Friday was an emotional day for a lot of people when news came down about all the layoffs at Sports Illustrated. To be clear, while most responded as if this was the very end of the publication and website, it was not. Chances are some form of Sports Illustrated will continue and then, I am assuming, someone else will either purchase it or try and get the licensing. The question is, would someone do that for the nostalgia and the brand or to actually attempt to resurrect what once truly was “appointment reading.”
I was a little surprised at how emotional I felt about it, to be honest. I found myself looking up old covers and typing “Sports Illustrated” into the search bar on X a few times throughout the day. I wanted to see what others were saying about it and then seeing all the covers people were posting became a fun trip down memory lane.
Most of my sports fandom can be traced back to 1982. I was a seven-year-old kid in St. Louis and was lucky enough to get to go to several Cardinals games that summer and even luckier to be able to attend games in the postseason. I was at Busch Stadium when Bruce Sutter struck out Gorman Thomas to win the World Series in Game 7. I was hooked.
That year for my birthday in December, my parents gave me a subscription to Sports Illustrated. For the next 30 or so years that subscription would continue, and I would excitedly pull the magazine out of the mail each Thursday.
In the late 90’s I even developed a routine with my SI. The first part was trying to think of who might be on that week’s cover before I got to the mailbox. Once that was revealed to me, I would sometimes start to read Rick Reilly’s The Life of Reilly column before I even got back inside. Once I finished that, it was immediately to Steve Rushin’s Air and Space section. Next, it was Faces in the Crowd, hoping I would know someone or see someone from a city where I knew people.
Scorecard, where you would get quick little nuggets of information and facts was next up. Then, the Leading Off pictures before finally getting to the table of contents to see which features I wanted to dive in to.
They had the best writers, and they had the best photography. Sports Illustrated was how we were connected on a higher level with our favorite teams, players and leagues. The stories made you think, and the information made you a smarter sports fan.
As time went on and people like Reilly and Rushin left the publication, I noticed more issues would pile up without me really going through them, so I eventually cancelled the subscription. Thinking about it now, I’ve been married for 24 years and my relationship with SI was even longer than that.
While the happenings from this week had people talking about Sports Illustrated, the unfortunate part for the owners is most everything started with “when I was a kid,” “back in the day,” or some other reference to being a previous subscriber, but not a current one.
I couldn’t even begin to advise someone on how to get back what Sports Illustrated once had, or how it translates to today’s society, but I sure do hope someone tries. Something that brings back this many good memories seems worth fighting for.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
