Sports Illustrated 50 Years: The
Anniversary Book by Editors of
Sports Illustrated
Must Have Book!
This colorful book celebrating fifty years of Americas most prominent
sports magazine is certainly more practical than hoarding 2,500 issues.
The six-part book plays to the strength of the magazine: The Stories and
The Photographs sections are the largest. The 35 articles are truncated,
often just whetting your appetite for more. The companion book Fifty Years
of Great Writing offers many of these in their full glory. On the other hand,
the pictures are often bigger than they were in the magazine (or could ever
have been with the smaller size). Lose minutes staring at Michael Jordan
or Walter Payton frozen in midair. Examine the juxtaposition of a close play
at the plate with the bizarre styles of a 60s womens track team. Try not to
be swept away at a shot of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain defining
basketball. If you have picked up the special issues released during SIs
anniversary year, you already seen a decent portion of this book. The

notable new writing is Richard Hoffers essay about the world (both sports
and at large) when the magazine began in 1954 and senior editor Frank
Defords pitch-perfect introduction about why the magazine is special and
how it grew up in the age of television. The section most folks will spend
their coffee table moments is The Covers, a listing of the entire magazines
cover images, both in chronological order and grouped in similar topics
(Scandals, Presidents, Deja Vu). Punctuated by the best sport quotes, SIs
Signs of the Apocalypse, fascinating lists of athletes and teams that were
on the cover the most times, and other sport tidbits through the ages, this
area is sure to launch a thousand sport memories. Yes, all the swimsuit
covers are in one place, too. One quibble: why is their Sports Person of the
Year in the book not the same as their well-known Sportsman of the Year?
--Doug Thomas
Personal Review: Sports Illustrated 50 Years: The Anniversary
Book by Editors of Sports Illustrated
This is a glorious celebration of Sports Illustrated's 50 years coverage of
the minor and the major in sport. At first, the magazine devoted a
disproportionate number of articles to "gentlemenly" pursuits such as
troutfishing and yachting. However, the once timid magazine eventually hit
its stride, with the help of television, with the talents of new editors and
writers, and, arguably, by the visuals of television.
The book, with an informative but slightly cloying introduction by Frank
Deford (he keeps on mentioning the swimsuit issue--about as relevant to
the major sports scene as yachting was 50 years ago), organizes the
magazine's stories and pictures by the decade. A current sportswriter
gives an overview, there arearticles from the magazines, sidebar-like
features such as quotes, historic cultural and historical events, and, most
importantly, the photographs.
SI photography is the best of its kind, setting a standard that will defy any
attempt to cater to some notion of the "new" SI reader. It is as dependable
and as beautiful as a museum. The full page and two-page spreads here
are magnificent records of sports history, character studies, stories of
emotion, action, the literal and the figurative. A low angle shot of the then-
named Lew ALcindor beating Houston in 1968. an underwater shot of
Michael Phelps winning gold at the Australia Olympics, a black and white
of Duke Snider climbng the outer field wall at Ebbets Field, an extreme
overhead of Ali knocking out Cleveland Williams in 1966, mini-
reproductions of cover of every issue, and yes, that includes the swimsuit
issues--it's here at an overwhelmingly fan-friendly price.
In a way, then, the book is a direct descendant of the unique magazine of
which one British man complained in 1954: "For 25 cents there is too much
value." Although the book was produced bt SI and--as expected--
celebrates SI, it also teases itself as well, noting that in 1954, "it published
only six articles on basketball but 14 on bowling. It published 17 articles on
clothing (but oddly, none on bowling clothing)." My only complaints:

There's not quite enough of the original text (more of the writing is included
in a companion book) and there is no index. A superb gift with more
substance and memories than the usual oversized book.
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