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    Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century
    Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century
    Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century
    Ebook200 pages2 hours

    Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century

    By The Associated Press

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    About this ebook

    Born in January of 1942, Cassius Clay Jr. would go on to win the world heavyweight championship, join the Nation of Islam, change his name and captivate the world with his political stance on Vietnam, social justice and race. His decorated career is only matched by his controversial and polarizing personality. Presented through the notepads and cameras of Associated Press journalist and photographers, this is Muhammad Ali, Athlete of the Century.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAP Editions
    Release dateMar 30, 2015
    ISBN9781633531444
    Muhammad Ali: Athlete of the Century

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      Book preview

      Muhammad Ali - The Associated Press

      Publisher’s Note

      AP Editions are a collection of reports written by staff members of The Associated Press.

      These stories are presented in their original form and are intended to provide a snapshot of history as the moments occurred.

      We hope you enjoy these selections from the front lines of newsgathering.

      I don't have to be what you want me to be, I'm free to be who I want.

      – Muhammad Ali

      Table of Contents

      Publisher’s Note

      Overview

      Introduction

      The Stolen Bike

      Remembering the Olympics

      The Big Fight

      Slave Name

      Political Fighter

      Rumble in the Jungle

      Joe Frazier

      Life After Boxing

      Undisputed

      Between the Ropes

      Credits

      Overview

      American heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is one of the most revered athletes of the 20th century.

      He was an Olympic gold medalist in 1960 and the only boxer to win the professional heavyweight title three times.

      Ali was outspoken on issues of race, religion and politics, and became a controversial figure. In 1967, he refused to serve in Vietnam, citing religious beliefs, and was stripped of his heavyweight championships. Banned from boxing for the next three years, the US Supreme Court reinstated his victories in 1971 and, once again, he was The Greatest.

      For many, Muhammad Ali, whose career began in 1964, is considered the best heavyweight boxer of all time. His unparalleled achievements were recognized in 1990 when he was inducted into the international Boxing Hall of Fame.

      The reporters and photographers of The Associated Press captured the life of this legendary icon as he made news, both professionally and personally, over several decades.

      Introduction

      Legacy

      By Tim Dahlberg

      February 22, 2014

      He's an old man now, his body ravaged by Parkinson's Syndrome and his voice long since muted. The world has known him as Muhammad Ali for a half century, and he's as revered now as he was once reviled.

      The changes in society in those 50 years seem almost as unimaginable as young Cassius Clay winning the title in the first place. Ali was squarely in the middle of some of them in a way no athlete had ever before been.

      I really think in my mind the '60s really began with that fight, Lipsyte, who covered Ali for the New York Times, said. Kennedy was recently dead, which was the end of the '50s, and here we are on the verge of this new world of civil rights, anti-war demonstrations, and anti-authoritarianism. The Beatles were in that mix, Malcolm X was there. It seemed like there was a confluence of all those factors that would be the foundation of the '60s and the changes that would come from that.

      The military draft notice that had loomed for Ali since before the first Liston fight would arrive during the prime of his career, and he famously refused induction in 1967, saying he was a conscientious objector who would not serve in the Army of a country that treated members of his race as second-class citizens. By this time, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war was escalating, and supporters and opponents were hardening their positions.

      I ain't got no quarrel with those Viet Cong, he said, setting off on a path that cost him more than three years of his career and nearly put him in prison. Ali became a symbolic, if unlikely, figure of the anti-war movement, though his mind was always more on resuming his career than furthering the cause.

      Even when he was cleared on a technicality by the U.S. Supreme Court he was a pariah to many.

      Ali would go on to be the first man to win the heavyweight championship three times, engaging in epic fights in faraway places that were so big they had names like Rumble in the Jungle and Thrilla in Manila.

      Former heavy weight champion Muhammad Ali poses in an undated photo. (AP Photo/David Bookstaver)

      A portrait of boxing great Muhammad Ali in his prime is part of the collection of artwork. (AP Photo/Bruce Schreiner)

      And when he stood trembling, torch in hand, to light the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996, many of those watching couldn't help but tremble along with him.

      More than a fighter, he was for many an athlete who transcended sports as a champion of principle and human rights. More than just a man, he had become a figure of almost mythic proportion.

      You can't interview him anymore, but he still has this kind of marvelous physical presence. He still seems to glow, Lipsyte said of Ali, who's now 72 and living in Scottsdale, Ariz. I have obviously not had any substantive conversations with him in years but I still smile and feel good in his presence. He has that effect.

      Liston would fight for several more years, though he never got another chance at the title. He was found dead in 1970 in his Las Vegas home in what was ruled a drug overdose but what some of his contemporaries thought might have been a mob hit.

      Charles 'Sonny' Liston. 1932-1970, reads the tombstone near the city's airport. A man.

      They were both men, different men who both wanted the same thing. It was Feb. 25, 1964, and in Miami Beach, the man who would become Muhammad Ali did what he said he would and shocked the world.

      And the world would never be the same.

      1

      The Stolen Bike

      By Bruce Schreiner

      January 12, 2012

      Long before his dazzling footwork and punching prowess made him a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion known as Muhammad Ali, a young Cassius Clay honed his skills by sparring with neighborhood friends and running alongside the bus on the way to school.

      The man who became the world's most recognizable athlete was a baby sitter, a jokester and a dreamer in the predominantly black West End neighborhood of Louisville where he grew up and forged lasting friendships while beginning his ascent toward greatness.

      Those who knew him before he developed his famous ringside persona - the brash predictions followed by rapid-fire punches that backed up his taunts - remember a happy-go-lucky kid with a ready smile who had a serious side, aspiring to show his mettle as a fighter.

      Ali's boyhood neighbor, Lawrence Montgomery Sr., 78, was one of the first to feel the sting of the young boxer's jabs. At the teenage boy's request, Montgomery held up his hands and Ali popped them with punch after punch.

      Montgomery saw early glimpses of the boxing legend's bravado that earned him the Louisville Lip nickname.

      He told me then that he was going to be the heavyweight champion of the world, and I didn't believe him, Montgomery told The Associated Press. I told him, `Man, you better get that out of your mind.' But he succeeded. He followed through.

      Early on, Ali's neighbors and classmates saw the work ethic that enabled him to defeat the likes of Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Sonny Liston in epic bouts that sealed his reputation as an all-time great.

      Instead of riding a bus to school, Ali raced it in early-morning workouts that stretched for miles.

      He would jog and of course we'd pass him up, said Shirlee Smith, 69, who graduated with Ali

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