The Lineup

50

sportsmen of the year

The 2004 Boston Red Sox staged the most improbable comeback in baseball history and liberated their long-suffering nation of fans by Tom Verducci

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

70 Call It the Twiceman

Three top teams have two bona fide Heisman candidates

by Austin Murphy

PRO BASKETBALL

78 Soaring to Old Heights

After five ankle operations, Grant Hill is dazzling again

by Chris Ballard

PRO FOOTBALL

86 Down in the Dumps

It's been a long fall from the top for the Dolphins and 49ers

by Michael Silver

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

90 Ahead of Schedule

NBA scouts love 7foot high school junior Greg Oden

by Tim Layden

PAINTBALL

96 Whose Idea Was This?

In 1981 some friends settled a beef by shooting paint at one another. Look what came of it

by Charles Gaines

TRACK AND FIELD

116 The Color of Speed

Many fans who can't believe Olympic 400-meter champ Jeremy Wariner is white have argued it out on the Web

by Gary Smith

Departments

8 Leading Off

18 Letters

20 Contributors

23 Air and Space

Harvard footballers win, graduate and even go pro by Steve Rushin

24 Scorecard

• NFL unkind to college coaches

• Bon voyage, Landon Donovan

• NBA brawl's aftermath

36 Faces in the Crowd

39 Players

146 Life of Reilly

Sox, Shmox. My Sportsman pick is Bill Buckner by Rick Reilly

Inside ...

130 The NBA

• Ray Allen leads booming Sonics

133 College Basketball

• Wake's other good guard

135 College Football

• Big-time coaches on the bubble

• Here comes Showdown Saturday

138 Motor Sports

• SI's Driver of the Year: Johnson

141 The NFL

• Moss back in the (end) zone

• Dr. Z likes the Chargers

Cover

PHOTOMOSAIC BY ROBERT SILVERS/

www.photomosaic.com

(PHOTOGRAPHS BY

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED/AP/GETTY IMAGES)

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COLOR PHOTO

DAVID N. BERKWITZ (2)

1918 team sweater and ball

COLOR PHOTO

DAVID N. BERKWITZ (2)

COLOR PHOTO

BRIAN BAHR/GETTY IMAGES (FOOTBALL)

THANKS A LOT

Three days after Thanksgiving, Denver lost to Oakland in a snowstorm (page 144).