The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine

by Michael MacCambridge

"It's All Part of the Game" dramatically recounts how, against the odds, "Sports Illustrated" grew from a misbegotten enterprise into a cultural institution. From halting editorial beginnings, "Sports Illustrated" has evolved into a journalistically tough and visually spectacular magazine that remains one of the truly influential voices in journalism. photo insert.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, History, Baseball, Journalism

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the one McCambridge wrote about the NFL, but still interesting.

[Erik09 · Rating 4 out of 5]

good information about the history of sport

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, gossipy read about a magazine that had a nice run as one of the centerpieces of U.S. sports culture for decades. Author did a great job of getting many SI staffers to trash talk each other, often on the record. Entertaining and infuriating personalities come shining through, and the author has his clear heroes and villains—the biggest hero being Andre Laguerre, a Frenchman who, as SI’s second managing editor (a job that would be called editor-in-chief anywhere but at Time Inc.) rescued the magazine from the certain failure coming to it at the hands of the snobby east-coast intellectuals who launched and ran the magazine but were reluctant sports fans at best. The larger takeaway: Any group media effort (print publication, website and, I’d guess, news show, TV show or radio station) has a lifespan to it, just like a person: A childhood, a coming of age, an energetic young adulthood, a settling into a routine, and perhaps a slow & painful death; it constantly evolves, and can never return to its younger stage, no matter how much it tries. A magazine goes from a writer’s publication to an editor’s publication, from an innovator to an institution, for better or worse. I’d call this a must for anyone who works at, or ever worked at, a media operation in general or a new organization in particular.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this one at a thrift store a few months back, for a buck. It's a very good look at the history of America's premier sports magazine, all the ups and downs of its history within the confines of the twentieth century and the development of sports as more than just a distraction and a pastime. I really enjoyed it, especially reading about authors I knew about (Roy Blount, Jr., George Plimpton) and others that I'd never heard of, all of whom shaped the development of Sports Illustrated over the course of its (now) almost seventy years of existence. A bit dated in some aspects (owing to its publication in the Nineties), it's nonetheless a fun read about the serious business of sportswriting.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really interesting moments, but not sure how well this has aged. It served more as an education on the magazine business in the 1950's-90's than a behind the scenes account of my favorite magazine.

Interesting, but just for a niche audience.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun read. one annoying thing about the book, MacCambridge give a couple pages to Vonnegut's time at the magazine and mentions Leo Lionni (future children's book great author/artist) only in a sentence.

[Grant Mcgann · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this review I will be overviewing the book "The Franchise" by Michael MacCambridge. I came across this book when looking for books for sports illustrated which is my ed fair subject. I picked this book up so that I could learn more about sports illustrated. This book is about the history of sports illustrated from before the first issue in 1954 to about the late 90's in 1996. The major themes in this book to never give up on a project, do not give up until the end or even the last and final deadline because you may have a brilliant idea just waiting. And also to not be afraid of big names because they are just like you and just as nervous. I had large expectations for this book before reading it because of its highly rated reviews by known authors like Mike Lupica and the New York Times. My expectations were wrong because the book turned out to be loaded with not so exciting facts and long dialogue. But they was also exciting dialogue and arguments throughout the book as well. This book is written in a third person type way. Which I did not like personally because to me I believe third person writing is boring in most cases. I would recommend this book to people who are very interested in sports illustrated and their history. I would also recommend this book to those who enjoy a slower read that takes a while for the plot to develop. I would not recommend this book to readers under thirteen years of age because it is very profane and vulgar in some of the saying that the writers spoke. I would also not recommend this book to a reader who likes adventure for this book is adventurous at all unless you call writing and dialogue about writing adventurous or a international flight from London to New York city adventurous. This will conclude my review on the book "The Franchise: a history of sports illustrated magazine" by Michael MaCambridge.

[Tom Gase · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book on the history of Sports Illustrated. Kind of dry during a lof ot of parts of the book, but interesting tidbits throughout the book on my favorite magazine growing up. Was cool to read stuff about the Curious Case of Sidd Finch story, including the cool stuff with the subhead and how the story came to fruition. Was also cool to read about some of the old stories that went into the issues and some that weren't given the cover even when they should have been. The stuff about who ran the paper and why was kind of boring to me since I don't know a whole lot about the managing editiors and publishers. I wanted to read more about the writers but it seems they only go into great detail about a couple of them (Dan Jenkins, Frank Deford, Steve Rushin, Rick Reilly). This book is probably only for die-hard fans of the magazine, and I'm not sure I'd even consider myself that. Not bad, but not great either.