Norman Y. Lono/for New York Daily News
Scott Smith has a collection of more than 19,000 magazines, including nearly 3,000 Sports Illustrateds with autographs from the cover subjects.
Being an autograph hunter isn’t easy — especially when you’re hunting complete no-names.
Scott Smith spent the last 30 years criss-crossing the nation to get John Hancocks from famous athletes and swimsuit icons who have graced the cover of Sports Illustrated.
But after snagging nearly 3,000 signatures from sports stars like Tiger Woods and Yogi Berra, the autograph fiend is setting his sights on more elusive targets: uncredited models who posed for a handful of Sports Illustrated covers shot by New York City photographers decades ago.
“Sports fans don’t know who these guys are, because they are models, not athletes,” says the 48-year-old Pompton Plains, N.J., resident. “So nobody cares who they are, nobody except me.”
One is a short-shorted man in a Kentucky basketball jersey who posed with his back to the camera in 1995. Former New York photographer George Lange can hardly remember taking the photo — let alone the model’s name.
Another is a beautiful-but-nameless young woman photographed swimming in 1963 by Art Kane, a famed New York City-born celeb shooter who died 18 years ago.
Three more are dressed like sports fanatics in a 1978 shot taken in Tribeca — but the photographer is now unsure if she can find their model release forms amid 35 years of work documents.
These missing models are among the final pieces of Smith’s quixotic quest.
Norman Y. Lono/for New York Daily News
The ‘Lost at Sea’ cover sought by Scott Smith
Between its launch in 1954 and last year, Sports Illustrated published 3,224 issues — 3,071 featuring people rather than horses, race cars, dogs or trophies on the cover. Of those, Smith has autographs from 95% of the cover boys and cover girls.
Turns out, getting an autograph from an everyday Joe is harder than landing one from a big-shot athlete. At least the stars are easy to find.
Smith, who used to work on Wall Street and now sells sports memorabilia, including any extra autographed S.I. covers, hits games, trade shows, lectures and stakes out posh Manhattan galas in his quest for superstar ink.
Apparently it works, considering this suburban father of two staked out Michael Jordan so many times that the NBA legend and 51-time Sports Illustrated cover athlete decided it was time to put down his pen after autographing 35 covers.
“Jordan actually likes and appreciates me, but he won’t sign for me anymore,” says Smith. “He’s told me I have enough.”
Many of the sports icons who landed Sports Illustrated covers are now dead, and died before Smith even started collecting. His only hope there is to buy signed covers at auction, as he did for Roberto Clemente and Sonny Liston, among others.
But finding nameless cover models requires even more sleuthing.
To snag the imprimatur of an Australian surfer who landed a 1958 cover, Smith called every surf museum down under to get a name. Then he tracked down the wave rider’s daughter on Facebook and mailed the magazines to Oz for the surfer to sign. Three weeks later, the surfer passed away.
Norman Y. Lono/for New York Daily News
A fan gets close to the action on another of Smith’s covers that still needs a signature.
It truly is a race against time. This summer, Smith finally identified a model from a 1960 cover as Dolores Greer of Southern California, only to learn she had died just days before at the age of 81. Greer’s daughter offered to sign the cover in her mother’s honor, but Smith declined — he only collects autographs from the models themselves.
His dogged approach impresses even the top editors at Sports Illustrated, who possess nothing like Smith’s collection.
“We’re always flattered when someone cares enough about Sports Illustrated to collect all the issues,” says managing editor Chris Stone. “But to take this dramatic next step, to go out and get them signed by every cover subject, it’s pretty astounding to us.”
The magazine, in fact, hired Smith for a few days when it needed help tracking down athletes from old issues.
But now Smith is the one who needs help.
With just 100 covers left unsigned, Smith is asking Daily News readers for tips tracking down a few models whose names have been lost to history. He hopes someone reading this story will recognize one of the models shot by city photographers and contact him at sssiking@aol.com.
“I think three, maybe four are still alive. Maybe all six if I’m lucky,” he says. “It’s a needle in a haystack.”
Norman Y. Lono/for New York Daily News
The photographer can’t trace the three models in this 1978 work.
THE ISSUES STILL OUT:
Jan. 21, 1963
Lost at sea
This unidentified woman was photographed swimming off the coast of Mexico by legendary New York City photographer Art Kane. While many of his subjects were famous musicians like Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, this cover model’s name remains unknown. Kane committed suicide in 1995.
July 17, 1978
Not so easy money
Reanne Rubenstein took this photo in her Tribeca studio in 1978. She has since moved to Tennessee and doesn’t know who the three models are, or where she found them.
Norman Y. Lono/for New York Daily News
Smith used to work on Wall St., but now sells sports memorabilia.
July 22, 1991
Hit the fan
This fan of the future was photographed by Barry Blackman, a New Jersey photographer with no recollection of who this guy is in front of the giant TV screen, according to Smith.
May 29, 1989
Face, then a name
It’s even more of a challenge to find a model when you can’t see his face. This photo was taken by New York photographer George Lange, who tells the Daily News he has no idea who the model is.
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