JewishSportsCollectibles

Sports Illustrated Cover Jews

Updated April 4, 2013

Jewish sports collectors who want to build a library of Sports Illustrated issues with MOTs on the cover have more than two dozen items on their shelves.

Below is a (hopefully!) complete list of Jews on SI covers. Please note, this list includes athletes like David Beckham and Pete Sampras, who have Jewish heritage but may not themselves be practicing Jews. 

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Baseball  

 

Ron Blomberg
July 2, 1973

Ryan Braun
August 29, 2011
March 31, 2008

Sandy Koufax
March 4, 1963
April 13, 1964
December 20, 1965
May 15, 1967
July 12, 1999
October 9, 2006

Al Rosen
April 18, 1955

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Basketball


Art Heyman
October 28, 1963

Ernie Grunfeld
February 9, 1976

Jon Scheyer
April 12, 2010

Jamila Wideman
March 17, 1997

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Football

Lyle Alzado
July 8, 1991

Jay Fiedler
October 1, 2001

Robert Kraft
February 6, 2012

Art Modell
December 4, 1995 

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Hockey

Matthieu Schneider
June 14, 1993

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Soccer

David Beckham
July 16, 2007

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Tennis

Boris Becker
September 18, 1989

Pete Sampras

July 11, 1994
July 14, 1997
September 17, 1990

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Olympic Sports

Sarah Hughes
March 4, 2002

Aly Raisman
July 23, 2012

Mark Spitz
July 22, 1968
September 4, 1972

Suzy Weiner (with Mark Spitz)
May 14, 1973

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Other

Charles Goren (bridge) 
Oct. 14, 1957
May 23, 1960

Bob and Bus Mosbacher (sailing)
May 18, 1959

Toots Shor (restaurateur)
July 27, 1959

Howard Cosell (sportscaster)
August 8, 1983

Bar Refeali (swimsuit model)
February 11, 2009

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Did I miss any Jewish SI cover figures ? Disagree with any of the listings? Let JewishSportsCollectibles.com know by commenting below.

Visit Sports Illustrated's Classic Cover Collection if you're interested in buying photo reproductions of any of the above Sports Illustrated covers. eBay and Amazon.com are a good source for purchasing hard copies of SI back issues.

Gary Bettman, Don Fehr and the NHL Freeze Out

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

Two Jews are at the center of the freeze out between National Hockey League owners and players, as the two parties have failed to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, again, leading to yet another a work stoppage for hockey.

Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHLPA. Photo by Chris Young/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is Jewish.

So, too, is Donald Fehr, the executive director of the NHL Players Association and the former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Bettman memorabilia is scant, but not scarce.

Beckett.com show no cards for the hockey commish.

Dozens of Bettman photos, autographed and unsigned, are available on eBay. Autographed images bring $15-$65, depending on the image and authenticator associated with the listing.

Gary Bettman signed hockey puck. Photo courtesy of eBay.

There are also several pucks inked by the hocky commissioner available for bid, as well as a "Bettman Sucks" hockey puck decal protesting the lockout. These stickers will prove more popular with fans than with hockey's corner office, no doubt.

Bettman detractors can pair thier Bettman Sucks decal with an explicit MP3 download, F%*k Gary Bettman, available on Amazon.com.

The Instigator How Gary Bettman Remade the NHL and Changed the Game Forever. Photo courtesy of Amazon.com.

Less offensive Amazon offerings include Bettman signed photos and books.

Bettman is the subject of a biography, The Instigator: How Gary Bettman Remade the NHL and Changed the Game Forever, due out on October 15, 2012.

Bettman is also the author of the foreward to The Official Treasures of NHL Hockey. 

Fehr also has little in the way of collectibles, as detailed in this JewishSportsCollectibles.com posting written when the former MLBPA exec traded his baseball cleats for hockey skates. 

Don Fehr 2012 JML card.
Photo courtesy of Joshua Platt.

Although Beckett.com shows no cards having been issued for Fehr, Jewish baseball collectors know better.

Fehr is, in fact, featured in the Jewish Major Leaguers sets.

Ferh appears in the 2007 edition on card 45, which he shares with former MLBPA executive director Marvin Miller, and in the 2010 issue, on card 44, with Miller and current MLBPA exec Michael Weiner.

A search of eBay turned up very little memorabilia for Fehr. At the time of this posting, only the JML card and a signed baseball were listed on the auction giant, which is also available for purchase on Amazon.

Certainly, patient collectors will, over time, find other Fehr collectibles for sale on eBay. 

