NEW YORK, N.Y.—"SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S Sportsman of the Year 2000" is heading to the Beacon Theatre in New York City for a live event which will air on Thursday, December 14 at 10 pm ET/PT on the CBS Television Network.

The Sportsman of the Year Award has been conferred since 1954 by SPORTS ILLUSTRATED to those who symbolize in character and performance the ideals of sportsmanship. This year's Sportsman, to be honored at the event on Tuesday, December 12, will be joined by an impressive assembly of sports personalities and celebrities from the world of entertainment. Also during the one-hour show, SI will bestow a lifetime achievement award, name a Young Sportsman of the Year, honor the achievements of the U.S. athletes at the Sydney Olympic Games, and highlight the top six sports achievements from 2000.

Among the many sports personalities scheduled to appear at the show are Tiger Woods, Venus and Serena Williams, John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Derek Jeter, Don Shula, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Frazier, over 30 current U.S. gold medallists from the Sydney Games including Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson, and dozens of past Sportsman of the Year recipients.

CBS Sports' Jim Nantz, host of "The NFL Today," will host the evening's festivities. Included among the many celebrity presenters are Billy Baldwin, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Bill Cosby, Dustin Hoffman, Heidi Klum, Omar Epps, Gary Sinise, Daniela Pestova, Molly Sims, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake from 'Nsync and Vince Vaughn. Grammy-winning pop star Marc Anthony will perform on stage. "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S Sportsman of the Year 2000" will be taped on December 12 at the Beacon Theater and will air on CBS on Thursday, December 14 at 10 pm ET/PT.

The Sportsman of the Year Awards is produced by TWI, the television division of sports marketing giant IMG. Bob Horowitz and Mike Klingensmith are executive producers; Marty Callner ("Bette Midler in Concert: Diva Las Vegas," "Garth Brooks Live") is the producer and Randy Gladstein is the supervising producer. TWI produces and distributes over 5,000 hours of programming annually and is the largest independent producer and distributor of sports programming in the world.

The sponsors for the Sportsman of the Year 2000 are Capital One, IBM, Lincoln and State Farm.

Capital One Financial Corporation is a financial services company that offers customized financial products and services to meet individual consumers' needs. In just five years, Capital One has become one of the largest credit card issuers with more than 30 million customers-adding 20,000 new customers every day. Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, Capital One has operations throughout the United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. The company's entrepreneurial culture and dynamic work environment have generated widespread recognition of Capital One as one of the nation's best places to work (including Fortune magazine's prestigious list of the best places to work for two consecutive years).

IBM is the world's largest information technology provider (hardware, software, services) and a worldwide leader in e-business solutions. IBM's 1999 revenues totaled more than $87 billion. The company has more than 300,000 employees and does business in more than 160 countries. For more information on IBM, please visit www.ibm.com.

Lincoln, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., markets the Lincoln LS, Lincoln Navigator, Lincoln Town Car and Lincoln Continental. Lincoln's new Blackwood will arrive in dealerships in spring 2001. As a brand with a rich history in the earliest days of the automotive industry, Lincoln has redefined American luxury as confident, optimistic and inviting. More information is available at www.lincolnvehicles.com.

State Farm Insurance, headquartered in Bloomington, Ill., is the leading insurer of cars and homes in the United States, protecting one out of every five insured cars on the road and one out of every four homes. State Farm is a mutual company that offers various insurance policies, including boat, business, health, life, and long-term care insurance. State Farm also offers customers financial services through agents and the Internet with State Farm Bank (statefarm.com). More than 79,000 people in the U.S. and Canada work for State Farm. They join the 16,250 independent-contractor agents in providing premiere service for nearly 67 million auto, home, life and health policyholders.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, with a readership of nearly 21 million adults weekly, is published by Time Inc., the world's leading magazine publishing company and a subsidiary of Time Warner. The SI franchise also encompasses: SI PRESENTS, the magazine's specialty publishing division; "SI Golf Plus," a selective editorial section; SI FOR KIDS, a monthly magazine targeted to kids age 8 and up and the SI FOR KIDS web site located at www.sikids.com; CNN/SI, the 24-hour sports news and information network; CNNSI.com, SI's home on the World Wide Web; SPORTS ILLUSTRATED FOR WOMEN and its home on the World Wide Web at siforwomen.com; SI INTERNATIONAL which develops international publishing ventures and explores opportunities to extend the SI brand globally; SI's worldwide Olympic sponsorship; and SI DEVELOPMENT, which produces books, calendars and collectibles.