Happy Birthday, Champ

February 9, 1964 is considered by many to be the beginning of the youth culture movement by the burgeoning Baby Boomers. The Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show sent thousands of young girls screaming and thousands of young boys to grow their hair and pick up guitars.

Stunned as we were after the assassination of the President just three months earlier, we were ready for a lift, and the upbeat lyrics, the jangle of guitars and cheeky humor of the Liverpudlians was just the ticket. We were captivated and popular music was to become the media to carry the message.

A little over two weeks later, however, another event took place in Miami, Florida, which in the long run had more impact on the last half of the 20th Century than the Beatles music. Cassius Clay won the heavyweight crown over Sonny Liston.

I was reminded of this because on the 17th of January, Muhammad Ali turned 65 years old. No single person has represented the events of his era more than Ali. No single person has impacted the culture of the United States more than he. He has overcome poverty, illiteracy and the prejudice and hatred of race and creed. He has emerged as the most recognized personality on the planet, a hero in sports and a role model in life for millions around the world.

His sports legacy is secured. His record in boxing will never be surpassed. The Wikipedia says, “In 1999, Sports Illustrated crowned Ali “Sportsman of the Century”. He won the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship three times, and won the North American Boxing Federation championship as well as an Olympic gold medal. Muhammad Ali defeated almost every top Heavyweight in his era, an era that has been called the Golden Age of Heavyweight boxing. Ali was named "Fighter of the Year" by Ring Magazine more times than any other fighter, and was involved in more Ring Magazine "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He is an inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and holds wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees. He is also one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. He is regarded as one of the best pound for pound boxers in history. “

To this fourteen year old, Cassius Clay was unlike any athlete, especially a boxer, that he had ever seen. An avid reader of the various sports pages, I had followed Clay’s career after he had won the Olympic Gold in 1960. On WABC-AM in NYC, Howard Cosell had a five-minute sports show on every weekday afternoon. Cosell was a big protagonist of the young boxer, and talked him up on many occasions. Later, their verbal sparring on the Wide World of Sports TV show would change the way sports interviews were held.

It wasn’t the skill of the fighter that was so attractive. I was not then nor am I now a fight aficionado. It was the persona of Clay that was so different from what athletes were in that era. He was, to use his own word, "pretty." In a sport in which the object is to pummel your opponent, Clay didn’t have the calloused ears or smashed noses like boxers I was used to seeing. It was like he was never touched. He was a Negro, at the beginning of the Black Movement. And not deferential as other athletes before him had been. He was the beginning of the celeberty athlete. His opponents weren’t tough adversaries; they were “chumps”, not worthy to be in the same ring with him. Sonny Liston was “a big, ugly bear.” And, when asked how he was to fight the odds on favorite, Liston, Clay responded with the immortal phrase, he would “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” No, there had never been anyone in sports like Cassius Clay. And, with the same adulation I gave the Beatles, I was a fan of the young boxer. Unlike the way our elders would have us believe, the brash, outspoken kid from Louisville didn't get his "come-uppance, he actually beat the bigger and more powerful Liston. The world would never be the same. “From his rematch with Liston in May 1965, to March 1967, he defended his title nine times. Few other heavyweight champions in history have fought so much in such a short period.” (Wikipedia)

But the 1960’s were a time of social and political upheaval and The Champ, as he became to be known, reflected those times. After his defeat of Liston, it was announced that Clay had converted to Islam, and was now to be called Cassius X, a name given him by the then controversial Malcolm X. This conversion was controversial because of the rhetoric and beliefs being put forth at the time by the Black Muslims. While Martin Luther King was preaching non-violence and integration, the Black Muslims believed in Black Power, a phrase that stirred uneasy feelings in more moderate thinkers. And this power was to be developed by any means including violence, if necessary. Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (forth rightly guided caliph). Only a few journalists (most notably Howard Cosell) accepted it at that time. Fittingly, Muhammad Ali, became to be called just Ali. The first of the one-name celebrities, like Cher or Prince or Madonna.

