Sports Illustrated’s significance in my life. An ode to a legendary magazine
by ROB KNOX
The recent news about Sports Illustrated made me sad. You’re hurt and frustrated, but not surprised if you’re like me. Many of us have the same emotions.
The iconic magazine was a staple of my life and a publication that mattered to me — especially as an aspiring sportswriter. I always dreamed of having my byline in Sports Illustrated. While it never happened, it never stopped me from dreaming of writing like Frank Deford, Alexander Wolff, Rick Reilly, Gary Smith, and Lee Jenkins.
There was nothing like racing home from school on a Thursday or Friday, grabbing that sweet, fresh issue of Sports Illustrated out of the mailbox, or seeing it lying on the coffee table in my parents’ living room. I’ve been a subscriber since 1984, when I talked my parents into paying for a subscription. I highly anticipated, especially wondering who was on the cover.
Sports Illustrated was remarkable. Through the years, I got a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt, a 1992 Year End Review VHS tape, a Denver Broncos Super Bowl package, and more. The gifts were just as big as the subscription. I couldn’t wait to devour every word about the big game, an obscure sporting event in some far-off location on the globe, an influential personality, and the Life of Reilly. Less than a year after that tragedy, his story on the Columbine volleyball coach is brilliant and will make you cry.
I keep the Sports Illustrated vibe alive through the book anthologies I own: Greatest Baseball Writing, the Basketball Vault, the Football Vault, and the giant green World Series table book with recaps of each Fall Classic from the magazine’s pages. I even have “The Best of Tom Verducci,” “Gary Smith’s Selected Writings from Sports Illustrated,” and Paul Zimmerman’s famous “Dr. Z” book with many of his pro football columns and articles as part of my expansive library.
Sports Illustrated mattered when I was in middle school when the Lakers and Celtics were staging classic NBA Finals battles. It was significant in high school when Kirk Gibson hit his impossible and improbable World Series home run, and Randall Cunningham was recognized as “The Ultimate Weapon.”
It was major when I attended Lincoln University when Lenny Dykstra was “Batman” and Michael Jordan started winning championships. When I was blessed to work in athletics communications, it was necessary even more for those of us who worked at Division II and Division III schools and were able to get a student-athlete featured in Faces in the Crowd.
I was lucky because I had five Lincoln University student-athletes (Bobby Young, Shanda Jackson, Ashley Parker, Stephanie Anderson, and Kyle Myrick) and one Kutztown student-athlete (Stephen Dennis) featured in the iconic publication. I still pinch myself at those moments.
Sports Illustrated covers have featured the gamut from Kobe to Mo’ne to Tiger to A.I. to Taurasi to Serena to Coach Prime, its final cover of 2023. They say Sports Illustrated will continue in some form, but not even the greatest optimist in the world is believing that.
After all these years, one story that still resonates with me is the one Michael Bamberger wrote about Coatesville (Pa.) High School basketball in 1997 because it was tangible, authentic, and raw. It was also phenomenally written and reported.
Reading articles now from the Sports Illustrated vault is a delightful experience. I hope that part never disappears because Sports Illustrated was the gold standard for thoughtful, long-form journalism.
Obviously, without Sports Illustrated, a big piece of me is gone. While I am sad, I am happy I had the goal of writing for Sports Illustrated to aspire to during my journalism career.
Thank you for reading.
