THE first nominations arrive in October, and by mid-December a steady stream of letters come in from readers enjoying a regular year-end pastime offering suggestions for TIME'S Man of the Year. This year the Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts, fulfilling the promise of 1968's Men of the Year, ranked high. So did Ralph Nader, Spiro T. Agnew and the American G.I. Golda Meir, F. Lee Bailey, Wernher Von Braun and Arlo Guthrie all had their supporters.

But TIME'S editors decided--as did a number of readers--that the events of 1969 transcended specific individuals. In a time of dissent and "confrontation," the most striking new factor was the emergence of the so-called "Silent Majority" as a powerfully assertive force in U.S. society. Mr. and Mrs. Middle America are the ones who sent President Nixon to the White House and the astronauts to the moon, who feel most threatened by the attacks on traditional values, who, as TIME says, "shaped the course of legislation, and thus began to shape the course of the nation and the nation's course in the world."

To identify, understand and report their mood, TIME correspondents--notably Washington's Hugh Sidey, Chicago's Champ Clark, Los Angeles' Don Neff, Boston's Greg Wierzynski, San Francisco's Jesse Birnbaum and Atlanta's Roger Williams--interviewed Middle Americans across the land, as well as politicians and sociologists. Associate Editor Lance Morrow, along with Senior Editor Jason McManus and Researcher Mary Kelley, wrote our cover story on the Men and Women of the Year.

This week's magazine presents another long-standing year-end feature: TIME'S All-America selection of the outstanding college football players for 1969. Many publications dealing with sport have an All-America roster, but we like to believe that TIME'S is the most authoritative. Instead of totting up the votes of sportswriters, coaches or other spectator sportsmen, TIME'S team is chosen by the men who must back their choices with cash: the professional scouts. How have they done over the years? Superlatively, for the most part. Last year the scouts chose University of Cincinnati's Greg Cook as their top college quarterback; with the professional Cincinnati Bengals this year, Cook is the American Football League's leading passer. Yet the scouts can be fallible too. One fellow who was somehow overlooked last year was Yale's Calvin Hill--the Dallas Cowboys' running sensation this year. In presenting the choices for 1969, the editors wish both scouts and players a very good year in 1970.

The Cover: Assemblage by Vin Giuliani.

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