After Tigers slugger Kirk Gibson appears on SI's baseball
preview cover, he starts the season 4 for 35 as Detroit opens
2-9.
10•20•1980
Après his cover, le deluge for Paul
Westphal and his new team. Seattle loses 22 more games than it did in
'79-80, and Westphal sits out more than half the season with a stress
fracture.
4•13•1981
George Brett starts the season hitting .208, and his Royals go
3-10. SI reruns the cover in August, after the strike is settled; Brett makes
the least of his second chance. He goes 1 for
20.
8•9•1982
The Braves drop 14 of 15 games in the aftermath of Dale
Murphy's appearance. He has a stretch of 6 for 31 to help the streak
along.
10•4•1982
Penn State is unbeaten and ranked No. 3 until Todd
Blackledge makes the cover. A week later Alabama picks off four of his passes
and spoils the Lions' season with a 42-21 victory.
12•6•1982
The Redskins are THE
UNDEFEATED -- until they play the Cowboys that week and lose
24-10.
7•25•1983
After appearing on the cover for winning his fifth British Open title, Tom
Watson finishes in a tie for 47th in the PGA Championship, his next
tournament.
8•8•1983
In the first Monday Night Football broadcast after
Howard Cosell's cover, the ABC commentator causes a tremendous outcry when he
refers to Redskins wide receiver Alvin Garrett as "that little
monkey."
7•16•1984
John McEnroe would win 82 of the 85 singles matches he
played this year, but he takes a first-round, postcover drubbing from unseeded
Vijay Amritraj in the ATP Championships.
10•01•1984
After his '84 appearance, running back Jeff Smith misses his next game due to an
ankle injury and the top-ranked Cornhuskers lose to
Syracuse.
11•19•1984
The SUPER DUPER
Dolphins are 11-0 ... until they encounter the kryptonite of an SI cover and
lose their next game to the Chargers.
7•15•1985
In the aftermath of this post-Wimbledon appearance, Boris
Becker loses first to Ivan Lendl, then to a journeyman. "I haven't played
so weak since my childhood," Becker
says.
4•21•1986
In his next outing after winning the Masters, Jack Nicklaus ties for 42nd in the
Houston
Open.
9•15•1986
The Jinx is contagious: A week after this appearance Ivan
Lendl took driving lessons with Paul Newman, who crashed the car shortly after
Lendl vacated
it.
9•29•1986
After posing with the Giants' Lawrence
Taylor, the Jets' Mark Gastineau misses his first game in seven
years.
11•24•1986
Six days following this appearance, Miami quarterback Vinny
Testaverde is in a motor-scooter accident and misses the Hurricanes'
next
game.
9•26•1988
More woes for BoSox fans. Slugger Dwight Evans goes 4-30 in the two-week span
following his cover
appearance.
3•27•1989
Steffi Graf suffers her first loss of the 1989 season two weeks after her cover
shot.
9•4•1989
Though commissioner Bart Giamatti's image doesn't grace this
cover, his words about Pete Rose do -- and for an academic, words are all.
Giamatti dies of a heart attack that
week.
12•18•1989
Days after appearing on SI's cover, Wayne Gretzky fails to
get an assist, thereby settling for a tie for the NHL record for consecutive
games with at least
one.
Photographs by: Walter Iooss Jr., Lane Stewart, Walter Iooss Jr., Manny Rubio, Jerry Wachter (2), Steve Powell, Arnold Newman, Andy Hayt, Ronald C. Modra, Steve Powell/Allsport, Michael O'Bryon, Manny Millan, Brian Lanker, John Biever (2), David Walberg, ( Bill Smith, Syracuse University, Rob Kinmonth, Dale Dunaway/Cincinnati Post), ( Paul Bereswill, John Iacono, Bill Robbins)
