Celebrating 140 Years of The Sporting News
Since 1886, The Sporting News has delivered news, insights, data and storytelling of the biggest names and moments in sports, shaping fans' understanding of the games and athletes they love.
140th Anniversary
SN 140 Moments: No. 1 - Jackie Robinson breaks MLB's color barrier
SN 140 Moments: No. 2 - Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at 1936 Olympics in front of Adolph Hitler
SN 140 Moments: No. 3 - 'Do you believe in miracles?' USA stuns USSR en route to gold medal
SN 140 Moments: No. 4 - Michael Jordan beats the Jazz for sixth title in final game with Bulls
SN 140 Moments: No. 5 - Tiger Woods wins 1997 Masters in first major as pro by record 12 strokes
SN 140 Moments: No. 6 - Lionel Messi wins first World Cup at tournament's greatest final ever played
SN 140: Baseball's All-time Team USA vs. All-time Team World
As retirement from Sporting News approaches, here's my Top 10 Final Four memories
OUR LEGENDARY CONTRIBUTORS
The Sporting News has a rich history of covering sports since its inception in 1886, becoming a trusted source for sports journalism. That includes contributions from countless reporters, correspondents and commentators who have played a pivotal role in influencing both the media landscape and the sports community.
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Dan DanielFor more than 50 years, if there was a story involving the Yankees, it’s likely Daniel Margowitz wrote about it for The Sporting News under the byline Dan Daniel, chronicling America’s first sports dynasty from before Babe Ruth arrived in New York to the days of Mickey Mantle patrolling center field in the Bronx. In fact, it’s possible no one wrote more stories for The Sporting News than Daniel, a Hall of Famer as the BBWAA Career Excellence Award winner in 1972.
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Todd JonesAll-Star pitcher Todd Jones’ regular column in The Sporting News was called “The Closer” for a reason: He was one of the top relievers in the AL, leading the league in saves in 2000 with 42. The active major-leaguer’s frequently humorous, always insightful analysis in the early 2000s delivered on a long-standing TSN promise: to help readers “see a different game.”
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William C. RhodenA contributing columnist, Bill Rhoden’s thoughtful and perceptive work appeared in The Sporting News in the early 1990s, while he worked for The New York Times. His measured voice was a contrast — and welcome counter-balance — to the growing volume in sports discourse, driven by talk radio. A Peabody Award-winning documentarian, he's a member of the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame and the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Famer, among others.
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Peter KingBefore his name became synonymous with the NFL at-large at Sports Illustrated, the Monday Morning Quarterback’s work appeared in The Sporting News in the late 1980s, usually analyzing the NFC East and, specifically, the New York Giants’ Lawrence Taylor-Bill Parcells era while writing for Newsday. He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a winner of the Bill Nunn Memorial Award for career excellence in covering the NFL.
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History
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First issue released on March 17, 1886: The Sporting News was founded in St. Louis by Alfred H. Spink as a weekly U.S. newspaper. By May 1886, the paper proclaimed that it had “the largest circulation of any sporting paper west of Philadelphia.“ In October 1887, just a year and a half later, the publisher boasted that circulation stood at 40,000. -
An integral part of modern baseball's origins: The Sporting News supports the creation of the American League, and editor Alonzo Joseph Flanner helped draft the National Agreement that paved the way for the modern World Series. Type for the agreement was set in The Sporting News office. -
Delivering sports news during World War I: The American League shipped editions of The Sporting News to troops overseas, and after the Armistice in November 1918, copies were delivered to France for American soldiers to read as they embarked for home. -
Becoming the dominant sports publication: In the 1920s, under the tagline “The Base Ball Paper of the World,” The Sporting News acquired its unofficial nickname “The Bible of Baseball.” -
The birth of a longstanding tradition: In 1936, The Sporting News awarded its first Player of the Year — the oldest, most prestigious award still voted on by MLB players. -
Delivering sports news abroad again: During World War II, The Sporting News sent special "Overseas Editions" to military in Europe and the Pacific. In 1947, when Jackie Robinson, himself a WWII veteran, broke the color barrier, The Sporting News was there to cover history. -
Honoring more award-winners: At future Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller's suggestion, The Sporting News determined its first Player of the Decade in the 1950s. To Feller's chagrin, he lost out to Cardinals star Stan Musial in the vote of MLB players. -
Growing coverage beyond baseball: The Sporting News' college football All-America teams, begun in the 1940s, became part of determining prestigious Consensus All-Americans. The increasingly popular NFL took on a larger part of publication's coverage in the '60s, including the first Super Bowl in January 1967. -
Showcasing the stars: Elegant color covers of some of sports' biggest names became part of The Sporting News' evolution in the 1970s, reflecting the growing importance of sports in America. -
The Sporting News turns 100: By March 1986, the Bible of Baseball had reached far beyond what the Spinks may have envisioned a century earlier. Coverage focused not only on MLB, but also the NFL, NBA and NHL, as well as college football and basketball, boxing, horse racing and the Olympics. -
Expanding into different media: In 1996, The Sporting News entered the world of cyber-publishing. Its content area on America Online was voted one of AOL's "Best New Areas" for the year. In 1997, the company launched www.sportingnews.com. And later that year, the print publication underwent a major facelift and evolved into a modern weekly magazine. -
One chapter ends and another begins: After 126 years, in December 2012, The Sporting News published its final edition as a print publication and has continued as a digital service. -
Forward focused: Benson Taylor is only the 15th Editor-in-Chief of The Sporting News in its 140 years of existence and has helped oversee the global editorial expansion and introduction of new language editions.
