Peyton Manning SI Sportsman (Moneymaker) of The Year

I read "The Franchise" also, and I seem to remember a year or two after the SOY award, Rogin supposedly was watching Decker in a race and she pulled up and quit the race for some reason or another, and Rogin was heard calling her a "c--t."

Another interesting SOY backstory was when Johnny Podres won it in 1955, SI's second year. The magazine was going to name a thoroughbred owner whose name escapes me (that shows how different the choices were back then) and were in the middle of putting together the story and cover when the horseman was killed under mysterious circumstances. SI decided it wouldn't be appropriate to put the guy on the cover and Podres had just been the MVP in the Dodgers' first World Series triumph, so they named him and got a head shot of him to slap on the cover.

 

In 1979 at the Phoenix, George Kimball did a piece on SI's then-25th anniversary. I remember only one thing about the article. Something like six animals, racehorses, hunting dogs, ducks, etc., were featured on the cover before they put an NBA player on it.

 

And bridge.

 

Gillette. Mercedes-Benz. Wilson. Rolex. Whatever.

Noooooo. It used to be so good!