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April 08, 2002
The Cover That Wasn't
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April 08, 2002

Picture This

The Cover That Wasn't

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Here at SI we've grown accustomed to receiving unsolicited suggestions from our readers on who should appear on the cover. (Yes, Lance Armstrong would have made a perfectly good cover subject for our Sportsman of the Year issue.) However, even longtime editors were taken aback at the flood of requests to put Iowa State wrestler Cael Sanderson, who finished an undefeated collegiate career two weeks ago, on the cover of our April 1 issue. We received more than 100 e-mails from college wrestling fans across the nation asking for more respect for their sport. Many of the missives were the result of a campaign orchestrated by Tom Owens, founder of InterMat, an amateur wrestling website. "I welcome all of you to join me in pounding the staff at SI to get this kid on the cover," wrote Owens in a mass e-mail sent to wrestling aficionados. Although a feature on Sanderson did run inside the magazine last week, wrestling fans were clearly looking for more. With respect to the matheads of the world, here's a peek at what SI's cover might have looked like. Now, please, stop pounding.

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