Remembering Sports Illustrated’s most iconic covers after stunning layoffs



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As the old adage goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

That explains why Sports Illustrated would, at times, forgo the words on its cover and let the image do the talking.

Perhaps the most iconic cover in the magazine’s history — voted as such in a 2014 poll — went sans headlines, readouts and captions after the 1980 U.S. men’s ice hockey team accomplished the Miracle on Ice.

Al Tielemans /Sports Illustrated
Bill Frakes /Sports Illustrated

“It didn’t need it,” photographer Heinz Kluetmeier said in 2008. “Everyone in America knew what happened.”

Since its inception in 1954, SI was not only a home for some of the greatest sportswriting in history, it was also a bastion of sports photography and imagery.

On Friday, it was announced The Arena Group, which currently runs the editorial operations for SI, had laid off the outlet’s staff after its license to use the name was revoked, though both it and Authentic, which own the SI brand, say it will continue to exist in some form.

Sports Illustrated

The news left many considering the end of Sports Illustrated and the legacy it may be leaving behind.

That includes many of the thousands of legendary magazine covers that captured the perfect moment in a game, encapsulated the celebration, enhanced a subject’s image — or simply poked fun at it.

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Neil Leifer /Sports Illustrated

Michael Jordan’s rise — and his baseball dalliance — were chronicled throughout the years, as were the careers of Yogi Berra and Tiger Woods, the breaking of a century-old curse, teams that were built to win it all and, like the 1980 U.S. men’s ice hockey team, the ones that did.



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