The swimsuit issue was always pathetic and anachronistic and straight weird given the main content that SI published. Let's be real, it was cheap bait for wankers whose wives/moms wouldn't let them have Playboy around the house.
It was such a huge part of my growing up and learning about sports. I remember seeing it every week in the library and then I saved up enough money to get a subscription when I was maybe 10 and had a subscription for about 20 years after that.
Amazing writing and covered more than just the "big 4 sports" especially in the 70s.
It was one of the week's highlights when it arrived. Faces in the Crowd was sort of fun and then going back to see people who later became superstars.
I think The Athletic is close to what SI was and not limited by ad space and more immediate.
Younger people have no clue how big a deal Sports Illustrated was back in the day. Before cable TV (early 80s where I grew up), it was the only place for a young kid not already invested in the sport to learn about running/track — except Wide World of Sports type shows. (The internet was only a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye then.)
Distance runners were often on the cover (Coe, Coghlan, Shorter, Rodgers, Salazar) during my childhood. I wonder who was the last elite distance runner to make to make the cover? I recall Mary Slaney was on the cover a couple times in the mid-1980s. Could it be that long ago?
I still have the issue where I was in Faces in the Crowd.
I remember this section, and also I enjoyed Grant Wahl's (RIP) college basketball coverage fondly. But even he saw the writing on the wall and started his own Substack, as most writers now do. Why follow the line of your employers when you can just say whatever you want in your own website or newsletter?
SI does evoke emotions of nostalgia in me, but I also hadn't read it in years.
I still have the issue where I was in Faces in the Crowd.
I remember this section, and also I enjoyed Grant Wahl's (RIP) college basketball coverage fondly. But even he saw the writing on the wall and started his own Substack, as most writers now do. Why follow the line of your employers when you can just say whatever you want in your own website or newsletter?
SI does evoke emotions of nostalgia in me, but I also hadn't read it in years.
Didn't Wahl write for Grantland (RIP) in between? I also fondly remember reading Tim Layden's coverage of track and running. SI featured some of the best sports photography I've ever seen anywhere, to boot. Even their pre-digital photography was breathtaking. I hope their Vault archive endures in some fashion.
The magazine has been getting worse for the pst 20 years. I had a subscription for around 15 years (starting in the late 1980s), but eventually let my subscription lapse in 2004 when I noticed that the magazine started inserting political opinions into sports articles which were completely unrelated to politics. Rick Reilly, in particular, wrote columns at the end of the magazine and I remember him complaining about George W Bush in several of his articles. Most people (R and D) have a pretty negative opinions on George W Bush. However, using a sports magazine as a platform to espouse political views was completely inappropriate.
I love how righties are acting like Sports Illustrated failed because they put a fat girl on the swimsuit cover, rather than because it's 2023 and magazines are going the way of cassette tapes and pay phones.
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SI was great growing up in the 70s. Where else could we get in depth articles on a wide variety of sports in rural America with only two TV stations. Plus Dayle Haddon. Fond memories.
The SI.com website is still there and is updated daily. So who is doing the writing?
Skeleton crew, will be put up for sale.
I was intrigued and investigated a bit. The recent owner deliberately missed a payment, as a hard negotiating tactic to try and lower the previously agreed purchase price. Previous owner chose to call bluff and just take the brand back, using a clause in agreement.
Sad that the staff (layed off)and brand suffer, just due to games between Internet companies that really don't understand journalism and brands.
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