Sports Illustrated's first issue appeared on this date in 1954.
A framed copy of the magazine's inaugural cover hangs on our den wall, a cherished gift from my son.
In Mark Kauffman's color photo, Milwaukee Braves slugger Eddie Matthews, wearing No. 41, swings at a pitch as kneeling New York Giants catcher Wes Westrum reaches out his mitt and home plate umpire Augie Donatelli crouches.
White type above the famous title proclaims "FIRST ISSUE." The cost is 25 cents.
Washington Post writer Frederic J. Frommer in an article about the 70th anniversary of the magazine's first appearance discloses that Time-Life founder Henry Luce's new sports magazine was considered a foolish gamble by many of the company's executives.
As Frommer reports, sports at the time had not yet obtained a widespread national appeal. Leagues had much fewer teams, and fan bases were regional. Sports followers were considered blue collar, not the wealthy consumers that magazine advertisers hoped to attract.
Despite the corporate misgivings, Luce's idea was an instant hit with readers and advertisers, revealing an incipient national sports market. In the late 1950s and 1960s, pro football's popularity soared as the biggest beneficiary of sports' new national appeal, with the rising AFL's merger with the long established NFL bringing new teams into the sports landscape.
As Sports Illustrated's first cover reflects, the magazine arrived at a time when major league baseball stood alone as a national sport. Each league only had eight teams, with the World Series dominated by the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Braves' move from Boston to Milwaukee prefigured an era of expansion, with the Dodgers moving to Los Angles, the Giants to San Francisco and the A's to Kansas City, then Oakland. But the sport once known as the national pastime slowly receded as pro football surged.
The weekly Sports Illustrated, with its color photos and lively writing by Dan Jenkins, Frank Deford, Roy Blount Jr., Tex Maule, Mark Kram, Paul Zimmerman and others, chronicled sports' increasing hold on the American imagination.
Over the years, Sports Illustrated covers gained a mystique for athletes and fans. Making the cover meant a player had arrived as a star.
But the first cover surpasses them all in illuminating the magic of sports.
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