Sports Illustrated


Sports Illustrated is an American sports magazine owned by Authentic Brands Group, and was first published in August 1954.
It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. It is also known for its annual swimsuit issue, which has been published since 1964, and has spawned other complementary media works and products.
In 2018, the magazine was sold to Meredith Corporation by means of its acquisition of parent company Time Inc., but Meredith stated that it planned to sell Sports Illustrated as it did not align with its lifestyle properties. The following year, Meredith announced that it would sell Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group. While Meredith initially planned to continue publishing its print and digital properties under license from ABG, ABG later announced that it would instead give the publishing rights to theMaven, Inc.—a digital media company.

History

There were two magazines named Sports Illustrated before the current magazine began on August 16, 1954. In 1936, Stuart Scheftel created Sports Illustrated with a target market for sportsman. He published the magazine from 1936 to 1938 on a monthly basis. The magazine focused on golf, tennis, and skiing with articles on the major sports. He then sold the name to Dell Publications, which released Sports Illustrated in 1949 and this version lasted six issues before closing. Dell's version focused on major sports and competed on magazine racks against Sport and other monthly sports magazines. During the 1940s these magazines were monthly and they did not cover the current events because of the production schedules. There was no large-base, general, weekly sports magazine with a national following on actual active events. It was then that Time patriarch Henry Luce began considering whether his company should attempt to fill that gap. At the time, many believed sports was beneath the attention of serious journalism and did not think sports news could fill a weekly magazine, especially during the winter. 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.
The goal of the new magazine was to be basically a magazine, but with sports. Many at Time-Life scoffed at Luce's idea; in his Pulitzer Prize–winning biography, Luce and His Empire, W. 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 not particularly well run at first, but Luce's timing was good. 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.
After more than a decade of steady losses, the magazine's fortunes finally turned around in the 1960s when Andre Laguerre became its managing editor. A European correspondent for Time, Inc., who later became chief of the Time-Life news bureaux in Paris and London, Laguerre attracted Henry Luce's attention in 1956 with his singular coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, which became the core of SI's coverage of those games. In May 1956, Luce brought Laguerre to New York to become assistant managing editor of the magazine. He was named managing editor in 1960, and he more than doubled the circulation by instituting a system of departmental editors, redesigning the internal format, and inaugurating the unprecedented use in a news magazine of full-color photographic coverage of the week's sports events. He was also one of the first to sense the rise of national interest in professional football.
Laguerre also instituted the innovative concept of one long story at the end of every issue, which he called the "bonus piece". These well-written, in-depth articles helped to distinguish Sports Illustrated from other sports publications, and helped launch the careers of such legendary writers as Frank Deford, who in March 2010 wrote of Laguerre, "He smoked cigars and drank Scotch and made the sun move across the heavens... His genius as an editor was that he made you want to please him, but he wanted you to do that by writing in your own distinct way."
Laguerre is also credited with the conception and creation of the annual Swimsuit Issue, which quickly became, and remains, the most popular issue each year.
In 1990, Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications to form the media conglomerate Time Warner. In 2014, Time Inc. was spun off from Time Warner. In November 2017, Meredith Corporation announced that it would acquire Time Inc., and the acquisition was completed in January 2018. However, in March 2018, Meredith stated that it would explore selling Sports Illustrated and several other former Time properties, arguing that they did not properly align with the company's lifestyle brands and publications.
On May 27, 2019, Authentic Brands Group announced its intent to acquire Sports Illustrated for $110 million. Authentic Brands Group will leverage its brand and other assets for new opportunities that "stay close to the DNA and the heritage of the brand." Upon announcement of the sale, it was stated that Meredith would enter into a licensing agreement to continue as publisher of the Sports Illustrated editorial operations for at least the next two years. However, on June 18, 2019, it was revealed that the rights to publish the Sports Illustrated editorial operations would be licensed to the digital media company theMaven, Inc. under a 10-year contract, with Ross Levinsohn as CEO. The company had backed a bid by Junior Bridgeman to acquire SI.
On October 1, 2019, editor-in-chief Chris Stone stepped down. On October 2, 2019, in preparation for the closure of the sale to ABG and Maven, The Wall Street Journal reported that Maven was preparing to lay off over 40 Sports Illustrated employees, with an intent to have their roles filled by contracted writers. The next day, ABG and Meredith confirmed that the acquisition had closed, with Meredith stating that staff cuts had been made. On October 29, it announced its hiring of veteran college sports writer Pat Forde.

Innovations

From its start, Sports Illustrated introduced a number of innovations that are generally taken for granted today:
In 1965, offset printing began this allowed 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. 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.
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. "Bonus pieces" on Pete Rozelle, Woody Hayes, 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.

Regular segments

Performer of the Year

of the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx was the inaugural winner of the Sports Illustrated Performer of the Year Award in 2017.

Sportsperson of the Year

Since 1954, Sports Illustrated magazine has annually presented the Sportsperson of the Year award to "the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement." Roger Bannister won the first-ever Sportsman of the Year award thanks to his record-breaking time of 3:59.4 for a mile. Both men and women have won the award, originally called "Sportsman of the Year" and renamed "Sportswoman of the Year" or "Sportswomen of the Year" when applicable; it is currently known as "Sportsperson of the Year."
The 2017 winners of the award are Houston Texans defensive end, J. J. Watt, and Houston Astros second baseman, José Altuve. Both athletes were recognized for their efforts in helping rebuild the city of Houston following Hurricane Harvey in addition to Altuve being a part of the Astros team that won the franchise's first World Series in 2017.
The 2018 winners were the Golden State Warriors as a team for winning their third NBA Title in four years.

