Sport Magazine

A Short History of SPORT Magazine

At its launch in 1946, SPORT magazine was America’s first significant general interest sports magazine. By the time of its closing 54 years later, SPORT was an American institution.

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 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. Read More

SPORT Covers

There are 646 regular issue SPORT magazine covers available for viewing and for purchase in the form of a giclee fine art print at The SPORT Gallery. SPORT magazine covers feature the most iconic athletes of the 20th century, including Joe Dimaggio, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and many more. Browse and shop SPORT covers.

 

 

 

SPORT Articles

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 historical records of 20th century sports, and form the basis of  The SPORT Collection.

A selection of articles from SPORT magazine are available for free viewing on our website, while requests for specific articles can be fulfilled by purchasing an article PDF.

Re-live 1947 in Sports

Every month we bring you 65 years into the past through the pages of SPORT magazine. We present to you all the articles, imagery, photography, stories, and personalities in sports, from the publication that brought them to you first – the original general-interest sports magazine, SPORT. 

To access the full archive of SPORT Magazine issues step back in time to MemoryLane.com.