Sports Illustrated Cover Curse - On a episode of COACH/ABC/1989-97, Coach Hayden Fox's (Craig T. Nelson) portrait was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine with the caption "The Best Coach You Never Heard Of." While Coach Fox was quite honored, his assistant coach Luther Van Dam (Jerry Van Dyke) feared the team would be cursed much like the Oklahoma University football team who won 47 straight games until they appeared on the SI cover and lost the very next game. Luther also thought that since part of his leg appeared in the cover photo that his leg would be cursed as well.