The DiMaggio brothers, Dominic and Joe, flank Ted Williams in a 1950 photograph for SPORT Magazine. The final photo used on the cover cropped out Dominic.
Dominic DiMaggio, a seven-time All Star who still holds the record for the longest consecutive game hitting streak in Boston Red Sox history, has died. He was 92. For more information and to read the Associated Press obituary, please click here.
Dodger Clubhouse, 1956 (Duke Snider)
Buffalo Bills' quarterback, Jack Kemp, hands off to fullback Wray Carlton, in a game against the Oakland Raiders, circa mid-1960s. Kemp led Buffalo to three straight Eastern Division titles and two straight AFL Championships. He led the league in career passes attempted, completions, and yards gained passing. He played in five of the AFL's 10 Championship Games, and holds the same career records (passing attempts, completions, and yardage) for championships. He is second in many other championship game categories, including career and single-game paswer rating. A Sporting News All-League selection at quarterback in 1960 and 1965, he was the only AFL quarterback to be listed as a starter all 10 years of the league's existence and one of only 20 players to serve all 10 of those years. His number 15 was retired by the Bills in 1984.
"Mr. Clutch"
The Lakers hold the records for having the most wins (2905,) the highest winning percentage (61.5%,) the most NBA Finals appearances (29,) the second fewest non-playoff season with five (San Antonio Spurs have four,) and the second-most NBA championships with 14, behind the Boston Celtics’ 17.
They also hold the record for compiling the longest consecutive win streak (33) in U. S. professional team sports (also an NBA record) in the 1971-72 season. 14 Hall of Famers have played for the Lakers, while four Hall of Famers (John Kundla, Bill Sharman, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson) have coached the team. Four Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant) have won the NBA Most Valuable Player award. (Thanks to Wikipedia for these details. To learn more about the Lakers, visit Wikipedia.)
Phil "Zen Master" Jackson in an undated newswire photo circa 1967-1978
The Boys of Summer, 1955
"On the Prowl" Edition of 275
With baseball season upon us--we thought it'd be a great idea to share with you these terrific vintage newswire photos of baseball stars and teams from the past -- all from the archives of SPORT Magazine. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment at the bottom of the post and we'll get back in touch with you.
Ted Williams/Mickey Harris after 1946 World Series loss: Wide World Photos (printed between 1962 and early 1970s), photo dated 10.16.46 with a typed paper caption (shown), 9" x 7"
Bobby Thompson on the Shoulders of Giants' fans 1951
Bobby Thompson, Bringing Home the Flag for the Giants 1951
Casey Stengel: SPORT/no wire service attribution, published in SPORT Magazine twice, May 1958 and September 1959, 10" x 8"
Nolan Ryan doing sit-ups in an empty Shea Stadium: UPI newswire photo dated 10.9.69 with a typed paper caption, 8" x 10"
Koosman and Seaver of the Mets, National League Eastern Division winners 1969: UPI newswire photo dated 9.25.69 with a typed paper caption, 10" x 8"
Brooks (r) and Frank Robinson of the Orioles 1966: UPI newswire photo dated 4.25.66 with a typed paper caption, 9" x 7"
Satchel Paige Hall of Fame 1971 inductee: UPI newswire photo dated 8.9.71 with a typed paper caption, 9" x 7"
Johnny Podres of the Dodgers makes history October 4, 1955: Wide World Photos newswire photo printed between 1962 and early 1970s, photo dated 10.4.55 with photocopy caption, 7" x 9"
Jim Palmer 1976
Stan Musial and Family 1962
Jackie Robinson & Billy Martin 1952
Mickey Mantle Retires June 6, 1969: UPI newswire photo dated 6.8.69 with a photocopy caption, 7" x 9"
Sandy Koufax World Series 1963 (image used by Topps Trading Cards): UPI photo by Joel Shrank dated 10.2.63 (most likely printed after the fact--also published on pg. 163 of "A Portrait of Baseball Photography"), 8" x 10"
