Sports Illustrated Opened Their Vaults

Sports Illustrated recently hired a bunch of wizards who, in full Fantasia style, waved their wands and magically made the words off of all their old issues come to life, walk across the room, and playfully hop into the computer for the rest of the world to more easily enjoy. At least I assume that's how they did it. After Myspace became succesful, I decided technology was no longer for me and promptly replaced all the computer knowledge in my brain with the comprehensive scripts from all Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1940-1964. I think I'm better for it.

Even if I have a couple details behind the process wrong, the result is the same. The text from Sports Illustrated issues dating back to 1954 are all available online for free. If you want to skim through everything they've ever written about the Buccaneers, click here. It's kind of fun. For example, in their second mention ever about the Bucs is a John McKay quote that I don't think I've ever heard.

John McKay, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, asked how he and his staff were managing to operate without any players because of the delayed allocation draft: "We all have swivel chairs. We look at one wall for a while, then turn and look at another."

Or this one from Dewey Selmon in 1980:

Dewey Selmon, Tampa Bay Buccaneer linebacker, who is working on a Ph.D. in philosophy at Oklahoma: "Philosophy is just a hobby. You can't open up a philosophy factory."

And upon Steve Christie's official retirement this offseason, we can now recall how Christie actually screwed the Bucs when he broke a promise to new coach Sam Wyche when Plan B free agency was in full swing.

Before the Feb. 1 start of the plan B free-agent signing period, kicker Steve Christie assured the Bucs he wouldn't accept another team's offer if he wasn't among Tampa Bay 's 37 protected players. The next week he signed a $2.23 million, four-year deal with the Bills.

Paul Stewart over at Bucpower.com must be absolutely erect with this kind of access to SI's archives. I plan to scour these regularly to see what kind of good Buccaneer nuggets I can dig up, and also to determine if there was a time when Dr. Z. was ever happy.