brett Favre is Sports Illustrated's most recent Sportsman of the Year, for 2007. Brett Lorenzo Favre (ˈfɑrv (born October 10 1969 is an American football Quarterback for the New York Jets of the National Football League At age 38, Favre unexpectedly produced one of his most statistically successful seasons; the article also implied that Favre was being recognized for his career's body of work. Tiger Woods is the only athlete to win the award twice.
Most covers by athlete, 1954-2003
| Athlete | Number of Covers |
|---|---|
| Michael Jordan | 49 |
| Muhammad Ali | 37 |
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 29 |
| Magic Johnson | 22 |
| Jack Nicklaus | 22 |
Most covers by team, 1954-May 2008
| Team | Number of Covers |
|---|---|
| New York Yankees | 66 |
| Los Angeles Lakers | 64 |
| Dallas Cowboys | 46 |
| Boston Red Sox | 44 |
| Chicago Bulls | 44 |
| Boston Celtics | 39 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 38 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 38 |
| San Francisco 49ers | 34 |
| Notre Dame Football | 33 |
Most covers by sport, 1954-2003
| Sport | Number of Covers |
|---|---|
| Pro Football | 519 |
| Baseball | 510 |
| Pro Basketball | 302 |
| College Basketball | 200 |
| Golf | 155 |
| College Football | 153 |
| Boxing | 134 |
| Track and Field | 99 |
| Hockey | 83 |
| Tennis | 78 |
Celebrities on the cover, 1954-2003
| Celebrity | Year | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ed Sullivan | 1959 | On cover as golfer |
| Bob Hope | 1963 | Owner of Cleveland Indians |
| Shirley MacLaine | 1964 | Wearing a football uniform |
| Steve McQueen | 1971 | Riding a motorcycle |
| Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson | 1977 | Promoting the film Semi-Tough |
| Big Bird | 1977 | On the cover with Mark Fidrych |
| Arnold Schwarzenegger | 1987 | Caption on cover was Hot Stuff |
| Ice Cube | 1999 | On cover with Shaquille O'Neal |
| Chris Rock | 2000 | Wearing Los Angeles Dodgers hat |
Fathers and sons who have been featured on the cover
Presidents who have been featured on the cover
| President | SI Cover Date | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|
| John F. Kennedy | December 26, 1960 | First Lady Jackie Kennedy also on cover and Kennedy was President-Elect at the time of the cover. Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17 1963 is a retired American professional Basketball player and active businessman Biography Early life Cassius Clay Jr was born on January 17 1942 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr; April 16 1947 is an American athlete and retired professional Basketball player widely considered For his detailed statistics records and other achievements see List of career achievements by Jack Nicklaus. The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the borough of The Bronx, in New York City, New York. The Los Angeles Lakers are a National Basketball Association (NBA team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC in the National The Boston Red Sox are a Professional baseball team based in Boston Massachusetts, and are the reigning (2007 World Series Champions. The Chicago Bulls are an American professional Basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern The Boston Celtics are an American professional Basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, playing in the Atlantic Division of the The Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball team based in Los Angeles California, USA The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati Ohio, USA The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, United States Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan ( September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American Entertainment Writer Bob Hope, KBE KCSG ( May 29, 1903 &ndash July 27, 2003) was an American comedian and actor who appeared in Shirley MacLaine (born April 24, 1934) is an American Academy Award -winning Film and Theater Actress, well-known Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen (March 24 1930 – November 7 1980 was an American movie Actor, nicknamed "The King of Cool" Burton Leon Reynolds Jr (born February 11 1936 is an American Actor. Semi-Tough is a 1977 movie directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh Big Bird is a full-body Muppet, featured on the children's television show Sesame Mark Steven "The Bird" Fidrych (ˈfɪdɹɪʧ born August 14 1954 in Worcester Massachusetts) is a retired Major League Baseball player for the Detroit Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger ( German ˌaɐnɔlt aloʏs ˈʃvaɐtsənɛɡɐ born July 30 1947 is an Austrian American Bodybuilder, Actor O'Shea Jackson (born June 15 1969 better known by his Stage name Ice Cube, is an American Actor, Screenwriter, producer, and Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (born March 6 1972 frequently referred to simply as " Shaq " is an African American Professional basketball Christopher Julius Rock III (born February 7, 1965) is an American Comedian, Actor, Screenwriter, Television The Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball team based in Los Angeles California, USA Elisha Archibald Manning III (born May 19 1949 in Drew Mississippi) is a former American football Quarterback in the National Football League Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24 1976 is an American football Quarterback who currently plays for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football Elisha Nelson Manning IV (born January 3 1981 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American football Quarterback for the New York Giants Calvin G Hill (born January 2 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a retired American football Running back who had a 12-year Grant Henry Hill (born October 5 1972 is an American professional Basketball player currently playing for the NBA 's Phoenix Suns. Robert Marvin "Bobby" Hull OC (born January 3, 1939 is a retired Canadian Ice hockey player Brett