Sixty five years ago, Sports Illustrated produced its first issue with a photo of Milwaukee on the cover

JR Radcliffe
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The first Sports Illustrated, featuring Eddie Mathews and Milwaukee County Stadium, turns 65 years old in 2019.

It's been 65 years since Aug. 16, 1954 -- the day Sports Illustrated released its inaugural issue with an image of Milwaukee on the cover. 

The cover photo, taken by Mark Kauffman, features Milwaukee Braves great Eddie Mathews taking a swing with County Stadium towering in the background. It's a game between the Milwaukee Braves and New York Giants, with catcher Wes Westrum and umpire Augie Donatelli also in the image. The Giants relocated to San Francisco four years later, and the Braves left for Atlanta in 1965.

The game itself took place on June 9, 1954. New York went on to win the World Series that year and won this particular game, 4-0. It was a game in which the Braves put three future Hall of Famers on the field: Mathews, Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn.

There was no story on Mathews or the Braves in the magazine itself and longtime editor Walter Bingham said he suspected the image was chosen because of the good crowd in the background.

Batter Eddie Mathews,  catcher Wes Westrum and umpire Augie Dontelli returned to County Stadium in 1979 night to recreate the first cover of Sports Illustrated, taken 25 years earlier.

The cover was re-purposed six other times in Sports Illustrated history, including as part of a collage (twice) and four times as the lead image -- most recently on the Aug. 11, 2014 issue celebrating 60 years.

Here's a cool note -- the three principal figures (Mathews, Westrum and Donatelli) returned to County Stadium in 1979 to recreate the image, with Sports Illustrated turning 25 that year.

Donatelli died in 1990, Mathews in 2001 and Westrum in 2002.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.