Who’s on the Cover?
By Tom Mattingly
When two major sporting events are held on the same day hours apart, which event gets the cover picture in a magazine such as Sports Illustrated?
Here’s one answer. I found a copy of the Sept. 23, 1968, edition of Sports Illustrated in the home office desk a week or so ago. Time has not dulled the significance of that issue. It recounts two major events on the sporting scene on a Saturday nearly 60 years ago, one baseball and the other college football at Neyland Stadium.
Alfred Wright wrote about Denny McLain winning his 30th game (“Golden 30 for Show Biz Denny”) in a game earlier that afternoon against Oakland at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The story featured McLain pictured with Dizzy Dean and Sandy Koufax and a number of other celebrities, including CBS’ Ed Sullivan. All the photos were black and white. Only the cover photo was in color.
Dan Jenkins wrote the lead story about Tennessee’s 17-17 tie in the season opener against Georgia, titled “A Rouser on a Rug.” It was four pages long, with five color photos by Walter Iooss, Jr., augmenting the text. Tennessee’s game was played later that afternoon, ending in the gloaming of a September evening.
It was a historic game on a historic day. Chris Schenkel and Bud Wilkinson were in the ABC television booth. John Ward and Bill Anderson were making their debut on the Vol Radio Network. Ward has said that sometime during the second half he got the impression the duo might make it as a broadcast team. Wide receiver Lester McClain became the Vols’ first African-American player.
The Vols were the defending SEC champions after a 9-2 season and appearance in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma nine months earlier.
A revolutionary new surface called Tartan Turf, a product of 3M, adorned Shields-Watkins Field, consigning the hallowed turf to history. The Vols would play on some type of artificial surface through the 1993 season until grass made its comeback under the careful tutelage of groundskeeper Bobby Campbell.
Times were on the upswing football-wise in Knoxville and across Big Orange Country. There was a new East side upper deck, adding 7,307 new seats. Stadium capacity was now 64,429.
Inside the magazine, Vol wide receiver Gary Kreis is pictured coming perilously close to dropping the final TD pass from quarterback Bubba Wyche. That happened mere seconds after the final horn had sounded.
A NOTE FOR HISTORY: I found a seat in the press box that day next to the head statistician, conversing on a headset with the TV booth and another crew under Section X. I did likewise at the Alabama game a month or so later. When Wyche was leading the Vols on their final drive to steal the deadlock, another voice was heard on our headsets. Someone was exhorting Wyche to get the ball in the end zone. No one knows why, but he was saying, “Go, Bubba, go!” play after play. I found out later that voice belonged to ABC’s Beano Cook.
Georgia head coach Vince Dooley and many Georgia fans were convinced Kreis had dropped the ball. Pete Williams, the referee that day, did not stride to the center of the field to let fans know that the “previous play is under review.” That didn’t happen in those days. Good thing, too.
Tight end Ken DeLong, Steve’s brother, had a firmer grasp on the two-point conversion reception that tied the game, eluding Georgia safety Jake Scott to make the grab.
For the Vols, it had to be one of those “inspirational ties,” as the Vols escaped the gallows at the last possible moment. For Georgia, it had to have been a downer. For one thing, the Bulldogs were more than 100 yards from their dressing room at the South end, since the game’s two critical plays had taken place at the North end of Shields-Watkins Field.
The Bulldogs recovered from the apparent setback, going undefeated the rest of the way to win the SEC crown, their second in three seasons. The Vols had lost 28-14 to Auburn at Legion Field on Nov. 9, the only other blemish on their schedule.
Both teams ended up in major bowl games. The Vols lost to Texas in the 1969 Cotton Bowl, while Georgia lost to Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.
So, who was on the cover?
The cover was a color shot of legendary Tiger outfielder and Hall of Fame selection Al Kaline congratulating McLain once the baseball game safely belonged to the Tigers. The legendary Tiger broadcaster Ernie Harwell had probably just said so.
It was one of a number of Tennessee games covered by SI in those days, with John Underwood and Jenkins doing the honors. Tennessee defensive back Mike Jones and Alabama wide receiver Dennis Homan made the cover of the post-Alabama SI on October 23, 1967.
One other side note. SI mistakenly let its readers think that the Tennessee player pictured was not Jones, but Vol defensive back Jimmy Weatherford. Not so. Vol players from that era have confirmed that Jones was indeed the Vol player pictured.
All of which raises this question: Do five color pictures inside the issue as part of the magazine’s lead story trump the one color picture of McLain on the cover? You can judge for yourself. By the way, you can find this issue and see the pictures on eBay.com, under the heading “Sports Illustrated Al Kaline Denny McLain 9/23 1968.”
Regardless, this magazine is definitely a keeper. If you’re a Vol fan and a Tiger fan, it’s a double keeper.
