MEMO from the publisher

It spoils the fun a little if you know exactly what you're going to get for Christmas. But it's always a fair part of the game to peek over the banister for a preview of the presents in their wrappings—if you can get away with it. Having done that myself with next week's Special Holiday Issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, I think I can give an idea of what's coming without actually untying the ribbon on the package you see here.

•First is the announcement of our fourth annual Sportsman of the Year. Added to the big story this year is a gallery of other sportsmen—those our staff members would have named for the honor had they been limited to the field of sport in which they and their choices are expert. You'll get a look at not only the sportsmen but their highly partisan pickers as well.

•Then—PREVIEWS of the five top bowl games Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton and Gator, with Scouting Reports on the teams and a special feature on the key play to watch for in each game.

•The second annual Silver Anniversary All-America: the football lettermen of 25 years ago who have most distinguished themselves in their careers since then, as selected by an eminent board of judges.

•A fun and games section, with some surprises as pleasant as being caught under the mistletoe; and perhaps, in a new bridge quiz by Charles Goren, also as embarrassing.

•The finale of Willy Schaeffler's ski series—the last word on the revolutionary reverse shoulder, heel thrust and comma position.

•A solution to the problem of dinner if that most elusive of birds, the wild turkey, flies through the window about the time 15 guests drop in to watch the bowl game with you. But also, in a more practical vein, how to go about it if you have the guests without the turkey.

•And a good deal more, all in the holiday spirit and all in the spirit of good sport.

It's an extra large issue, a two-in-one issue, which means that the following week there'll be an intermission. And then we'll be off and running in 1958.

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