Title
Sports Illustrated
Coverage
New York
Publisher
Time-Life
Date
August 16, 1954
Subject
Volume 1, number 1
Description
Sports Illustrated is the most successful sports magazine in American history. Time-Life launched it on August 16, 1954, but sales proved disappointing for a decade, because of a disproportionate focus on high-brow sports like golf, polo, and yachting. Circulation skyrocketed with the meteoric rise in popularity of professional football and basketball. New editor André Laguerre began using full-color photography of the week’s sporting events and introduced the now immensely popular annual swimsuit issue.