OT: Sports Illustrated on Deathwatch

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)