Because of his religious beliefs, Ali applied for conscientious objector status when declared 1-A by the Draft Board. The Viet Nam War was escalating on an almost daily basis. The Viet Nam War had polarized the nation, as friends and families were divided by the ideologies of being for or against the war. College campuses were scenes of political unrest, as the students, in danger of being sent to a war they decried, railed against the military draft that was reaping the harvest of America’s young men for death in South East Asia. And here again, Ali became the symbol of America’s youth.

The Beatles and other music artists were outspoken about the War, and wrote songs and gave interviews about their anti-war views. But while they were singing about love and peace and politicians like Wayne Morris and George McGovern were orating against the War, it was Ali that laid it all on the line in his protest. After refusing to step forward when called foward by his draft board because they used his former name, Ali's actions in refusing military service and aligning himself with the Nation of Islam made him a lightning rod for controversy, turning the outspoken but popular former champion into one of that era's most recognizable and controversial figures. Near the end of 1967, at his prime as a boxer, Ali was stripped of his title by the professional boxing commission and would not be allowed to fight professionally for more than three years. He was also convicted for refusing induction into the army and sentenced to five years in prison. Over the course of those years in exile, Ali fought to appeal his conviction. He stayed in the public spotlight and supported himself by giving speeches, primarily at rallies on college campuses that opposed the Vietnam War. In 1970, Ali was allowed to fight again, and in late 1971 the Supreme Court reversed his conviction.

"The only place they can take my title away from me is in the ring. And nobody can do it there, either"
Reaction to WBA stripping him of his title for refusing induction into the army.

Allowed to fight again, Ali thrilled the world of sports by winning the Crown back and staging five thrilling fights with opponents Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and George Foreman. The boxing lore Ali created with the “Thrilla in Manila” and the “Rumble in the Jungle” is indeed the stuff of legend and even people not interested in boxing are familiar with those fights.

For whatever reasons, the money, the challenge or the reluctance to leave the limelight, Ali fought well past his prime and to those of us who thrilled at the skills we witnessed in our youth we were pained to watch the shell we saw on that Bahaman night when he lost to Trevor Berbick in 1981. Ali finally hung the gloves up for good that night.

His health was already a thing of gossip when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the early 80’s. Too many fights certainly aided in the disease’s onslaught, severely affecting his motor skills. Yet, even at 65, when he needs help to stand and has trouble in speech, there is no mistaking the twinkle in the eye signifying the humor and wit that captivated us when we were first introduced to the young fighter is still intact.

According to the Muhammad Ali Center website, "Since he retired from boxing, Ali has devoted himself to humanitarian endeavors around the globe. He is a devout Sunni Muslim, and travels the world over, lending his name and presence to hunger and poverty relief, supporting education efforts of all kinds, promoting adoption and encouraging people to respect and better understand one another. It is estimated that he has helped to provide more than 22 million meals to feed the hungry. Ali travels, on average, more than 200 days per year."

He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony and the prestigious "Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold" of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the US civil rights movement and the United Nations.

"People don't realize what they had till it's gone. Like President Kennedy - nobody like him. The Beatles, there will never be anything like them. Like my man, Elvis Presley. I was the Elvis of boxing"

They say that Ali now lives quietly in Arizona, watching his old boxing tapes and movies of “his man”, Elvis. Ali certainly has earned the right to that peaceful life. For 20 years, during the most turbulent time in modern history, when American social life was shook up and spilled out in an order completely different than the times that preceded them, Ali was a figure that not only helped to form the new order, he also was representative of the values we tried to hold on to. He was courageous, honest and totally guileful. Playful and witty he shaped the persona of the professional athlete to this day. He loves children and continually works toward the care, feeding and education of children around the world. He has a strong faith in God and has a gentleness that was apparent even when he plied the most savage of trades. He knew right from wrong and always seemed above the fray, whether it is was his opponent in the ring, the United States Government or public opinion. And he was champion over all of them. And he still is considered the World’s Champion.

Happy Birthday, Champ!