|
OUT OF LEFT FIELD |
 |
|
PLACE IN HISTORY
|
Ali's saga gets attention
from academics now
of TheColumnists.com
This was one of the lighter moments at the Hofstra University conference on Muhammad Ali in mid-November.
Chuck Wepner, the likeable pug who managed to last into the 15th round, against Ali in 1975, told the audience about his pre-fight instructions to his wife.
“I want you to buy a flimsy, blue negligee,” he said, “and wear it when I come back from the fight because you will be sleeping with the heavyweight champion of the world tonight.”
Wepner took a terrific beating, bleeding buckets of blood it seemed, before the referee, to everybody’s relief, stopped the bout. Wepner’s courageous battle inspired actor Sylvester Stallone, who was in the audience, to model his Rocky Balboa movie character on him.
When Wepner returned to his hotel room, he said, his wife was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for him. She said, “Well, do I sleep with you now or with Muhammad Ali?”
A conference on Muhammad Ali?, you might ask. Why not? Hofstra is good at conferences. It has held symposiums on every President from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton--and on Babe Ruth and Frank Sinatra among others. Ali, who stands as a giant political figure of his time, is as worthy as Sinatra.
The conference included scholarly papers and discussion panels on various aspects of Ali’s career. Among them:
. The early dislike of him as Cassius Marcellus Clay even before he became a Muslim and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
. The question of whether he was used by the Muslims.
. His impact on society at the time and since.
. Opinions about when he evolved from a negative person to an idol of the masses.
. Opinions on his greatness as a fighter.
Prof. James Von Schilling of Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania provided excellent background on Ali’s career. Early-on Ali met opposition for being a braggart that escalated when he became a Muslim and refused to serve in the Army. In 1966 he said, “I ain’t got no quarrel against them Vietcong.” And, “I’m expected to go overseas to help free people in South Vietnam and at the same time my people here are being brutalized and mistreated.”
He was condemned by most of the white establishment. Even the normally mild, respected columnist, Red Smith, wrote that, “Ali makes himself as sorry a spectacle as those unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the war.” Murray Robinson described him as an “adult brat” who “squealed like a cornered rat when tapped for the Army.”
He was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison. His boxing license was stripped in many states. While awaiting appeals before the Supreme Court to overturn his conviction, he was stymied by political opposition in attempts to land fights. Gov. Ronald Reagan of California said, “That draft dodger will never fight in my state, period.”
In 1970 a deal was worked out in Atlanta for him to fight Jerry Quarry. He knocked Quarry out in three rounds. A few months later the Supreme Court overturned his conviction. And as Ali displayed heroics in the ring and more of the public turned against the war in Vietnam, he evolved into a global hero.
Boxing historian Jim Jacobs said, “People began to feel that, whether or not they liked Ali, he shouldn’t have been forced out of boxing for his beliefs.” Red Smith eventually came around to praise him. (The white establishment did not understand that the black community never really shared its hatred of the young man.)
Robert Lipsyte, who covered Ali for The New York Times, noted that if Ali had not made his political stand, he might have gone down as just another great sports star like Michael Jordan, part of the corporate ranks free from political involvement. The irony is that Ali, who was pilloried when he made his courageous political stand, now has become a cash cow adroitly managed by his family and agents, gaining sympathy for his affliction with Parkinsons Syndrome.
He was chosen to light the torch at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He received the Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, who did not mention Ali’s Vietnam stand.
Gene Kilroy, Ali’s voluble business manager, and Maryum (May May) Ali, his oldest daughter, debunked the idea that he was used by the Muslims. “He studied long and hard about the Muslims,” she said. “He saw that it was the only religion that extolled blacks, taught them that blacks were beautiful and told people to clean themselves up.”
Experts Dave Anderson of The New York Times and Larry Merchant, the astute HBO analyst, said it was hard to nail down Ali’s place in history as a fighter. Such great ones as Jack Johnson, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano fought in different eras that were not comparable. Anderson noted the time he arrived in Zaire for the Ali-George Foreman fight and was greeted at the airport by Ali’s plucky trainer, Angelo Dundee, who immediately advised him, “Don’t eat the monkey meat.”
On one panel I had a conversation with author Budd Schulberg, a longtime boxing fan who wrote the novel, “The Harder They Fall.” His screen play for the movie “On The Waterfront” had the classic scene of pug Marlon Brando telling Rod Steiger, “I coulda been a contenda.” Schulberg revealed that the line stemmed from journeyman boxer Roger Donoghue once telling him that at best he could only have become a contender.
Conference co-director, Prof. Michael D’Innocenzo wrote in his introduction that “Rosa [Parks] sat, so Martin [Luther King] could walk. Martin walked, so Obama could run.” Many agreed that Muhammad (Cassius Marcellus Clay was a grand old name) Ali deserved a niche in the history of those times.
©2008 by Stan Isaacs. The Stan Isaacs caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Nov. 24, 2008.
TO ACCESS STAN ISAACS' ARCHIVE OF COLUMNS
ON THIS SITE, CLICK HERE: ISAACS
ARCHIVE
You can comment
on this column online. Please address your message to either
"The Editors" or Stan Isaacs . To send an email, click
here and don't forget to mention Stan's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|