Sports Illustrated Covers That Feature Only Animals

Back in the early days of our older brother publication, Sports Illustrated, the magazine regularly featured not just athletes on the covers, but animals. See, SI wasn't just a magazine about sports, it was for sportsmen, which meant birds, fish, dogs and other wildlife made their way onto the cover. And cute wildlife at that! Really, 1950s Sports Illustrated was Buzzfeed before Buzzfeed was Buzzfeed. So we dug into the archives and found the covers where there were no humans, just animals. We think you'll enjoy.

The very first animal to appear solo on the cover was this hunting dog and the fowl he fetched.

It may have been the Valentine's Day issue, but this was one sad and lonely pup.

Sports Illustrated was afraid of grizzlies long before Stephen Colbert was.

The first bird ever on the cover of SI. Surprisingly, not the last.

The 1955 Kentucky Derby winner, Swaps, got a close-up for the cover.

Champion English bulldog Kippax Fearnought graces the magazine's Independence Day cover

On this cover, SI dubbed rainbow to be the "jumpingest trout"

The editors used the chukar partridge to tease six pages of full color birds. EXCITING.

Try to resist these Dachshunds Jewell and Adele.

Coming into the 1958 Kentucky Derby, Silky Sullivan was a favorite, but he came up short in the race.

The king of the jungle, lying in wait

SI traveled down to the Everglades to shoot the great white heron and eight pages of birds in Florida.

No, it's not a dog in a wig, it's a champion afghan.

In the 1950s, Ivy League football still mattered, so Yale's bulldog, Handsome Dan IX got a cover before Yale's game with Dartmouth

An exploration of animal moods

SI explored the 1957 waterfowl season.

When you think of boxers on the cover of SI, this usually isn't the first one that comes to mind.

Fly fishing!

Goose decoys, not the real deal.

Spotlight on a seal haven in the Pacific. One of their ancestors eventually made it to Orange County to take Buster's hand.

A report on the National Field Trials.

The golden eagle in flight: A thrilling spectacle of nature

Champion Bedlington dog

Silver Spoon was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1978.

SI says beware of this pitbull. We agree.

Sports Illustrated named Georgia's UGA V the best college mascot in America.

And, once, SI featured a pack of bears mauling some defenseless people from New England.