December 29, 1997 | Volume 87, Issue 26

Like it or not, the salary cap brought parity to the league in '97, Our annual awards, Two class acts bid farewell to the game

SEPTEMBER

Here are the five stories that made the biggest headlines in 1997:

Brett Favre is my quarterback. Terrell Davis and Barry Sanders are the running backs. No surprises there. But wait, we've found a few sleepers. Here, then, is my 1997 All-Pro team, based on 140...

Lil SheltonSEVERNA PARK, MD.Shelton, 66, won her 300th game as a field hockey coach when Severna Park High defeated South River High 8-0. At season's end she was 306-39-5 with the Falcons, who won...

The NCAA should be called on the mat after three collegians died trying to shed pounds

Expounding on the merits of the Big 10, Tim Layden fails to mention that its nonconference record against the current top 25 is an anemic 1-4.JOE GMNDIS, CEDAR FALLS, IOWA

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Saturday 12/27SPECIALSSPORTS ILLUSTRATED Year in ReviewThis video yearbook, hosted by Keith Olbermann, spares us the machinations of agents and the mastications of Marv and Mike and focuses on...

It's time for View Year's Wishes—things we'd like to see or hear in 1998: an ESPN NASCAR Ride-Along promo featuring passenger O.J. Simpson: a college basketball announcer saying that a coach is...

Mississippi and Mississippi State players didn't even wait for the opening kickoff to start rumbling in one of the many lowlights of 1997.

3MIT football players, including defensive lineman-mechanical engineering major Brad Gray, who has a perfect 5.0 average, on the Division II and III GTE Academic All-America team.

Will the 6'5" Crawley, heretofore only a practice clunker, be able to throw down come contest time in the Mills first slamfest?

The answering machine has conveyed some significant sports transactions in recent years. Just ask now unemployed John Robinson.

The sight of an NBA star writhing in pain was all too familiar. New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing dislocated his right wrist last Saturday night when he fell attempting a dunk in Milwaukee and...

Ordered by a federal judge to equalize facilities for boys' baseball and girls' softball, officials at Merritt Island (Fla.) High disconnected the electric scoreboard, closed the concession stand...

Ryan LeafWashington State quarterback, on the prices scalpers are getting for tickets to the Rose Bowl: "I think paying $350 to watch me play is stupid."

The Boxer, directed by Jim Sheridan, opens nationwide on Jan. 9

The Folkl point of Stanford's volleyball title? No surprise: It was Kristin

Philosophy: Pound the ball until the opponent succumbs. "It's not something you can turn on or off," coach Bill Cowher says. "With us it's an attitude—a general toughness—and it starts on the...

Philosophy: Keep everyone fresh—and happy—by spreading the workload. After anointing fourth-year speedster Greg Hill as his feature back during the off-season, coach Marty Schottenheimer changed...

Philosophy: Keep Steve Young healthy by going to the run more. First-year coach Steve Mariucci wanted to balance the attack, and by relying more on the run he also instilled a toughness in the...

Philosophy: Rushing takes a backseat to passing—unless it's just too easy for Green Bay to dominate on the ground. Coach Mike Holmgren loves to bring his brainy schemes to life through the rocket...

OCT. 1, 1979

Arrests, brawls and boozing were on Chris Pronger's résumé before he grew up to be a soaring presence for the Blues

THE GOOD DEEDS OF EMERGING BIG LEAGUE STAR MATT STAIRS HAVE MADE HIM A HERO IN NAVOJOA, MEXICO, HIS WINTER LEAGUE BASEBALL HOME

Joe Scheid lost his left arm in an accident—but not his desire to compete

...

Eddie Eagan outdid his hero, Frank Merriwell, with gold in boxing and bobsledding

Michigan sometimes runs a fire-zone blitz from its nickel defense (blue, above). The Wolverines attack the quarterback by rushing two linebackers and a nickelback, possibly Woodson or Ray, while...

If your memories of 1997 are neither warm nor fuzzy, blame it on sports, which were seldom warm and rarely fuzzy in the last 12 months. Ninety-seven was a bear. Ninety-seven had no hair.* Fuzzy...

I'll never forget Brett Favre's eyes that night—Super Bowl night, two hours after the Green Bay Packers had bashed the New England Patriots in New Orleans. I sat with him on a luggage cart in, of...

It was a compelling story—the estrangement of Arizona freshman point guard Mike Bibby from his father, Henry, the former NBA point guard and now the coach at Southern Cal—but who wants to get in...

After the author got hooked on a Formula One simulation, the real pain began

I had been watching the development of Tiger Woods with awe: three consecutive U.S. Junior titles, followed by three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. Still, I was not a believer; I didn't think he...

If the games can't make kids of us all, if under the layers of contracts and endorsements and other junk we no longer can locate the sweet core that got us to choose up sides and play in the first...

He was sick. You could see it in his eyes, in the way he moved. There was no life in his step as he warmed up, and after a time he walked over to the bench and sat down while his teammates...

Track and field in the U.S. was a mess by the time of the national outdoor championships in Indianapolis last June. Major meets had been canceled, support from sponsors was dwindling, and less...

The week before the fight, Mike Tyson was trying on yet another role model for size. He had already gone through Arthur Ashe, Chairman Mao, Wayne Newton and Leo Tolstoy. Now he was intrigued by...

People shuffled from room to room, sad-eyed, murmuring, nibbling on platefuls of cold food. Just an hour earlier Boris Becker had stunned all of tennis by declaring his retirement from Grand Slam...

It has been said that only three things matter in the city of Boston—politics, baseball and revenge—and on one glorious July afternoon at Fenway Park they came together like the last chapter of a...

They were women, and we heard them roar. But like the arms of a ref signaling a successful Cynthia Cooper three-pointer, the stems of the ol' Y chromosome cast their shadow over the premiere...

Nellie Fox would have turned 70 years old on Christmas Day. I happen to know that, though I never met the man, the same way I know he went 98 straight games without striking out in 1958. He had...

The weather outside is frightful, but the waves in Maine are delightful