An array of influential and record-setting sports figures passed away. Among them: a four-time Olympic gold medal winner, a sure-handed Hall of Fame shortstop and a bus-jumping motorcycle daredevil

PHIL RIZZUTO | 89

EVEL KNIEVEL | 69

DENNIS JOHNSON | 52

HOW BASKETBALL GAVE LIFE TO A SON AND GRANDSON OF THE INFAMOUS CULT LEADER JIM JONES

HERE'S THE beauty of pickup basketball: You may be a U.S. senator, a living symbol of racial healing and perhaps even the next President of the United States, but if you're gliding in for an easy...

The Chosen One Thank you for your wonderful profile of Brett Favre (Sportsman of the Year, Dec. 10). All season long I've pondered what I would tell my yet-to-be-born children about this hero on...

While I look forward to the return of Point After (Dec. 10), I will miss Rick Reilly and his column. Reilly was a prime example of SI's commitment to quality journalism. He made us think, laugh...

But cheating won't stop in 2008. It will only get more interesting

WHO'S Hot

Which kicker would you most want to try a game-winning kick for your team?

Cited For criminal tampering, Olympic snowboarder Shaun White (below), who allegedly set off a fire extinguisher at a Breckenridge, Colo., ski resort even though there was no fire. The Flying...

HOW MANY TIMES have we said goodbye to Alonzo Mourning? And yet a non-life-threatening injury could be the one that ends his 15-year career. On Dec. 19, the fourth anniversary of his kidney...

FABIO CAPELLO Italian-born coach of England's national soccer team, on the language barrier: "At this moment, my English is not so well."

666 Career points for Islanders right wing Miroslav Satan.

An Australian Rules football player was hospitalized after he swallowed a bottle cap while drinking beer out of a trophy his team had just won.

Will Bill Parcells make a difference with the Dolphins?

AFTER A 20-year journey into disrepair, the most famous mouth in NFL history is now in even better shape than during its heyday. William (the Refrigerator) Perry's gap-toothed grin—an icon of the...

WHEN YOU can't afford a seat at the old ball game, it gets hard to root for the home team. That's why the Arizona Diamondbacks have instituted a "season-ticket scholarship program" for fans facing...

Why college hoops coaches seek the opinion of a 16-year-old scout

Tampa Bay's supergym helped put the team on top

SI sends a man to the remade reality show

The retired Cowboy donated a kidney to ex-teammate Ron Springs last February

DAVID GOLDBLATT'S 992-page tome, The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Soccer, traces the sport from its seeds (sown in China in 200 B.C.) through its growth in 19th-century England and its...

What to watch and watch for

Kelly Murphy JOLIET, ILL. > Volleyball Kelly, a senior outside hitter at Joliet Catholic Academy, is Gatorade's national volleyball player of the year. She had 414 kills, 303 assists, 121 digs, 55...

Confident that there will be no repeat of last year's title-game nightmare, tackles Kirk Barton and Alex Boone power Ohio State's championship drive against LSU

The BCS title game is the last of 32 postseason affairs. If you only have time for, say, five bowls (aside from the championship), these are the ones to watch

Ohio State has a different mind-set than it did a year ago, but a healthy and at-home LSU team will be too balanced for the Buckeyes

So many upsets, comedowns, blowouts, come backs. Nothing made sense. But what about the Colts, Federer, the Spurs, Tiger and the Red Sox? All of them figured. Themes? Maybe there were no...

No Denying the Patriots Their Due

C'MON! ENOUGH football questions. Ask me about life! Life questions!''

"I was like, 'Oh, four-letter word.'" LAVERANUES COLES, Jets, WR, describing his reaction in April on hearing that the Patriots had acquired Randy Moss

The Untold Tale of an Amazing Last Week

TIM WAKEFIELD was just a pitcher in the minors in 1992 when he made a major pledge to his friend Betsy Farmer, the cofounder of a cash-strapped, five-year-old preschool serving 30 children with...

"I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul." ICHIRO, (translated from Japanese) on facing countryman Daisuke Matsuzaka in April

Upsetting in a Really Good Kind of Way

FROM THE moment Jeff Geffert strapped on his first set of shoulder pads as an eight year old, he has been taught to hit. And hit hard. But now the senior cornerback at Division III Wooster (Ohio)...

