As a kid, badminton was one of the sports that I was actually good at and I thought it was cool that SI featured a badminton player on one of their covers when they could be covering more popular sports.Thumbing through this week's SI, I cam upon the obituary of badminton great, Joseph Alston (pg. 16), "the only American to win the men's doubles title -- with Johnny Heah of Malaysia -- in 1957 in the All England Open Badminton Championships". Alston was also an FBI agent residing in the Los Angeles area. From 1967 through 1980, Alston served as the FBI's major case coordinator in Los Angeles. He was the lead Los Angeles agent investigating the 1974 kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.
Joseph Alston was on the cover of the March 7, 1955 cover of Sports Illustrated. Back in the day when baseball, boxing, and horse racing were king, SI still managed to give some time to the little guy in sports. From sky diving, to bull fighting, badminton, to show dogs, SI has covered all sports, or what was considered sport for the time.
Click onto the LA Times to discover more about Joseph Alston's rich life, or pick up an original copy of the 3/7/55 issue.
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