My Favorite SI Stories: Sports Hernia

As part of an ongoing series, SI asked prominent sports bloggers to give us their 10 all-time favorite SI Stories (to see choices from other bloggers, scroll to the bottom). Here are the responses from The Sports Hernia:

How Wrestling Got TV In Its Clutches
By William Taaffe, April 29, 1985

This article was accompanied by Hulk Hoganon the cover and if that didn't get you excited, shame on you. Because after all, the hot rumor was that wrestling was fake, so if it was being recognized by an outfit such as Sports Illustrated, surely greater things were bound to come; and we already had Saturday Night's Main Event.

College Basketball: Class Acts
By SI Staff, November 20, 1985

Great college basketball preview from a great hoops year in '85-86, but we thought Reggie Miller played ball at UCLA?

Ready To Soar To The Very Top
By William Nack, January 06, 1986

This is from the "Kid Dynamite" cover which is almost impossible to forget. The article documents an up-and-coming boxer named Mike Tyson, who was beating up grown men at age 13. What's more crazy is, has it really been 22 freaking years since we've seen Mike this happy?

Sweepstakes For A Franchise Man
By Morin Bishop, November 24, 1986

The question from this cover story still remains unanswered: Why was Miami No.1? An article in a similar vein to the humorous Mandarich piece, with Vinny Testeverde as the hands down best quarterback coming out of college: "It's hard to find a franchise player, and he's it." It almost happened that way, not really, but almost.

Bosworth Faces The Music
By Craig Neff, January 5, 1987

Cover story on Brian Bosworth who, shocking only himself, got banned from the Orange Bowl for steroid use. What's more disappointing was how any of this could have happened under the careful guidance of Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer. If Bosworth played today, there'd be daily YouTube clips of his haircuts. A man way ahead of his time.