Deion Sanders named 2023 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year

Coach Prime receives an incredible honor for his first year at Colorado

Deion Sanders has been named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2023. An well-deserved honor for the Colorado Buffaloes coach, per an announcement on Thursday morning.  

Coach Prime has taken Colorado to new heights with a complete overhaul of the football program in a short period of time. The "Prime Effect" has swept across the country with Boulder being the epicenter of the sports world. It's been a transformation like none other for CU. 

Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde broke the news about Sanders. He dropped some numbers about what's happening in Colorado. 

There are numbers that define the Prime Effect upon the University of Colorado in Boulder, a place that hasn’t always had a chummy relationship with football. First-year applications are up 26.4% year over year; Black or African American applications are up 80.6%; nonresident applications are up 29.8%; and international applications are up 38.4% from 97 countries, including 16 that didn’t have any applications last year. While those numbers cannot be definitively linked to Sanders, others can be: September sales at the school’s online team store were up 2,544% over the same month in 2022. Every home game in 50,183-seat Folsom Field was sold out for the first time in school history

There are numbers that define the Prime Effect on Boulder, a quirky, affluent and extremely white city of 108,000 that is picturesquely situated northwest of Denver at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Visit Boulder, the convention and visitors bureau, calculates that the total economic impact of the first four home games—where attendance was up by nearly a third over last year—was an estimated $77.8 million, a massive jump from 2022. 

Sanders and the Buffs finished the season above expectations with a 4-8 record. Oddsmakers projected Prime's first season would garner 3.5 wins after he took over a program with a single victory in 2022. The entire process came together for Sanders in a few weeks, with a majority flocking to Boulder via the transfer portal with over 80 new players on this year's roster. Only nine holdovers from the previous years stayed after hearing Sanders' famed Louis luggage speech. 

WATCH: Sportsperson of the Year 2023: Deion Sanders

Going back to November 1989, Sanders has headlined six previous Sports Illustrated cover stories.

Among the entourage joining Sanders on this year’s Sportsperson of the Year cover are the University of Colorado Chancellor Philip DiStefano, Athletic Director Rick George, 99-year-old superfan Peggy Coppom, Sanders’s children Deion Jr., Shedeur, Shelomi, and Shilo, longtime manager and SMAC Entertainment Co-founder/CEO Constance Schwartz-Morini, trusted advisors Ray Forsett and Sam Morini, and a crowd of dedicated Buffs fans.

A few people gave their thoughts on Coach Prime, including the King, LeBron James. 

My earliest memories of watching sports start with Deion Sanders. I can still see the way he looked. The way he walked. The way his swag just came right through the TV screen. Everything about him was super cool to me. I was in awe of his ability, his style, his drive, all of it. And the way he approached the game on and off the field is something that sticks with me to this day.

Prime Time is the one who taught me: “Look good, feel good. Feel good, play good. Play good, they pay good.” I still lay my uniform out on the floor and take a look at it before I put it on. I got that from Deion. He always looked good on the field—and he didn’t just talk about it, he was about it. It was amazing to watch.

You give respect, you get respect. That’s something Coach Prime and I continue to relate on.

Order the SI 2023 Sportsperson of the Year issue here.

One of Sanders' heated rivals, who's widely considered a GOAT in his own right, was in awe of Prime. Jerry Rice explained how his longtime friend was deserving of the honor.

There was a time when I hated Deion Sanders. To be clear: It wasn’t Deion the man. It was Deion the competitor. Deion the opponent.

After he came into the NFL with the Falcons we went at each other twice a year for five seasons as rivals in the NFC West. I couldn’t sleep the night before when I knew he’d be covering me. If Deion was on the opposite side, you knew it was going down the next day.

Deion was one of the fastest defensive backs I ever faced. Before every play I had to come to the line with a plan. I’d have to double-move, maybe triple-move, off the line to get some separation from him. I knew it would be tough. But it also motivated me. I hope it motivated him, too. As a competitor, you want to go against the best to test yourself.

Deion Sanders becomes the first African-American coach to earn the title of SI's Sportsperson of the Year. Here's a look at all the winners going back to 1954. 

The annual Sportsperson of the Year issue hits newsstands on December 14, and pre-sale orders are available NOW here. Sanders will be honored at a star-studded event at the University of Colorado on Wednesday, December 6, in Boulder.