NEW HUDSON – When Ryan Talaga bought his classic car four years ago, he never dreamed he’d be on the cover of a national sports magazine this month alongside Detroit Lions football players.
The 1957 Ford Fairlane convertible was the perfect prop for the cover of Sports Illustrated’s football preview, which featured Lions quarterback Jared Goff leaning in the driver’s seat, right tackle Penei Sewell at the wheel and receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown perched in the back seat with the headline “DRIVE TO REVIVE.”
“This color combination matched really well with the cars I had,” Talaga said of the Fairlane, which features a Colonial White finish with a Powder Blue interior. “I think it was just a combination made in heaven. I’m so honored and humbled to have been able to join and be a part of it.”
Talaga, a member of the Spark Plug Auto Club, first heard from a fellow car enthusiast that Sports Illustrated was looking for the 1957 classic car in May.
Everything about his car, from the year to the color, fit the vision of Sports Illustrated, with a cover headline that read, “The Lions Are Back: Right Team, Right City, Right Time.”
The magazine predicted that the Lions would play in and win the Super Bowl for the first time since the team last won an NFL championship in 1957.
In late July, Talaga, who is also a Lions season-ticket holder, drove his Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable hardtop to Allen Park, where the Lions practice. He helped set up the vehicle on the field before the players arrived on July 23 for an hour-long photo shoot. Goff, Sewell and St. Brown were joined for the photoshoot by teammates Alex Anzalone (linebacker), Taylor Decker (left tackle) and Aidan Hutchinson (defensive end).
In a video clip from the photo shoot, Hutchinson is seen behind the wheel of a Ford and says, “This is actually what I’ve been looking for.”
It’s unclear how many still are sold today: Ford built fewer than 21,000 Fairlane 500 Skyliners in 1957, and by the time production of the model ended in 1959, fewer than 50,000 were still on the road.
An electric clock comes standard, and while Talaga noted that the model would have had a black and white interior from the factory, one of the things he liked most about the car when he bought it on Facebook Marketplace was the powder blue interior.
Talaga, an account manager for an auto parts supplier in Novi, said his father, Dave, was a classic car enthusiast so he grew up surrounded by vintage cars and is happy to have his own car.
He won’t be driving it to New Orleans if the Lions do indeed make it to the Super Bowl in February, but he will drive it in the victory parade in Detroit.
Whatever happens, Talaga expressed his gratitude to Sports Illustrated for the “once in a lifetime” opportunity to interact with the players, and summed up what being a Lions fan means to him in a Sports Illustrated video clip:
“It’s one of the things that’s made me a tougher person,” he said. “It really builds character. When you get knocked down, you get up and you keep fighting. That’s what life is all about.”
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Contact reporter Susan Bromley at sbromley@hometownlife.com or 517-281-2412.