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Henry Luce was exploring the idea of starting Sports Illustrated with people within Time Inc. (a company which he formed). People within the company had major doubts about the magazine ever being successful and advised against the idea. Some people even mocked Luce by referring to the magazine as "Jockstrap" and "Sweat Socks". Luce did not let this stop him from moving forward with Sports Illustrated with the goal of mixing the world of sports and serious journalism.
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Early issues of the magazine fucused more so on upperclass activities such as yachting, polo, safaris, etc. and were not too popular with their audience.
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The first feature story in Sports Illustrated history covered what is known as "The Miracle Mile". In the British games in Vancouver, BC, Roger Bannister faced John Landy in the mile race. At the time these two were the only people to have completed the mile in under 4 minutes. The result of the race was Bannister winning with a time of 3:58.8 (Landy's time was 3:59.6). Eddie Mathews the third basemen for the Braves graced the front cover.
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University of Minnesota quaterback Bobby Cox appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated that captioned "Bobby Cox of Minnesota: Best college quarterback". I personally found this interesting because my family and I are big gopher football fans and he is the only gopher player to be a cover athlete.
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Laguerre wanted to focus the magazine more on premier sport events which would allow people to read about the events they had seen on television or in the newspaper. In the following years Lagurre's new focus was able to generate millions of new readers and billions of dollars in profit.
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Laguerre designed Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition with hopes to increase readership during the lull between popular sports seasons. It quickly became, and still remains the magazines best selling issue each year. Babette March was on the cover of the first issue.
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Sports Illustrated first started using color printing for a portion of the magazines pages, but would not move to full color until later on.
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The national Magazine awards selected Sports Illustrated as the winner of the Personal Service award. This award honors the use of print to serve readers needs and aspirations.
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As the years went on Laguerre was having less success as the managing editor and his staff and supervisors began to question his leadership. Laguerre was asked to step down and was offered a position in the corporate offices which he declined.
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Sports Illustrated moved to full color, becoming the first American full color newsweekly.
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Sports Illustrated released an offshoot to target younger readers. The goal was to provide kids a way to read about sports with simpler vocab and more humorus topics. The magazine included funny picture captions, fan art by kids, and sports related comic strips.
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Model Kathy Ireland appears on the cover of this special edition issue. To date this is the highest selling issue of Sports Illustrated of all time.
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Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was selected by Sports Illustrated as the Sportsman of the Century. Ali's career record was 56-5 over a 21 year span, he also started his career 31-0 before recording his first ever loss. In addition to being on the December '99 issue cover, Ali has graced the cover of SI 37 times. The only athlete who has appeared on more covers is Michael Jordan (50).
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The National Magazine Awards selected Sports Illustrated as the winner of the Leisure Interests award. This award honors the use of print to provide practical information about recreational activities and special interests.
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Sports Illustrated for Kids teamed up with Topps, a company which produced chewing gum, candy and collectables. Topps made rip-away sports trading cards that would be included as a page in the SI for kids magazine.
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Sports Illustrated released their first ever digital subscription option. At the time it included versions for Android tablets and smartphones along with a web-based version on si.com.
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The Sports Illustrated website put together a bracket style, online public vote to determine which magazine cover was the most iconic of all-time. The bracket included 16 covers and the final winner was the March 3, 1980 issue "Miracle on Ice". This cover is the only one in Sports Illustrated history with no headlines or type.