Don Larsen/Yankees--1st perfect game World Series 1956: UPI photo by Arthur Rickerby dated 10.8.56 with a photocopy caption (photo may have been printed at later date) 8" x 10"
Cookie Lavagetto--Dodgers beat the Yankees in the 1947 World Series: UPI newswire photo printed between 1962-1970, photo dated 1947 with a hand-written caption, 8" x 10"
Reggie Jackson 1973 World Series 3-run homer: UPI (unstamped) newswire photo dated 10.21.73 with a photocopy caption, 8" x 10"
Reggie Jackson and Jim Hunter/Yankees 1978 World Series: Wide World Photo newswire photo dated 10.17.78 with a photocopy caption, 7" x 9"
Lou Gehrig 1935 All Star Game: UPI newswire photo printed between 1958 and 1962 with hand-written caption on the reverse, 7" x 9"
Rickey Henderson stealing bases: UPI newswire photo dated 7.21.82 with a typed paper caption and crop marks/publisher's notations but no confirmation that it was published in SPORT, 8" x 10"
Carlton Fisk World Series Home Run: UPI newswire photo dated 10.22.75 with a hand-written caption on the reverse, 8" x 10"
Steve Garvey at a Dodgers workout: Dodgers photo by Bruce Margolis dated April 1980 with a hand-written caption on the reverse, published in SPORT Magazine April 1980, 8" x 10"
Roberto Clemente honored as Player of the Month, 1960: UPI newswire photo, dated 6.23.60 with hand-written caption on the reverse, 9" x 7"
Leo Durocher discusses call with umpire/Cubs vs. Mets: UPI newswire photo dated 9.8.69 with a hand-written caption on the reverse, 10" x 8"
Rod Carew at Bat (Angels): UPI newswire photo from 1979, 8" x 10"
Burdette/Braves vs. Yankees World Series 1957: Wide World Photo newswire photo dated 10.10.57 with a typed paper caption, 9" x 7"
Johnny Bench, Cincinnati Reds: SPORT/no wire service attribution, published in an October SPORT special section, pg 112, no date (between '68 and '81), 10" x 8"
Ernie Banks National League MVP Award: UPI--Chicago Bureau newswire photo, dated 5.17.59 with a typed paper caption, 9" x 7"
Ron Cey (r) and Walt Alston in Dodgers Clubhouse: UPI newswire photo, dated 7.11.74 with a typed paper caption, 10" x 8"
Hank Aaron hits #715: UPI Laserwire photo, dated 4.18.1974, 9" x 7"
Roger Maris, Doris Day & Mickey Mantle: UPI newswire photo, dated 8.23.61 with a hand-written caption on the reverse, 7" x 9"
Chuck Connors--Chicago Cubs: Wide World Photo (photo issued between 1955-1957) photo dated 7.13.51 with photocopy caption and notations, but printed at later date, 9" x 7"
President Eisenhower greets Mickey Mantle (#7) and the Yankees October 3, 1956: World Wide Photo newswire photograph, 9" x 7", dated 10.3.56 with a typed paper caption, printed in SPORT Magazine page 102 October 1956
Stan Musial photographed for SPORT Magazine 1952
STAN MUSIAL dug in at the plate. Larry Jansen pumped on the mound and threw a change‑up, high and inside. Musial swung and raised a pop fly to the first‑baseman. The crowd of 26,662 at Busch Stadium stood up and cheered. The ovation lasted for several minutes and Musial, after returning to the dugout, had to emerge and tip his cap in acknowledgment.
Weeks later Musial was talking with a group of baseball writers when one of them mentioned the incident. “That’s the first time in all my years of covering baseball that I heard a player cheered for popping up,” he said.
“Come to think of it,” Musial said, “it never happened to me before.” He gave the high‑pitched laugh which he often uses to cover embarrassment.
The reporter was kidding. And so was Musial. They both knew the reason for the unusual ovation. It came after Stan’s last time at bat in a doubleheader in which he had made baseball history by hitting five home runs. The big crowd had sat through six and a half hours of baseball, despite interruptions by rain and the appearance of dark storm clouds that had made it necessary to turn on the lights as early as the ninth inning of the first game. Most of the fans didn’t get home until long after suppertime but few were willing to leave the park until Stan had batted for the last time.