Sportsman of the Century

In 1999, Sports Illustrated named Muhammad Ali the Sportsman of the Century at the Sports Illustrateds 20th Century Sports Awards in New York City's Madison Square Garden.

''Sports Illustrated'''s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award

In 2015, the magazine renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career. His widow, Lonnie Ali, is consulted when choosing a recipient. In 2017, football quarterback Colin Kaepernick was honored with the Award, which was presented by Beyoncé. In 2018, WWE professional wrestler John Cena was honored with the award.

All-decade awards and honors

Wrestler of the Year

The following list contains the athletes with most covers.
The magazine's cover is the basis of a sports myth known as the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx.
Most covers by athlete, 1954–2016
AthleteSportNumber of covers
Michael JordanBasketball50
Muhammad AliBoxing40
LeBron JamesBasketball25
Tiger WoodsGolf24
Magic JohnsonBasketball23
Kareem Abdul-JabbarBasketball22
Tom BradyFootball20

Most covers by team, 1954 – May 2008
TeamSportNumber of covers
Los Angeles LakersBasketball67
New York YankeesBaseball65
St. Louis CardinalsBaseball49
Dallas CowboysFootball48
Boston Red SoxBaseball46
Chicago BullsBasketball45
Boston CelticsBasketball44
Los Angeles DodgersBaseball40
Cincinnati RedsBaseball37
San Francisco 49ersFootball33

Most covers by sport, 1954–2009
SportNumber of covers
Baseball-MLB628
Pro Football-NFL550
Pro Basketball-NBA325
College Football202
College Basketball181
Golf155
Boxing134
Hockey100
Track and Field99
Tennis78

Celebrities on the cover, 1954–2010
CelebrityYearSpecial notes
Gary Cooper1959Scuba diving
Bob Hope1963Owner of Cleveland Indians
Shirley MacLaine1964Promoting the film John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
Steve McQueen1971Riding a motorcycle
Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson1977Promoting the film Semi-Tough
Big Bird1977On the cover with Mark Fidrych
Arnold Schwarzenegger1987Caption on cover was Softies
Chris Rock2000Wearing Los Angeles Dodgers hat
Stephen Colbert2009Caption: Stephen Colbert and his Nation save the Olympics
Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale2010Promoting the film The Fighter
Brad Pitt2011Promoting the film Moneyball

Fathers and sons who have been featured on the cover
FatherSon
Archie ManningPeyton & Eli Manning
Calvin HillGrant Hill
Bobby HullBrett Hull
Bill WaltonLuke Walton
Jack NicklausGary Nicklaus
Phil SimmsChris Simms
Dale EarnhardtDale Earnhardt Jr.
Cal Ripken Sr.Cal Ripken Jr. & Billy Ripken
Mark McGwireMatt McGwire
Drew BreesBaylen Brees
Boomer EsiasonGunnar Esiason
Chuck LiddellCade Liddell

Presidents who have been featured on the cover
PresidentSI cover dateSpecial notes
John F. KennedyDecember 26, 1960First Lady Jackie Kennedy also on cover and Kennedy was President-Elect at the time of the cover.
Gerald FordJuly 8, 1974Cover came one month before President Richard Nixon announced he would resign from the Presidency.
Ronald ReaganNovember 26, 1984On cover with Georgetown Hoyas basketball coach John Thompson and Patrick Ewing
Ronald ReaganFebruary 16, 1987On cover with America's Cup champion Dennis Conner
Bill ClintonMarch 21, 1994On cover about the Arkansas college basketball team

Tribute covers
AthleteSI cover dateSpecial notes
Len BiasJune 30, 1986Died of a cocaine overdose just after being drafted by the Boston Celtics
Arthur AsheFebruary 15, 1993Tennis great and former US Open champion who died from AIDS after a blood transfusion
Reggie LewisAugust 9, 1993Celtics player who died due to a heart defect
Mickey MantleAugust 21, 1995Died after years of battling alcoholism
Walter PaytonNovember 8, 1999Died from rare liver disorder
Dale EarnhardtFebruary 26, 2001Died in a crash on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
Brittanie CecilApril 1, 2002Fan killed as the result of being struck with a puck to the head while in the crowd at a Columbus Blue Jackets game
Ted WilliamsJuly 15, 2002Boston Red Sox great who died of cardiac arrest
Johnny UnitasSeptember 23, 2002Baltimore Colts great who died from heart attack
Pat TillmanMay 3, 2004Arizona Cardinals player turned U.S. soldier who was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan.
Ed ThomasJuly 6, 2009Parkersburg, Iowa high school football coach who was gunned down by one of his former players on the morning of June 24, 2009.
John WoodenJune 14, 2010UCLA basketball coaching legend who died of natural causes at 99 years of age.
Junior SeauMay 2, 2012Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker who committed suicide at 43 years of age

Writers

Photographers

Sports Illustrated has helped launched a number of related publishing ventures, including: