Sports Illustrated 50 Years: The Anniversary Book

This colorful book celebrating fifty years of America's most prominent sports magazineis 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 women's 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 SI's anniversary year, you already seen a decent portion of this book. The notable new writing is Richard Hoffer's essay about the world (both sports and at large) when the magazine began in 1954 and senior editor Frank Deford's 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 magazine's cover images, both in chronological order and grouped in similar topics (Scandals, Presidents, Deja Vu). Punctuated by the best sport quotes, SI's "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