It was a rewarding day for the noisy Cardinal fans. They saw Musial go to bat ten times. Twice he walked, once he singled and twice he was retired. Five times he hit home runs into the stands or out of the park completely. No ballplayer had ever done it before in the major leagues.
Talking about the feat later, a writer said to Stan, “That was a big day for you but you’ve had others. Which of them have given you your biggest thrills?”
“I guess I’ve had more than one guy’s share,” he said. “Probably that five‑homer day gave me my biggest kick. Until then, I had always favored the game back in September, 1948, when I tied Cobb’s record of getting five hits in a game for the fourth time in a single season.”
“Okay,” the sportswriter said, “I’ll really put you on the spot. Let’s pick your ten greatest days in baseball—the ten games or doubleheaders that have given you your greatest thrills. Just the top ten.”
“It’s hard for me to single out more than a few games and pick them as the best ones,” Stan replied.
“But I’ll try. You know, some players can remember exactly what they hit in a certain game. But I’m not too good at that. I just enjoy playing ball. Sure, I like my hits as well as the next guy, and get a pleasure out of my records, but in a ball game I’m interested in winning the game. That’s the big thing.”
With some prodding by the interviewer and some help from the record books, Stan finally settled on the following as his ten greatest:
(1) The record five‑homer day against the Giants on May 2, 1954.
(2) The day he tied Cobb’s record with five hits against the Braves. That was September 22, 1948.
(3, 4) The next two were successive games against the Dodgers, May 19 and May 20, 1948. In the first Stan hit a triple, double, three singles, drew a base on balls and scored five runs. All those hits came with two strikes on him. The next day, he hit a homer, two doubles and a single. Nine for 11 against the unfortunate Dodger pitchers!
(5) A five‑for‑five day against the Braves in which he won the game with his fifth hit in the ninth. The date was September 19, 1946, and Red Sox manager Joe Cronin and Ted Williams were in the stands, scouting the Cards for the World Series.
(6) A game on September 17, 1948, against the Dodgers when he pulled two spectacular outfield catches, including a tumbling grab for the final out in the eighth inning with the tying run on the bases. The Cards won, 4‑2.
(7) Beating the Braves with his fifth hit of the game in the ninth on June 22, 1948. It was his third five‑hit game of the season.
( 8 ) A doubleheader on September 25, 1947, against the Pirates during which he got seven hits. The performance was a fitting climax to a tremendous late‑season batting surge by Musial, which had enabled him to lift his average from .140 in mid‑May to .312 at the end of the season.
( 9 ) A July 14, 1946, doubleheader against the Dodgers in which he scored the winning runs in the first game and both runs, on a triple and 12th‑inning homer, in the second. The Cards won, 5‑3, 2‑1.
(10) July 21, 1943, his first five‑hit day. He got one hit against each of five Giant pitchers. The Cards won, 14‑6.
The Doctor Lays One In Softly (photo courtesy SPORT Magazine Photography Collection)Julius Irving is the first one to bring the gliding and flying excitement of the dunk to professional basketball, in the ABA in the early 1970's. He led the way for creating the event today known as the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
"Rivals" SPORT Magazine PhotographNBA's most storied rivalry by far is renewed tonight of Boston vs. Los Angeles; not by Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain as in the 1968-69 season pictured above, but by their successors led by The Big Three of Boston and Kobe and Pau of the Lakers.
The 1969 NBA Finals were taken by the Celtics as were the 2008 NBA Finals. The Lakers are hoping to change that this year, and lead the season series 1-0 as they head into tonight's challenge.
Fondly remembered today as pure Americana, SPORT was the brainchild of a small New York publisher, MacFadden Publications Inc, and became a triumph from the day its first issue hit the street with a color image of Joe DiMaggio and his son Joe, Jr. on the cover. That inaugural edition included eight full color plates – unheard of at the time – and almost immediately SPORT rose to over a million in circulation and became half bible, half guru to a generation of men coming of age in post-war America.
