The Styrous® Viewfinder: Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue

August 16, 2025

Sports Illustrated, the swimsuit issue & The birth of Supermodels

Seventy-one years ago, on August 16, 1954, Sports Illustrated was published for the first time. It was claimed that 250,000 subscriptions had been sold before the first issue came off of the presses. It sold for 25¢ a copy.

Founded by Stuart Scheftel, It was owned by Time Inc. until 2018. It was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. It is also known for its annual swimsuit issue, the first swimsuit issue cover, released on January 20, 1964, featured Babette March.

The swimsuit issue was invented by Sports Illustrated editor Andre Laguerre to fill the winter months, a typically slow point in the sporting calendar.^[1] He asked fashion reporter Jule Campbell to go on a shoot to fill space, including the cover, with a beautiful model. The first issue, released in 1964, entailed a cover featuring Babette March and a five-page layout. Campbell soon became a powerful figure in modeling and molded the issue into a media phenomenon by featuring "bigger and healthier" California women and printing the names of the models with their photos, beginning a new supermodel era.^[1] In the 1950s, a few women appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but the 1964 issue is considered to be the beginning of the current format known as the Swimsuit Issue. The issue that got the most letters was the 1978 edition. In 1997, Tyra Banks was the first black woman on the cover.