Palm Beach County on Sports Illustrated: Remembering iconic local SI covers
The future of an iconic American sports magazine is uncertain after mass layoffs beset Sports Illustrated on Friday, according to the magazine's union.
Sports Illustrated's newsroom union released a statement indicating its publisher, The Arena Group, intended to lay off significant numbers and potentially all the publication's staff.
As news of Sports Illustrated's demise spread across social media on Friday, many sports fans took a chance to look back at their favorite covers from the weekly magazine.
For Palm Beach County, it's a deep history that stretches back to the first year of Sports Illustrated's existence and includes local products, U.S. presidents and Hollywood movie stars.
Betty Metcalf: The Swimsuit Edition
Appearance: Feb. 21, 1955
Sports Illustrated's famous swimsuit edition didn't publish its first issue until 1964.
Nearly a decade earlier, Betty Metcalf, who spent parts of her later life in Palm Beach, was featured in a winter issue during the magazine's first year of publication. According to the Palm Beach Daily News, Metcalf began living in Palm Beach in 1981 and was heavily involved in local animal rescue programs. She died in 2010.
Learn more: Betty Metcalf, animal activist, former cover girl and actress, dies
Herb Score: Lake Worth's Lost Legend
Appearance: May 30, 1955
Lake Worth great Herb Score rose to the MLB just three years after leading Lake Worth High to the state championship.
Score's hard-throwing debut performances earned him a place on the May 30, 1955, cover of Sports Illustrated during the first year of the magazine's existence.
Herb Score: Lake Worth's Lost Legend
John F. Kennedy: Fresh and Fit
Appearance: Dec. 26, 1960
John F. Kennedy, among the most prominent Palm Beachers, was featured on a Sports Illustrated cover with his wife, Jackie, the month after his 1960 election victory over Richard Nixon.
Kennedy's appearance in the issue included coverage of the family's love of sports like sailing, swimming, skin-diving, golfing and touch football as a staple amid a life with moves from "Boston to London, from Palm Beach to Hyannisport."
The president-elect also wrote a 2,000-word column titled "The Soft American" in the double-feature magazine where he singled out the declining physical fitness of Americans as an important matter to be addressed by his forthcoming administration.
There's a reason the magazine later deemed Kennedy as "The President Who Loved Sport."
Burt Reynolds: Semi-Tough
Appearance: Nov. 7, 1977
Riviera Beach's Burt Reynolds may not have been able to make it onto Sports Illustrated through the gridiron, but he made a way on the silver screen with a promotional cover for the 1977 comedy "Semi-Tough."
Reynolds, who played fullback and halfback for Palm Beach High School and Florida State, starred as Billy Clyde Puckett, a running back for the fictional Miami Bucks.
Jack Nicklaus: The Collection
Appearances: 22
The Golden Bear graced the cover of Sports Illustrated with regularity over three decades of dominance over professional golf, making his debut cover in 1960 and his most recent in 1990.
In 1978, he was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year after his victory at St. Andrews in the British Open, which secured Nicklaus as the first golfer to win a triple career Grand Slam.
Nicklaus resides in North Palm Beach and has become of fixture of golf in Palm Beach County in addition to philanthropic work alongside his wife, Barbara.
Ray McDonald: Florida Gators' Star
Appearance: Nov. 11, 1985
No. 2 Florida took a chomp out of Bo Jackson and the No. 6 Auburn Tigers 14-10 to extend the Gators' undefeated streak for a nationlong 18 games.
Gators quarterback Kerwin Bell threw two touchdown passes to Ray McDonald Sr., who won The Post's Player of the Year award as a standout varsity player at Glades Central. He went on to coach the school's athletic programs such as track and field.
His son, Ray McDonald Jr., also played for the Gators and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the NFL draft in 2005.
Anthony Carter: NFL Record-breaker
Appearance: Jan. 18, 1988
Riviera Beach's Anthony Carter had no shortage of great performances at Michigan and in the NFL, but his explosive afternoon against the San Francisco 49ers in the 1988 NFL playoffs earned "AC" a place on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Carter had 10 catches and set an NFL record with 227 receiving yards in the Vikings' upset win over San Francisco.
Tiger Woods: Golf's Cover King
Appearances: 24
Only Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan and LeBron James have appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated more than the legendary Tiger Woods.
Woods, who resides on Jupiter Island and has been part of numerous golf and other business ventures in northern Palm Beach County, made his most recent appearance after his stunning comeback to victory at the 2019 Masters.
Recent: Tiger Woods' new TGL golf league taking shape as huge dome goes up at Palm Beach State College
Lamar Jackson: Boynton Beach's Heisman
Appearance: Sept. 22, 2016
The nation woke up to Lamar Jackson after he led the Louisville Cardinals in a 63-20 demolition of his home-state Florida State Seminoles in a top-10 matchup in September 2016.
Jackson rushed for 146 yards and four touchdowns while throwing for 216 yards and another score in a game that cemented his status as a Heisman Trophy contender with highlight touchdown plays.
More Sports Illustrated connections
Michael Jordan
Wayne Gretzky
Joe Namath
Bobby Orr
Gary Carter
Gary Player
Billy Cunningham
Bob Cousy
John Havlicek
Tom D'Angelo contributed to this report.
Eric J. Wallace is deputy sports editor for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at ejwallace@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County's Sports Illustrated covers: Remembering iconic SI covers
