There have been football, baseball, and golf players named as Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year, as well as entire teams; tennis, golf, and hockey players, track runners, boxers, and Olympians have won the award, too, but only one man has ever represented the Horse Racing Industry in capturing this SI prize -- Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen.
Steve Cauthen -- "The Kid"
Sports Illustrated got to Steve Cauthen with its Sportsman of the Year award a year early. Cauthen's record 487 wins in 1977 and his resultant record $6 million in earnings was a precursor to "the best is yet to come", for in the following season, he sat aboard Affirmed and scored the last Triple Crown championship ever achieved.
Many jockeys have won two of the three American Triple Crown races, but in 1978 Cauthen won the triple event for the 11th time in history, and the victory still stands as the last time the Triple Crown has been swept by one man. With Affirmed, he ran away from Alydar, piloted by Cauthen's friend Jorge Velasquez, in all three races, the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.
Cauthen grew up in Northern Kentucky, the son of a blacksmith, and earned the nickname "The Kid" in 1977 because his youth and a baby face belied his phenomenal success in a dangerous sport that required large portions of strength and raw courage in its human participants, as well as in its horses.
Sportsman of the Year Since 1954
Sports Illustrated began its Sportsman of the Year award in 1954, featuring the winner on its cover. The first to win the award was track star Roger Bannister, the first runner to achieve a less-than-four-minute mile. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps claimed the title this year after winning a record eight-for-eight gold medals in Beijing.
Following are the winners in between 1954 and 2008:
- Johnny Podres -- baseball -- 1955
- Bobby Morrow -- track -- 1956
- Stan Musial -- baseball -- 1957
- Rafer Johnson -- decathlon -- 1958
- Ingemar Johansson -- boxing -- 1959
- Arnold Palmer -- golf -- 1960
- Jerry Lucas -- basketball -- 1961
- Terry Baker -- football/basketball -- 1962
- Pete Rozelle -- football -- 1963
- Ken Venturi -- golf -- 1964
- Sandy Koufax -- baseball -- 1965
- Jim Ryun -- track -- 1966
- Carl Yastrzemski -- baseball -- 1967
- Bill Russell -- basketball -- 1968
- Tom Seaver -- baseball -- 1969
- Bobby Orr -- hockey -- 1970
- Lee Trevino -- golf -- 1971
- John Wooden, basketball, and Billie Jean King, tennis -- 1972
- Jackie Stewart -- Formula One racing -- 1973
- Muhammad Ali -- boxing -- 1974
- Pete Rose -- baseball -- 1975
- Chris Evert -- tennis -- 1976
- Steve Cauthen -- Thoroughbred racing -- 1977
- Jack Nicklaus -- golf -- 1978
- Willie Stargell, baseball, and Terry Bradshaw, football -- 1979
- U.S. Olympic Hockey Team -- 1980
- Sugar Ray Leonard -- boxing -- 1981
- Wayne Gretzky -- hockey -- 1982
- Mary Decker -- track -- 1983
- Mary Lou Retton, gymnist, and Edwin Moses, track -- 1984
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- basketball -- 1985
- Joe Paterno -- football -- 1986
- Only Group Award ever given -- 1987
- Orel Hershiser -- baseball -- 1988
- Greg LeMond -- bicycling -- 1989
- Joe Montana -- football -- 1990
- Michael Jordan -- basketball -- 1991
- Arthur Ashe -- tennis -- 1992
- Don Shula -- football -- 1993
- Bonnie Blair and Johann Olav Koss -- speedskating -- 1994
- Cal Ripken, Jr. -- baseball -- 1995
- Tiger Woods -- golf -- 1996
- Dean Smith -- basketball -- 1997
- Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa -- baseball -- 1998
- U.S. Women's Soccer Team -- 1999
- Tiger Woods -- golf -- 2000
- Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson -- baseball -- 2001
- Lance Armstrong -- bicycling -- 2002
- Tim Duncan and David Robinson -- basketball -- 2003
- The Boston Red Sox Baseball Team -- 2004
- Tom Brady -- football -- 2005
- Dwyane Wade -- basketball -- 2006
- Brett Favre -- football -- 2007
Cauthen Also Starred in Europe
Elected to horse racing's Hall of Fame in 1994, Cauthen said goodbye to American racetracks a year after his Triple Crown triumph. He couldn't make the weights jockeys must adhere to. In Europe, where a jockey's weight is less an issue, Cauthen starred in such famous races as the Epsom, Irish, Italian, and French Derbys.
In the mid-1980s, Cauthen led English-based riders for three seasons in earned victories. By 1992, Cauthen had tired of the battle with his weight. He retired at the end of that season.
Cauthen will always be remembered as "The Kid" who was on fire in 1977 and won the Triple Crown in 1978.