Donald Fehr signed letter. Photo courtesy of Joshua Platt.

As the former head of labor relations for baseball, Fehr is the subject of numerous books written on the subject available on Amazon.com. These include Marvin Miller's A Whole Different Ball Game: The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution, Getting On Base: Unionism in Baseball and Swings and Misses: Moribund Labor Relations in Professional Baseball.

Fehr was a reluctant, but accomodating through-the-mail signer in the past. I've got an autographed letter, on MLBPA letterhead, from the player rep in my collection.

Can the hockey collectors out there add to the list of Bettman and Fehr memorabilia? Have you had any experiences in acquiring Bettman or Fehr's autographs, either in person or via mail?

Share your thoughts with other JewishSportsCollectibles.com readers by commenting below.

You can also keep up with the latest news about the hockey labor freeze on Google News, the NHLPA and the NHL news feeds.

Upcoming Book Reviews: Al Davis, Gary Bettman Biographies

Just Win, Baby: The
Al Davis Story.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com.

I was today notified by Triumph Books, "the leader in sports publishing," that my requests for review copies of the new biographies of former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis and National Hockey League NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, were approved.

Just Win, Baby: The Al Davis Story, released earlier in September, is the most recent biography of Davis.

I'm curious to see how the new release compares to the previously written Davis bios.

These include Just Win, Baby: Al Davis and His Raiders, Slick: The Silver-And-Black Life of Al Davis and Black Knight: Al Davis and His Raiders, all of which are available on Amazon.com.

The Instigator: How Gary Bettman Remade the NHL and Changed the Game Forever. Photo courtesy of Amazon.com.

The Instigator: How Gary Bettman Remade the NHL and Changed the Game Forever is due out on October 15, 2012.

I hope to receive both books in the coming weeks, and to post my reviews to JewishSportsCollectibles shortly thereafter.

Please let JSC.com know of any Jewish sports memoirs and books you'd like to see reviewed in the future by leaving a comment below or by emailing jsportscollectr@gmail.com.

In the meantime,you can check out a JewishSportsCollectibles.com's previous book reviews, and postings about the collectibles books about Jewish athletes, broadcasters and sports executives, by clicking on the Books tag on the left of this page.

 

 

More Ice: Trevor Smith

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Mea culpa!

I overlooked another member of the tribe who wanders the ice instead of the desert.

Ron Kaplan's end of season Jice ("Jews On Ice") update shows seven Jews saw ice time during the NHL regular season, not the six on whom I'd previously reported (read the original JSC JICE post and the update on Carter Camper and a Camper follow-up here).

As one who prefers my sports neat (that is to say, "no ice," a farsical way of confessing that I don't follow hockey, get it?), I had no idea that Tampa Bay Lightning center Trevor Smith appeared in 16 games, notching two goals and three assists during the 2011/2012 NHL season.

Smith's collectibles include 22 different hockey cards, including O-Pee-Chee and Upper Deck base cards, autographed cards and limited, edition printing plate varieties, according to Beckett.com. Only five of these are being sold in the Beckett Marketplace. Smith's base cards cost $2 or less. His autographed rookie card sells for about $12.

A smattering of Smith's minor league and professional cards are evailable on eBay for similar prices. Many of the listings, though, offer Smith as part of a "you pick 'em" lot.

Further complicating a search for the Jewish hockey player is the commonality of Smith's surname. You can filter, as I did, for hockey cards produced since 2007 when searching for Trevor Smith's hockey cards on the auction giant's web site.

Searching in other subcategories in eBay's sports memorabilia directory proved harder. I came up with nothing concrete in the way of other Smith memorabilia. 

Smith has player since 2003, however. Certainly signed pucks, programs, yearbooks or his game-used uniforms must exist.

Do any Jewish hockey collectors who are JewishSportsCollectibles.com readers have Smith's memorabilia in your man caves?

Photo by Scott Audette, via Getty Images/NHL.com

Carter Camper Update

I recently posted a story about the collectibles associated with "Jews On Ice" (i.e. - Jewish hockey players). 

After publishing the first story, I found out about the short-lived NHL call-up of JNHLer Carter Camper in February.

Camper has scant few collectibles available, and I asked if Jewish hockey collectors knew of any other Camper memorabilia.

I found the answer to my question on eBay this past weekend.

A search of the auction site found three Camper items, including a pee wee hockey card, a signed index card, and a 2011-2012 Providence Bruins minor league hockey team set.

Certainly more Camper collectibles exist.

This link to eBay offers real-time search results for "Carter Camper" in the Sports category on eBay.