Here are more than 50 Sports Illustrated covers featuring Notre Dame athletics
SOUTH BEND — The music world had the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The athletic world had Sports Illustrated.
Making the cover of SI carried with it a certain glamour and grit. It was the pinnacle of sports media exposure for decades. While the future of the magazine is in peril after a mass layoff last week, Notre Dame is among the most featured college programs in the magazine's history with 52 covers overall in it's nearly 70 years of publication.
SI's lens found Notre Dame football quarterbacks most often, with eventual Heisman Trophy winner Paul Hornung being the first to appear in 1956, SI's second year of publication. Tony Rice leading the cover count with four. He graced the cover three times in a two-and-a-half month span during ND's 1988 national championship run.
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QBs Joe Theismann, Terry Hanratty and Hornung (if you count a 2006 commemorative issue) each made the cover twice. Joe Montana, the most celebrated QB in Notre Dame history who went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career, never made the cover during his time as a player in South Bend. He was featured on a 2006 commemorative issue.
The most prolific stretch of SI covers for Notre Dame came between October 1988 through November 1993, appearing 12 times. The longest draught for the Irish is current. Notre Dame was last featured on SI's cover April 9, 2018. The image was Arike Ogunbowale hitting her game-winning shot to capture the NCAA women's basketball national championship.
Here are 52 Sports Illustrated covers that feature Notre Dame athletics:
NOTRE DAME FOOTALL SI COVERS
1. Oct. 29, 1956
Paul Hornung, quarterback.
2. Oct. 26, 1959
George Izo, quarterback.
3. Nov. 2, 1964
John Huarte, quarterback.
4. Nov. 7, 1966
Terry Hanratty, quarterback.
5. Nov. 28, 1966
No. 1 Notre Dame ties No. 2 Michigan State, wins national championship
6. Sept. 11, 1967
Terry Hanratty, quarterback.
7. Oct. 9, 1967
Notre Dame vs. Purdue. (Irish defenders Dave Martin and Mike McGill try to tackle Boilermaker QB Mike Phipps).
8. Nov. 9, 1970
Joe Theismann, quarterback.
9. Jan. 11, 1971
Notre Dame defeats Texas in Cotton Bowl (Joe Theismann, QB).
10. Nov. 5, 1973
Notre Dame stops Anthony Davis and USC (defenders Drew Mahalic, Greg Potempa, Ross Browner).
11. Sept. 30, 1974
Tom Clements, quarterback.
12. Dec. 9, 1974
Notre Dame falls to USC.
13. Sept. 29, 1975
Rick Slager, QB and Dan Devine, head coach.
14. Sept. 5, 1977
College football season preview edition (Ross Browner).
15. Jan. 9, 1978
Notre Dame shocks Texas in Cotton Bowl to win national championship (Terry Eurick, RB),
16. Sept. 24, 1979
Notre Dame vs. Michigan (Vegas Ferguson, RB).
17. Nov. 5, 1984
Head coach Gerry Faust.
18. Sept. 22, 1986
Unranked Notre Dame edged by No. 3 Michigan, 24-23 in first game under head coach Lou Holtz (defenders Brandy Wells, Mike Kovaleski, Robert Perryman, Ron Weissenhofer).
19. Aug. 31, 1987
College football season preview edition (Tim Brown, WR).
20. Oct. 24, 1988
No. 4 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Miami (Tony Rice, QB).
21. Dec. 5, 1988
No. 1 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 USC (Tony Rice, QB)
23. Jan. 9, 1989
No. 1 Notre Dame beats No. 3 West Virginia to win national championship (Tony Rice, QB and Tim Grunhard, OL).
24. Sept. 4, 1989
College football season preview edition (head coach Lou Holtz).
25. Sept. 25, 1989
No. 2 Notre Dame defeats No. 1 Michigan (Raghib "Rocket" Ismail).
26. Nov. 27, 1989
Heisman Trophy preview (Tony Rice, QB).
27. Dec. 4, 1989
Miami defeats No. 1 Notre Dame (Ned Bolcar).
28. Sept. 24, 1990
No. 1 Notre Dame defeats No. 4 Michigan (Rick Mirer, QB).
29. Nov. 26, 1990
No. 1 Notre Dame upset by No. 18 Penn State (Derek Brown, TE).
30. Feb. 25, 1991
Raghib "Rocket" Ismail goes pro.
31. Nov. 22, 1993
No. 2 Notre Dame defeats No. 1 Florida State (Jim Flanigan, LB).
32. Nov. 29, 1993
No. 1 Notre Dame upset by Boston College (Lee Becton, RB).
33. Sept. 23, 1996
Ron Powlus, QB.
34. Sept. 30, 2002
Notre Dame defeats Michigan State (Maurice Stovall, WR).
35. Nov. 4, 2002 (cover flap)
Courtney Watson and Gerome Sapp.
36. Dec. 30, 2002
SI Stories of the Year edition (Maurice Stovall, WR).
37. May 5, 2003
Most influential minorities in sports (Tyrone Willingham, head coach).
38. Nov. 4, 2004 (SI On Campus)
College campus tour.
39/40. July 2, 2006 (commemorative issues)
Joe Montana, QB and Paul Horning, QB (hardcover)
41. Aug. 21, 2006
College football season preview edition (Brady Quinn, Tom Zibikowski and Travis Taylor).
42. Sept. 2, 2012 (Heisman commemorative edition)
Tim Brown, WR.
43. Oct. 1, 2012
Manti, Te'o, LB.
44. Nov. 26, 2012
"The Notre Dame Miracle." Irish complete undefeated regular season.
45. Dec. 2, 2012 (commemorative)
BCS preview edition (Manti Te'o, LB)
46. Jan. 14, 2013
No. 2 Alabama beats No. 1 Notre Dame for national championship.
47. Aug. 10, 2015
College football season preview edition (LB Jaylon Smith, OL Ronnie Stanley and Notre Dame leprechaun John Doran).
48. Dec. 3, 2018 (commemorative)
College football playoff preview (Ian Book, QB).
NOTRE DAME NON-FOOTALL SI COVERS
1. Feb. 5, 1973
Notre Dame men's basketball vs. UCLA (no, not that one. The snapping of the Bruins' 88-game winning streak came a year later.
2. Nov. 17, 2008
College basketball season preview edition: Ashley Barlow (women) and Kyle Mcalarney (men).
3. April 6, 2015
Kentucky men's basketball defeats Notre Dame to advance to Final Four (Zach Auguste, center).
4. April 9, 2018
Notre Dame women's basketball defeats Mississippi State to win national championship (Arike Ogunbowale, guard).
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: How many Sports Illustrated magazine covers feature Notre Dame?