MacFadden seized an unappreciated subject like sports and took it mainstream. The formula was simple: combine terrific editorial features written by the greatest writers of the time with generous presentations of photography, particularly full-page Rockwell-like color imagery. It was born as a novel idea and grew into a cultural icon.
In its early years, SPORT had the market for magazine-style sports journalism virtually to itself and, under founding editor Ernest Heyn, pioneered a brand of behind-the-scenes glimpses of the heroes of the day not previously attempted. The emphasis was not on the games or the teams, but on the elements of human drama that lay beneath. SPORT was an icon in the league of Life and Look and the Saturday Evening Post.
Insightful essays as long as 5,000 words focused on the personalities and human drama of sport. Each month SPORT was filled with evocative writing from its own stable of staff writers, plus submissions from the likes of Grantland Rice, Jimmy Breslin, David Halberstam, William F. Buckley and Dick Schaap.
Groundbreaking Use of Color Photography
But it was SPORT's groundbreaking use of color photography, particularly during its first 30 years, which captivated a generation of sports fans, many of whom wallpapered their bedrooms with the exquisite full-page photos that were the magazine's signature item. SPORT used many of the nation's top shooters of the post-war era, combining work from staffers such as Martin Blumenthal, George Heyer and Kevin Fitzgerald with that of incomparable freelancers such as Ozzie Sweet, Hy Peskin and Neil Leifer.
If imitation is indeed the greatest form of flattery, then SPORT received the ultimate compliment with the birth of Sports Illustrated in 1954. Time Inc. had tried to purchase the name SPORT, but its final offer of $200,000 was $50,000 less than McFadden was willing to accept. Undaunted, Time launched Sports Illustrated, borrowing liberally from its rival.
Representative of SPORT's superiority, in the hearts and minds of the reading public, but also of the men who ran the leagues and teams across North America, was the magazine's success in establishing the SPORT Award in 1955 for the most valuable player in the World Series. The concept was expanded over the years until a SPORT magazine award was presented to the outstanding post-season performer in all four major team sports, as sanctioned by the leagues.
But by the early 1970s, MacFadden, lacking Time's deep pockets, was fading and thus ensued a dizzying succession of ownership changes for the magazine. There was also a corresponding zig-zag in editorial direction, and gradually SPORT lost its way, its distinctive voice and, eventually, its presence. In August 2000, after appearing every month for 54 years under 10 different owners, SPORT magazine ceased publication.
SPORT Magazine Remembered...
Its passing was mourned in many quarters. As The Wall Street Journal's Allen Barra, writing in Salon.com, put it: “Though it didn't make any headlines, the news of the death of SPORT magazine ... must have put a lump in the throat of those old enough to remember the greatest of all American sports magazines ... Sports Illustrated was great, but SI, in an era when you couldn't see all the highlights every night, was read for news; SPORT was for reflection.”
Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe described SPORT as “an irreplaceable part of the American sports experience.”
And, in a rare departure for the competitive magazine industry, SI itself paid tribute to SPORT on its own pages with a heartfelt piece that began, "They closed the barbershop last week, the one in town, the first place – not counting school or a friend's house – where your mother would drop you off and leave you ..."
Such was the comfort afforded by SPORT magazine.
Not only did SPORT focus on the superstars of the post-war era, but it paid homage to the great athletes of the first half of the 20th Century. A regular feature called The SPORT Hall of Fame profiled in lengthy detail the lives and careers of 70 superstar athletes, from baseball superstars Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and Walter Johnson to Jack Dempsey, Ben Hogan, Red Grange, George Mikan, Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Johnny Longden and Joe Louis, to name a few.
SPORT published 647 issues comprising approximately 10,000 articles and 40 million words between September 1946 and August 2000. The SPORT photo library holds more than 200,000 images. Together, those words and pictures represent one of the world's most significant historicalrecords of 20th century sports, and today form the basis of The SPORT Magazine
Archive.
"Clubhouse Confidential--New York Yankees-1947"
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