Andrew Hull (born August 9, 1964 in Belleville, Ontario and raised in Chicago, Winnipeg and Vancouver) is a William Theodore "Bill" Walton III (born November 5 1952 is a retired American Basketball player and current Television Sportscaster Luke Theodore Walton (born March 28 1980 is an American professional Basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball For his detailed statistics records and other achievements see List of career achievements by Jack Nicklaus. Phillip Martin Simms (born November 3 1955 in Lebanon Kentucky) is a former American football Quarterback, and currently a Television Christopher David Simms (born August 29, 1980 in) is an American football Quarterback for the Tennessee Titans of the National Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr ( April 29, 1951 &ndash February 18, 2001) was an American race car driver best known for his career driving Ralph Dale For his son of the same name see Cal Ripken Jr Calvin Edwin Ripken Sr William Oliver Ripken (born December 16 1964 in Havre de Grace Maryland) is a radio personality for XM Satellite Radio and is a former John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of |
| Gerald Ford | July 8, 1974 | Cover came one month before President Richard Nixon announced he would resign from the Presidency. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr (July 14 1913 December 26 2006 was the thirty-eighth President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 and the fortieth Vice President |
| Ronald Reagan | November 26, 1984 | On cover with Georgetown Hoyas basketball coach John Thompson and Patrick Ewing |
| Ronald Reagan | February 16, 1987 | On cover with America's Cup champion Dennis Conner |
| Bill Clinton | March 21, 1994 | On cover about the Arkansas college basketball team |
Tribute covers (In Memoriam)
| Athlete | SI Cover Date | Special Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Len Bias | June 30, 1986 | Died of a cocaine overdose just after being drafted by the Boston Celtics |
| Arthur Ashe | February 15, 1993 | Tennis great and former US Open champion who died from AIDS |
| Reggie Lewis | August 9, 1993 | Celtics player who died due to a heart defect |
| Mickey Mantle | August 21, 1995 | Died after years of battling alcoholism |
| Walter Payton | November 8, 1999 | Died from rare liver disorder |
| Dale Earnhardt | February 26, 2001 | Died in a crash on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 |
| Ted Williams | July 15, 2002 | Boston Red Sox who died due to old age |
| Johnny Unitas | October 23, 2002 | Baltimore Colts great who died from heart attack |
| Brittanie Cecil | April 1, 2002 | Fan killed as the result of being struck with a puck to the head while in the crowd at a Columbus Blue Jackets game |
| Pat Tillman | May 3, 2004 | Arizona Cardinals player who was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. The Georgetown University Men's Basketball team (which like all sports teams at Georgetown University, is named the Georgetown Hoyas) is a well-known basketball John Thompson Jr (born September 2 1941) is an American former Basketball coach for the Georgetown University Hoyas. Patrick Aloysius Ewing (born August 5 1962 is an American retired Hall of Fame Basketball player and current assistant coach for the National Basketball The America’s Cup is the most prestigious Regatta and Match race in the sport of Sailing, and the oldest active Trophy in international Dennis Conner is one of the world's most famous and successful racing sailors having competed and been successful in Olympic events the America's Cup, many different offshore William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States The Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team represents the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas in NCAA Division I men's Leonard Kevin Bias ( November 18, 1963 &ndash June 19, 1986) was an American College basketball player who suffered a fatal The Boston Celtics are an American professional Basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, playing in the Atlantic Division of the Arthur Robert Ashe Jr ( July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an African American Tennis player who was born and raised Reggie Lewis ( November 21 1965 &ndash July 27 1993) was an American Basketball player for the NBA 's Boston Mickey Charles Mantle ( October 20, 1931 &ndash August 13, 1995) was an American Baseball player who was inducted Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions Walter Jerry Payton (July 25 1954 – November 1 1999 was an American football player who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr ( April 29, 1951 &ndash February 18, 2001) was an American race car driver best known for his career driving The death of Dale Earnhardt Sr on February 18, 2001 was a significant event in NASCAR and American sporting history which resulted in the The Daytona 500 is a 200-lap long NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach Florida. Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams ( August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) also nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter The Boston Red Sox are a Professional baseball team based in Boston Massachusetts, and are the reigning (2007 World Series Champions. John Constantine "Johnny" Unitas ( May 7, 1933 &ndash September 11, 2002) nicknamed The Golden Arm and often called The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis Indiana. Brittanie Nichole Cecil ( March 20, 1988 in Columbus Ohio – March 18, 2002) was a hockey fan who died from injuries suffered The Columbus Blue Jackets are a professional Ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Patrick Daniel Tillman ( November 6, 1976   – April 22, 2004) was an American football player who left his professional sports The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, |
Sports Illustrated has helped launched a number of related publishing ventures, including: