Sports Illustrated: Fifty Years of Great Writing: 50th Anniversary 1954-2004 by Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated: Fifty Years of Great Writing: 50th Anniversary 1954-2004 Reviews

• 
  Ronald Wise

  I enjoyed this book far more than I would have ever anticipated. Expecting to read a collection of articles about over-glorified jocks, I instead found a series of human dramas, most with a sad ending, be it a missed oppportunity for fame, a fading career, a tragic death, or an old age haunted by past glories.
  
  This book was quite therapeutic for this reader, who has been torn over the years by an extremely bipolar attitude toward sports. As a whole this selection of articles fostered in me a healthier overall perspective on the role competitive sports play in our psyches and our society, reminding me that they are in essence a mass of attempts by individuals to meet their personal challenges, that someone will try to make money from those efforts through blatant hype, and that any accomplishments are ephemeral except for the historical records, which themselves become less meaningful over time.
  
  Being born the same year Sports Illustrated was founded, this collection of the best from the magazine's first 50 years was a convenient source of details regarding the personal lives of the big names in sports I had heard during my first half century, about whom I had only sketchy knowledge previously. Over the years I had looked at this magazine only to find praise for one of my favorite teams that was doing well - and was disappointed. Now it seems that it may have been beneficial to me when I was becoming a crazed, obsessed fan - at least in preparation for the eventual letdown.
  
  Most of all, I was impressed by the literary quality of these pieces and by some of the people who contributed them: Frank Deford, Roy Blount Jr., Wallace Stegner, George Plimpton, Don DeLillo, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and Garrison Keillor - some of my favorite writers.
• 
  Ietrio

  Meh. If 50 years give such a short list of above average writing, I can imagine the below average quality of an issue. And no, there's nothing great here, or it's very well hidden.
• 
  Leslie

  I’ve been reading the "Best American Sports Writing" series with great enjoyment. The series features excellent writing from many sources, "Sports Illustrated" among them. I figured this anthology of nothing but "Sports Illustrated" would feature the same quality. Negative. Wrong. No way. This anthology showcases some of the “best” examples of cliches and flowery prose. Given the number of sports and athletes covered in the fifty years of SI it was surprising (not in a good way) to find four articles written by sportswriters about other sportswriters. There were only a couple of gems amongst the duds. Surely there must be more in the SI archives.
• 
  Teatum

  Focused mostly on stories about players, especially Dick Butkus and Larry Bird, both of which were amazing.
  
  Not one selection written by a woman. And includes pieces by Steinbeck, Faulkner, and too much Roy Blount Jr.
• 
  Mr. B

  Sports Illustrated has employed talented writers over the years and this anthology contains swweeeeeeeet creative non-fiction writing.
• 
  Kurt

  With very few exceptions, an incredible anthology.
• 
  Adamibrahim

  amazing!!!