OT: Sports Illustrated on Deathwatch

Submitted by Sopwith on January 19th, 2024 at 1:02 PM

Entered the world on August 16, 1954, and looks to be ending with a whimper nearly 70 years later. For decades a Sports Illustrated cover was the sine qua non of sports stardom. You weren’t somebody until you landed that cover. 

This morning brings news (LINK):

Much of the staff of Sports Illustrated, and possibly all remaining writers and editors, received layoff notices Friday, which essentially could spell the end of a publication that for decades was the gold standard of sports journalism.

I grew up reading the last few years of Paul Zimmerman football columns and always loved the Rick Reilly and Frank Deford commentaries at the end. I thought they veered off the Yellow Brick Road of sports journalism in the mid-1990s when they became more of a personality magazine than one which always put the games front and center, but they remained iconic until the internet age rendered them into dinosaur status, slowly but surely.

Glad we got that Michigan National Championship cover in while we could. Memo to self: buy the big reproduction TODAY.

What’s your favorite non-sexybits cover ever? USA hockey 1980? Muhammad Ali? Glen Rice 1989 King of the Court Natty? Or recency bias and Blake Corum last week? (again, note to self, buy today) 

  

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umichfutball

January 19th, 2024 at 1:11 PM ^

And just as a heads up, did see a display set up at the Meijer on Carpenter Rd in Ypsilanti with a bunch of the Championship Issue.  Would presume plenty in the area have them set up as well

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DennisFranklinDaMan

January 19th, 2024 at 2:05 PM ^

I suppose it's possible that Rick Leach — who graduated after the 1978 season — was on the cover of Sports Illustrated before the 1981 season, when we lost to Wisconsin, but that seems unlikely. In fact Leach was 4-0 against the Badgers during his playing career.

Steve Smith was our QB when we started off the 1981 season with a loss in Madison.

 

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SpaceDad

January 19th, 2024 at 2:44 PM ^

This cover is from September 1976. Michigan beat Wisconsin 40-27 in the opener and rolled to an 8-0 record before Purdue pulled the 16-14 upset in West Lafayette. The only other loss was to USC 14-6 in the Rose Bowl, and Michigan ended up ranked #3 in the final AP poll of that season. Michigan was ranked #1 for 8 weeks and never fell outside of the Top 4.

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bhinrichs

January 19th, 2024 at 3:12 PM ^

My dad, who loved UM football but never read or talked about Sports Illustrated at all, and never bought anything at all for us kids outside of birthdays and Christmas bought that one for me (or maybe...for himself to read too, now that I think about it?  :^).  Probably heard about it listening to WJR on his drive home from working in Grand Rapids.

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Other Andrew

January 19th, 2024 at 1:21 PM ^

This is a bummer, man. There had already been a huge decline in quality of course, and this seemed inevitable. But I’m still sad about it.
 

SI was pretty much the only thing I read growing up aside from the newspaper. I was lucky enough to freelance for their website for one season. One of the best years of my life. 

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mackbru

January 19th, 2024 at 1:29 PM ^

People blaming publications for dying is sickening when the root cause is people being too cheap, lazy and ignorant to financially support news organizations. They instead get their “news” from social media or Fox News. Which is why the public has increasingly become so ignorant, polarized and drunk with misinformation. The death of journalism is the end of democracy.

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SalvatoreQuattro

January 19th, 2024 at 1:38 PM ^

🤷‍♂️ 

After the SignalsGate atrocity all of these former illustrious magazines can die.

The history of journalism is filled with publications coming and going. New York Sun, New York Herald, etc.

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UWSBlue

January 19th, 2024 at 1:39 PM ^

Each of my long term relationships with Christie Brinkley, Kathy Ireland and Paulina Porizkova began with SI. I'll keep fond memories of them all, especially SI.

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lilpenny1316

January 19th, 2024 at 1:40 PM ^

Growing up, I had a subscription to Sport magazine and Baseball Digest. I don't think I read SI unless I was in a doctors office. It's a shame that these print services could not translate their success to the digital realm. 

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