During the 1950s, a booming economy after World War II (1939–45) allowed Americans more leisure time. Many of these hours were spent following amateur and professional athletics, but fans could only read about these sporting events in their local newspapers. Hoping to cash in on the surge of interest in sports, a new weekly magazine known as Sports Illustrated (SI) debuted on August 16, 1954. The magazine single-handedly created the national sports magazine. It offered in-depth, feature-length sports journalism and dazzling photographic images.

Sports Illustrated was the brainchild of Henry Luce (1898–1967), editor of Time (see entry under 1920s—Print Culture in volume 2) and founder of Life (see entry under 1930s— Print Culture in volume 2), two other successful weekly magazines. At first, SI was more of a generic men's magazine. It focused on sports and such leisure activities as yachting, big-game hunting, and fishing. However, it emerged as a journalistic...