Kentucky Basketball's Sports Illustrated Covers From KAT to Goose

With Sports Illustrated in the news for laying off over 100 employees, KSR will focus on happier moments at the once-respected magazine instead. There was a time when we ran to the mailbox for the newest issue of Sports Illustrated or, if you’re of a particular generation, Sports Illustrated For Kids. On special occasions, SI threw a Kentucky Wildcat on its cover to promote March Madness or commemorate a national championship. There is one cover Kentucky wishes SI hadn’t used, too.

Some of my personal favorites are “The Goose Was Golden” (Jack Givens) and “Blue Heaven” (Antoine Walker) because both were framed in my grandparents’ living room. “The Great Wall” (John Wall) is another classic. “A Man Possessed” (Rick Pitino) and “Return To Glory” (1996 commemorative issue) are two more I vividly remember from those trips to the mailbox in the 1990s.

Let’s take a trip to memory lane’s mailbox with 20 of our favorite Kentucky Basketball Sports Illustrated covers and the one shameful edition, all from SICovers.com.

Karl-Anthony Towns – April 2015

Karl-Anthony Towns, Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson – March 2015

Alex Poythress – November 2014

Aaron Harrison – April 2014

Julius Randle – November 2013

Anthony Davis – April 2012

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – March 2012

Anthony Davis – March 2012

DeMarcus Cousins – March 2010

John Wall – January 2010

Patrick Patterson – November 2009

Cliff Hawkins – March 2003

Tubby Smith – April 1998

Wayne Turner – April 1998

Nazr Mohammed – March 1998

Jeff Sheppard and Tony Delk – April 1996

Antoine Walker – April 1996

Rick Pitino – February 1996

Kentucky’s Shame – May 1989

Sam Bowie – December 1983

Jack Givens – April 1978

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SI’s website does not have every Kentucky-themed cover as some were region-specific issues or pre-date the collection in the SI store. Over at Jon Scott’s Big Blue History, he recalls some others:

• Ralph Beard (February 1949)
• Cotton Nash (December 1962)
• Adolph Rupp (March 1966)
• Pat Riley (March 1966)
• Mike Casey (December 1968)
• Dan Issel (March 1970)
• Mike Flynn (March 1975)
• Wayne Turner (March 1998, Regional)
• Heshimu Evans (March 1999, Regional)
• Dan Issel, Adolph Rupp, Jamal Mashburn, Pat Riley (October 2007, Commemorative)
• Terrence Jones (November 2011, Regional)
• Terrence Jones, Anthony Davis, Doron Lamb (April 2012, Commemorative)

Friend of KSR Pat Ingram submitted a photo of her copy of “The Baron Of Basketball” from March 1966: