I love Lucy Props, Magazines, Ricardo's Bookshelf

Fred Mertz’s Sports Illustrated Magazine

Fread reads Sports Illustrated Magazine
Fread reads Sports Illustrated Magazine in Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums

In the I Love Lucy episode Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums  Fred Mertz is seen reading a copy of Sports Illustrated dated Nov 22 1954. This was actually Season 6 (1956–57) of I Love Lucy and the film date of this episode was June 28, 1956 which aired on October 8, 1956 so the magazine was over a year and a half old when the episode was filmed. This was not just any back issue though, it was the magazine’s first cover to feature a professional football player.

Sports Illustrated Nov 22 1954
Sports Illustrated Nov 22 1954

Vol. 1 No. 15 Sports Illustrated November 22, 1954 with San Francisco 49ers quarterback and Hall of Famer Y.A. Tittle on the front cover.

See one on eBay HERE

Ref:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y._A._Tittle