Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sportsmen of the Year: An Overview (SI's, and Mine)

Sports Illustrated Sportsmen & Sportswomen of the Year

1954 Roger Bannister
1955 Johnny Podres
1956 Bobby Morrow
1957 Stan Musial (Lifetime Achievement Award, or LAA)
1958 Rafer Johnson
1959 Ingemar Johansson
1960 Arnold Palmer
1961 Jerry Lucas
1962 Terry Baker
1963 Pete Rozelle
1964 Ken Venturi
1965 Sandy Koufax
1966 Jim Ryun
1967 Carl Yastrzemski
1968 Bill Russell (LAA)
1969 Tom Seaver
1970 Bobby Orr
1971 Lee Trevino
1972 John Wooden and Billie Jean King (LAA in Wooden's case)
1973 Jackie Stewart
1974 Muhammad Ali
1975 Pete Rose
1976 Chris Evert
1977 Steve Cauthen
1978 Jack Nicklaus (LAA)
1979 Willie Stargell and Terry Bradshaw
1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
1981 Sugar Ray Leonard
1982 Wayne Gretzky
1983 Mary Decker
1984 Edwin Moses and Mary Lou Retton
1985 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1986 Joe Paterno
1987 Athletes Who Care: Bob Bourne, Judi Brown King, Kipchoge "Kip" Keino, Dale Murphy, Chip Rives, Patty Sheehan, Rory Sparrow and Reggie Williams
1988 Orel Hershiser
1989 Greg LeMond
1990 Joe Montana
1991 Michael Jordan
1992 Arthur Ashe (LAA)
1993 Don Shula (LAA)
1994 Bonnie Blair and Johan Olav Koss
1995 Cal Ripken Jr.
1996 Tiger Woods
1997 Dean Smith (LAA)
1998 Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa
1999 U.S. Women's Soccer Team
2000 Tiger Woods (only 2-time honoree)
2001 Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson
2002 Lance Armstrong
2003 David Robinson and Tim Duncan (LAA in Robinson's case)
2004 Boston Red Sox
2005 Tom Brady
2006 Dwyane Wade
2007 Brett Favre (LAA)
2008 Michael Phelps
2009 Derek Jeter
2010 Drew Brees
2011 Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt (LAA in both cases)

61 honorees: 39 right, 24 wrong; 67 alive, 6 dead; 10 Lifetime Achievement Awards

My choices

1954 Roger Bannister
1955 Otto Graham
1956 Bill Russell
1957 Maurice Richard
1958 Rafer Johnson
1959 Ingemar Johansson
1960 Floyd Patterson
1961 Roger Maris
1962 Wilt Chamberlain
1963 Pete Rozelle
1964 Jim Brown
1965 Sandy Koufax
1966 Frank Robinson
1967 Carl Yastrzemski
1968 Al Kaline
1969 Tom Seaver
1970 Bobby Orr
1971 Roberto Clemente
1972 John Wooden and Billie Jean King
1973 Don Shula
1974 Muhammad Ali
1975 Arthur Ashe
1976 Chris Evert
1977 Al McGuire
1978 Steve Cauthen
1979 Willie Stargell and Terry Bradshaw
1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
1981 Sugar Ray Leonard
1982 Wayne Gretzky
1983 Mary Decker
1984 Bonnie Blair and Johan Olav Koss
1985 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1986 Greg LeMond
1987 Magic Johnson
1988 Orel Hershiser
1989 Joe Montana
1990 Lou Piniella
1991 Michael Jordan
1992 Mario Lemieux
1993 Jacques Demers
1994 Bonnie Blair and Johan Olav Koss
1995 Hakeem Olajuwon
1996 Joe Torre
1997 Steve Yzerman
1998 John Elway
1999 U.S. Women's Soccer Team
2000 Derek Jeter
2001 Joe Sakic
2002 Lance Armstrong
2003 David Robinson and Tim DUncan
2004 Joe Dumars
2005 Roy Williams
2006 Dwayne Wade
2007 Peyton Manning
2008 Michael Phelps
2009 Troy Polamalu
2010 Drew Brees
2011 Aaron Rodgers

63 choices; 51 alive, 12 dead

3 comments:

capt paul said...

Much as it pains me to say this, but I always thought Mark Messier deserved strong consideration in 1994...Likely though held back because the large ammount of momentum he appeared to help build for the NHL's popularity that year became stalled by the lockout during the second half of 94...

capt paul said...

For further comparison's sake heres The Sporting News Sportsmen Of The Year--seemingly not as presigious as SI's, and judging from some selections perhaps employing a different judgement standard. Also interesting to see some more "Outside The Box" selections as compared to SI

1968-Denny McLain
1969-Tom Seaver
1970-John Wooden
1971-Lee Trevino
1972-Charlie Finley
1973-OJ Simpson
1974-Lou Brock
1975-Archie Griffin
1976-Larry O'Brien
1977-Steve Cauthen
1978-Ron Guidry
1979-Willie Stargell
1980-George Brett
1981-Wayne Gretsky
1982-Whitey Herzog
1983-Bowie Kuhn
1984-Peter Ueberroth
1985-Pete Rose
1986-Larry Bird
1987-None
1988-Jackie Joyner-Kersee
1989-Joe Montana
1990-Nolan Ryan
1991-Michael Jordan
1992-Mike Krezewski
1993-Cito Gaston and Pat Gillick
1994-Emmitt Smith
1995-Cal Ripken, Jr
1996-Joe Torre
1997-Mark McGwire
1998-Mark McGwrire and Sammy Sosa
1999-New York Yankees
2000-Marshall Faulk and Kurt Warner
2001-Curt Schilling
2002-Tyrone Willingham
2003-Dick Vermeil and Jack McKeon
2004-Tom Brady
2005-Matt Leinart
2006-Dwayne Wade
2007-Tom Brady
2008-Eli Manning

Discontinued in 2009 in favor of Pro and College Athletes of The Year (leaving out Executives, Coaches, etc)

2009-Mariano Rivera (Pro)
Colt McCoy (College)
2010-Roy Halladay (Pro)
Kyle Singer (College)

As far as I can tell, no selection thus far for 2011

Uncle Mike said...

Paul, as much as it pains YOU to say that Mark Messier deserved to be Sportsman of the Year for 1994, telling ME about it could pain you even more! (Kidding. Mostly.) No matter what they might achieve, one of the rules of this blog is RANGERS SUCK!

Looking at the TSN choices, in retrospect, some of those choices are a bit dubious. McLain '68, Simpson '73, Bird '85, McGwire '97, him and Sosa '98. To a lesser extent, Finley '72, Kuhn '83, Schilling '01, Brady '04 and '07.

I also find it interesting that they chose career stolen base record-breaker Brock over career home run record-breaker Aaron in '74. And back-to-back Baseball Commissioners in '83-'84. And, like SI, they had such trouble picking one for '87 but went the opposite direction, picking none. And, even today, on December 29, they have not yet announced for 2011.