Slide 4: The first issue went to press on the night of August 8, 1954. The premiere was a success. The issue was dated August 16, 1954 and had 144 pages, carried 74 pages of advertisements, and brought in over $1.3 million. Among the ads was one for the new Ford model of the Thunderbird. The first day of sales was on August 12, 1954. It was reported that nearly 90% of issues were sold on that day. Magazines sold out in New York City by noon that day. In Chicago vendors were offering cash for more copies of the magazine. A copy was sent to President Eisenhower, who wrote back and said that he knew that he knew he would find much interest in it. A sports editor from the Kansas City Star said that it was a really extraordinary addition to the field of athletics. There were some criticisms, however. A confidential one said that the magazine as a whole did not appear to be a sufficiently topical review of the week’s events in sports. Also, another complaint consisted of the notion that the magazine was directed towards the upper class as opposed to the blue collared working class (MacCambridge).
Slide 5: The cover jinx was born with the first issue of Sports Illustrated. Major League Baseball player Eddie Matthews was pictured on the first cover. A week later, he suffered a hand injury that forced him to miss 7 games(“Sports Illustrated).. January 31, 1955, was the day that the first issue with a woman athlete on the cover hit the stands. The athlete was woman skier Jill Kinmont. Three days after it came out, Kinmont fell during a run in Utah, damaging her spinal cord that left her paralyzed from the neck down (MacCambridge). Some more recent occurrences include the September 4, 1989, issue. Bart Giamatti was quoted on the cover concerning Pete Rose. That week, Giamatti died of a heart attack. In the March 6, 2005, issue, the University of Illinois Men’s Basketball appeared on the cover. At that time, they were 29-0. That day, they lost their final regular season game to Ohio State University (“Sports Illustrated). Coincidence or curse? You be the judge.
Slide 6: Here’s a topic that I am sure a lot of men would be interested in, the swimsuit issue. The first issue appeared on January 20, 1964. On the cover was model Babette March in a white bikini. The issue had a four- page color portfolio of four other swimsuits. Some of the executives were unimpressed by the flat-chested model. Although the twig look was the fashion of the time, the executives wanted models who were more natural and healthier looking. The next cover girl was a young model named Sue Peterson. She was right around our ages. She was 18 years old. She still had her baby fat, which was rare for that time. The issue was dated for January 18, 1965. Something interesting was that the writer assigned to do the article on Peterson started to date the model, and they ended up marrying each other in 1967 (MacCambridge). Since 1964, a swimsuit issue has been printed. Some famous models who have graced the cover of the swimsuit issues include Christie Brinkley, for three straight years, Kathy Ireland, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, and Rebecca Romijn. The 2005 swimsuit model was Carolyn Murphy. Also, some athletes appeared not on the cover but inside the swimsuit issue, such as Venus Williams and Anna Kournikova (“Sports Illustrated”).
Slide 8: Sports Illustrated for Kids debuted in January 1989. Their target audience was of boys and girls ages 8-13. The company’s view was that preteen market was becoming increasingly lucrative, and the kids were potentially future Sports Illustrated readers. The first issue had Michael Jordan on the front cover. Also, the magazine included trading cards, which echoed the first issue of Sports Illustrated, which had Topps baseball cards included. This was purely coincidental because the editor of Sports Illustrated for Kids, John Papanek, never saw the first issue of Sports Illustrated (MacCambridge).
Slide 9: Sports Illustrated dragged their feet for a while in attempts of covering women’s sports. In 1997, a rival company announced that they were going to launch a women’s sports magazine. According to Michael Mac Cambridge, Sports Illustrated Women/Sport came out in 1997 with two issues, one in spring and one in fall. It eventually moved to a monthly publication (MacCambridge). The December 2002 issue, however, was the last issue printed due to “a weak advertising climate” (“Sports Illustrated).
Slide 10: Sports Illustrated on Campus was launched on September 4, 2003. It was dedicated to college athletics and the sports interests of college students (“Sports Illustrated). It is distributed free on 72 college campuses every Thursday throughout the school year. (SI on campus). Maybe one day we will get it here at Gannon! The magazine has an audience of over 1 million readers between the ages of 18 and 24 (“Sports Illustrated).
Slide 11: the Sports Illustrated website was launched on July 17 1997. It is an online version of the magazine in conjunction with CNN. On the website, one can check statistics for many sports associations, such as NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, golf, college hoops, college football, NASCAR, soccer, and one can access photos. One can see over 1000 swimsuit issue pictures, which I am sure, is a favorite among the men (SI.com).
Slide 12: In 1991, the Sports Illustrated Almanac was introduced. It’s a yearly collection of sports news and statistics in a book structure. I guess you can say that the almanac is pretty much self explanatory. (“Sports Illustrated”)
Slide 13: Going into this project, I thought that Sports Illustrated was just a boring sports magazine, but I was wrong. It has such an interesting history, and all the different aspects of it kept my attention during the research project. I know that I will never take Sports Illustrated for granted again.
