S.I.’s 1999 NFL Draft preview issue featuring quarterbacks Tim Couch and Akili Smith — both in Cleveland Browns jerseys. Couch went #1 overall to the expansion Browns, while Smith was selected by the Bengals with the third pick. They sandwiched Donovan McNabb, who was booed by Philly fans inside the Theater at MSG when the Eagles chose him second overall.

I haven’t fact-checked this, but I have to imagine Akili Smith is one of the only athletes to wear the jersey of a team he never played for the only time he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Earl “The Pearl” Monroe (with fellow “50 Greatest” player, teammate Walt “Clyde” Frazier looking on) on the April 16, 1973 cover of Sports Illustrated. The Knicks closed out Monroe’s former team, the Baltimore Bullets, in the opening round of the NBA playoffs on their way to the ‘73 title. It remains their most recent NBA championship.

An iconic shot of Tiger Woods teeing off on the 18th Sunday at Augusta.

With 125 total copies graded by CGC, this issue is the second-most frequently graded of Tiger’s covers, trailing only his first cover from October 28, 1996.

As part of S.I.'s 1998 Masters preview, Tiger Woods posed with a 650 lb. adult snow tiger inside a ballroom at Isleworth Country Club. According to the animal trainer and photographer on site, the human Tiger was relaxed for the entirety of the 30-minute photo shoot.

At Augusta, Woods finished T-8 and put the green jacket on his good friend Mark O'Meara.