Due to what we can only imagine was a sport photographers’ strike in the mid-’60s, Sports Illustrated were forced to fill their magazine with images of bikini-clad models rather than the usual boxers and ball players.

Although relations were patched up, and the snappers all went back to work, SI still commemorate the help of those brave swimsuit photographers who stepped into the breach (on the beach, arf).

They do this annually by releasing one issue consisting only of swimsuit images (a practice which would seem bizarre, without knowledge of its historical significance).

The folks at the (unfortunately-titled) Horny Oyster have compiled all 40 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition covers and, in the process, unearthed some inalienable truths:

• somehow, seeing a girl wring water out of her hair is sexier than seeing one remove a bikini top;
• despite what everyone says, the 1970’s was NOT the decade that fashion forgot; and
• there must be some very attractive 60-something women out there.

40 years of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition covers [*achem* Horny Oyster]