Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The January 22, 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated with Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers on the cover is one of the most historically significant sports magazine covers of the entire decade — and understanding why requires knowing exactly what had just happened when the issue reached newsstands. Super Bowl II was played on January 14, 1968, in Miami's Orange Bowl, where Lombardi's Packers dismantled the Oakland Raiders 33–14 to claim their second consecutive Super Bowl title and fifth NFL championship in seven years. The dynasty that Lombardi had built from a losing franchise in 1959 had reached its absolute pinnacle. What no reader holding this magazine could have known was that Lombardi would step down as Packers head coach just weeks later, in February 1968, ending one of the most dominant coaching runs in professional sports history. The Sports Illustrated cover of January 22, 1968 therefore documents the precise final moment of that era — the last time Lombardi appeared on a major sports publication's cover as the reigning champion of the NFL. For collectors building a comprehensive archive of landmark Sports Illustrated covers, this issue anchors a specific and irreplaceable chapter in the magazine's history of professional football coverage, which can be explored through the complete Sports Illustrated collection.
Vince Lombardi's significance in January 1968 was not limited to football. By this point he had become one of the most widely quoted and studied leadership figures in American public life, his aphorisms about winning, preparation, and commitment cited in boardrooms, military academies, and motivational literature far beyond the sports context. The Green Bay Packers under his tenure had become a national symbol — not just of football excellence but of a particular American ethos of discipline, teamwork, and relentless focus on execution. A Sports Illustrated cover appearance in the immediate aftermath of a second Super Bowl victory was the highest available validation of that legacy, and the timing gives this issue an elegiac quality in retrospect: it is the last chapter of a story that most of its contemporary readers assumed would continue indefinitely. Lombardi would coach one more season with Washington in 1969 before his death from cancer in September 1970 at the age of fifty-seven. The full range of 1968 publications documents a year that would prove to be one of the most turbulent in American history, making this early-January football triumph a poignant contrast to the events that followed.
The listing notes insights into the 1968 NFL season and highlights of Lombardi's coaching philosophy as interior content — consistent with what Sports Illustrated routinely published in post-championship issues of this era, combining game analysis with the kind of character profile journalism that the magazine had made its editorial signature throughout the 1960s.
About the Publication
Sports Illustrated, founded by Time Inc. and launched in 1954, was by the late 1960s the definitive American sports weekly — the publication that defined serious sports journalism and elevated the sports cover portrait to cultural significance. Its combination of photography, long-form reporting, and editorial selectivity made a Sports Illustrated cover one of the most recognized forms of recognition in American athletics. The magazine's coverage of professional football expanded in parallel with the NFL's own rise to national dominance through the 1960s, and its Lombardi-era Packers coverage represents some of the most historically significant football journalism of the decade.
Key Highlights Inside
- Vince Lombardi and Green Bay Packers cover — Published eight days after Super Bowl II, documenting the Packers' second consecutive Super Bowl title and the conclusion of Lombardi's unparalleled seven-year run of championship-level football in Green Bay.
- Analysis of the 1968 NFL season outlook and the Packers' dynasty — editorial content consistent with Sports Illustrated's post-championship format of combining game-specific reporting with broader season and career context.
- Insights into Lombardi's coaching philosophy — the kind of character and leadership profile journalism that the magazine regularly produced around the era's most significant sports figures.
- Note: Specific article titles and confirmed additional interior page details beyond what is documented in the listing have not been independently verified. The above reflects what is verifiable from the listing description, cover date, and well-documented knowledge of Lombardi, the Packers, and the publication's editorial approach in this era.
Condition & Rarity
A January 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated in overall good condition is a solid collector-grade survivor for a weekly magazine now approaching sixty years old. The presence of an address label on the front cover indicates a subscription copy — subscription labels were affixed to mailed copies and partially obscure the cover portrait, which for a Lombardi cover is a meaningful condition factor given that the cover image is the primary visual collector attribute of this issue. Label-free newsstand copies are preferred by display-oriented collectors for this reason, and the label should be factored into any condition assessment. Minor wear throughout is expected and accepted at a good-condition grade for a periodical of this age and format. The plastic protective sleeve limits ongoing paper oxidation and surface wear. When evaluating any surviving copy of this issue, the hierarchy of condition factors is: cover portrait visibility relative to the label placement, spine integrity, interior page completeness and brightness, and the absence of significant moisture damage or structural tears.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Vince Lombardi covers from the Green Bay Packers dynasty years are among the most actively pursued issues in the entire Sports Illustrated archive, and the January 22, 1968 post-Super Bowl II issue is one of the most historically weighted of them all. The Sports Illustrated collection at OriginalMagazines.com is the most reliable resource for finding other landmark covers from the 1960s and across the full span of the magazine's publishing history. Collectors drawn to the pivotal year of 1968 will also want to explore the 1968 magazine collection, which documents one of the most consequential years in American sports and national history through a wide range of period publications.