"We've got Lenoir-Rhyne coming to our place." —Appalachian State coach JERRY MOORE, on why the Mountaineers couldn't afford to celebrate too long after stunning No. 5 Michigan

Grace Under Pressure, On and Off the Court

POSING RECENTLY for a picture at Madison Square Garden, they made an odd couple: Charlie Villanueva, a 6'10" forward for the Bucks, and Alex Fabozzi, a 16-year-old who attends St. John's Villa...

THE LAKERS and the Bulls will both squeak into the playoffs but will be eliminated early. Mutually disenchanted with their seasons, the teams will renew trade talks that will eventually bring Kobe...

"The future is yours, but thanks for letting us have it one more year."

Billy Donovan's Florida-NBA Flip-flop

DANIELLE ORSILLO'S proudest moment was watching her brother Mark, who has Down syndrome, graduate from Las Plumas High in Oroville, Calif., five years ago. As Mark clutched his diploma, 4,000...

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN will again steal the spotlight until March, when North Carolina junior Tyler Hansbrough will lead the Tar Heels to the national title, proving once again that experience still...

"There are a lot of guys who can bench-press 300 pounds who couldn't play dead in a cowboy movie."

Crosby Takes Charge

THE GREAT ones all had their signatures: Wayne Gretzky's setting up behind the net, Bobby Orr's skating coast-to-coast. Canadiens captain Saku Koivu's signature is in room D5-129 of Montreal...

THE FEB. 26 trade deadline will be much less frenzied than last season. Given the salary cap, league parity, the many contracts with no-trade clauses and teams locking up their potential free...

"In our bottom six forwards, we look for the requisite level of pugnacity, truculence, belligerence, hostility and testosterone." BRIAN BURKE, Ducks G.M., whose recipe helped win the Stanley Cup.

Roger Federer's Moment of Truth

ALONIA RIGGLETON is matter-of-fact as she speaks from the FEMA trailer in her front yard, six feet from the house she is rebuilding in New Orleans's Ninth Ward: "I think I'd be dead if it wasn't...

MOMENTUM WILL build for the players (finally) to form a creditable union, i.e., an entity that will defend them when they fail drug tests.

"I'm definitely in better shape than I get credit for. [It's] just because I have large bosoms and I have a big ass.... I think if I were not to eat for two years, I still wouldn't be a size 2....

An American Trifecta Was a Team Effort

AT THE foot of Huentitán Canyon in an impoverished community outside Guadalajara, Mexico, La Barranca Elementary School is a beacon of hope. Several of its 240 students have earned medals at...

TIGER WOODS will win the Grand Slam. He owns Augusta National. Ditto for Torrey Pines, the muni in San Diego where the U.S. Open will be held. Royal Birkdale rewards shotmaking more than any other...

"It's different eating here than at the house. Ain't got no sweet tea and ain't got no fried chicken."

BOXING

WITH EIGHT wins in 814 starts, Kyle Petty won't be remembered for his exploits on the track. Instead, his legacy will be the 72 wooded acres in Randleman, N.C., that make up Victory Junction Gang...

IN HIS first season driving for NASCAR powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will win at least five races, including the Daytona 500—but it won't be enough to keep new teammate...

"What a fluke that was!"

The Healing Power of Football Games

DEVON YADA'S room is as messy as most 13-year-olds' rooms, but his soccer trophies are perfectly ordered and proudly displayed on a shelf. He has autism, but thanks to Taylor Bell, a senior at...

MATER DEI (Santa Ana, Calif.) will be the top football team in the country and win its 10th CIF championship thanks to QB Matt Barkley. Rated the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2009 by Rivals.com,...

Yeller Jacket Georgia Tech guard Anthony Morrow let everyone know he'd snatched a rebound, one of the five that he grabbed during the Yellow Jackets' 71--66 loss to Kansas on Dec. 18 in Atlanta.

From across the U.S. and around the globe, they dominated their respective sports and, in many cases, primed themselves for next summer's Beijing Olympics—and immortality

On Dec. 23, 1982, with no TV cameras and very few press on hand, tiny Chaminade of Honolulu shocked Ralph Sampson and No. 1 Virginia. Why college basketball hasn't been the same since

HOOPS HISTORY Watch highlights from Chaminade's unforgettable upset of Virginia. ONLY AT SI.COM