Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest (21 page)

KWAME TOURE [FORMERLY STOKELY CARMICHAEL]:
Going to jail was my job. I’d been arrested twenty-five times in Mississippi and Alabama. So when they told me, “We’ll send you to jail for five years,” what I did was, I sat down and worked out a list of books that I’d finally get a chance to read. I wasn’t worried. I’d get a chance to sleep, no telephones. I’m used to jail. I wasn’t giving up anything. But Muhammad Ali had everything. Fame, glory, money, women, good looks, champion of the world. So when Muhammad would call me—we’d speak back and forth on the telephone—and he’d tell me, “I ain’t going,” I’d say, “Yeah; right on!” But I always wondered, when that final moment comes and he actually has to take that step, how will it come out? Because, no question, the FBI viewed Ali as more of a threat than H. Rap Brown and myself. Muhammad Ali had a broader base than we had. The government recognized that Muhammad Ali could cause more trouble than all of us. That’s why we understood that the weight of the blow would be hardest against Muhammad Ali. They were going to take his championship crown; no doubt about it. They were going to prosecute him; no doubt about it. They were going to do everything possible to bring him to his knees. Of all the people who opposed the war in Vietnam, I think that Muhammad Ali risked the most. Lots of people refused to go. Some went to jail. But no one risked as much from their decision not to go to war in Vietnam as Muhammad Ali. And his real greatness can be seen in the fact that, despite all that was done to him, he became even greater and more humane.

MUHAMMAD ALI:
When a man’s guilty, you don’t just say, “You’re guilty.” You hold court and prove it, and then you say he’s guilty. You don’t tell a man he murdered somebody without giving him a chance to explain and without letting the world see why you’re condemning him. I never heard of them taking nobody else’s title. People such as Sonny Liston have been in jail fifteen or twenty times. There’s people with scandals, people who’ve been caught in their cars, breaking speed limits and carrying guns. And they don’t get suspended, so what’s the reason for suspending me?

WALLY MATTHEWS [SPORTSWRITER]:
It’s very difficult to explain to young people today how important Ali was, because the society has changed so much over the past thirty years. Now black pride is taken for granted. People understand that it’s possible to be a patriotic American and still believe that the war in Vietnam was wrong. And everything today is driven by money; particularly in sports, where athletes think they’re making a sacrifice if they can’t wear clothes with their favorite logo on them at an Olympic awards ceremony. I mean, how do you explain to a twelve-year-old that Muhammad Ali, based on an act of principle, risked going to jail and sacrificed the heavyweight championship of the world. Try explaining that to a young person today. He’ll look at you like you’re crazy; or maybe he’ll think it was Ali who was crazy.

RON BORGES [SPORTSWRITER]:
My father, who’s eighty-eight years old now, isn’t the most liberal person in the world. He was a construction worker for most of his life and he never liked people who talked a lot. But when Ali was willing to go to jail for his beliefs, that got my father’s attention. He told me, “You know, I don’t agree with what this guy is doing, but he’s all right. You get very few chances to be a man in life, and this guy takes advantage of them.” And I’ll tell you something else. My father voted for George Wallace in 1968 and for George McGovern in 1972. That’s quite a change, and I have to believe that watching Muhammad Ali was part of what influenced him.

REGGIE JACKSON [HALL OF FAME BASEBALL PLAYER]:
I remember how I felt when Martin Luther King was assassinated. There was no one to cling to except Ali. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d had that kind of leadership burden thrust upon me. I do know that, ten years later when Ali lost to Leon Spinks, I was at my peak as a sports hero. I was Mr. October. And I knew even then there was no way I could begin to carry that load.

JIM BROWN [FORMER FOOTBALL GREAT AND FOUNDER OF THE BLACK ECONOMIC UNION]:
Ali is the only person I’ve ever seen who I knew was protected. Against all odds, he always came up with something because he’s a spiritual person, and I don’t necessarily mean religion. One thing I know for sure; you can’t use logic when you talk about Muhammad Ali.

OSCAR BROWN, JR.:
I heard the term “exile” used in connection with Ali’s inability to defend his title for a considerable amount of time, but I never thought of it as an exile. It was more just a rip-off and a robbery. Ali didn’t go anyplace; he was still here. The title didn’t go anyplace. The symbol of who is truly the champion of boxing is a belt that’s got diamonds and stuff, and all through the whole period you’re talking about, Ali had that belt in his living room. No, boxing was in exile. Boxing went away from its own standards. Boxing went away from its own creed. Boxing went away from the championship belt. It’s nonsense to talk about Ali being in exile. Ali was right here.

RAMSEY CLARK [FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES]:
His independence was of a different order of independence; almost inherent, as if he was born that way. I’ll bet you anything that, when he was five years old, he was like that. He just did what he thought he ought to do. He wasn’t born to be forced. He’s a totally independent human being. And to some people, that’s very dangerous.

BILL BRADLEY [FORMER BASKETBALL STAR AND UNITED STATES SENATOR]:
Muhammad Ali was important because he was self-possessed in the best sort of way. The fact that he was heavyweight champion added to people’s awareness of him and what he believed. But what was most admirable, regardless of his title, was his willingness to take a stand. That’s something everyone has to learn if we’re to become whole human beings. And because Ali did it, he was a powerful influence on many lives. Because of him, people became convinced that, if they stood up for their beliefs, they could prevail.

MUHAMMAD ALI:
Everyone has a right to their own opinion.

PAT PATTERSON:
There was something about Muhammad that, once you were in his presence, it didn’t matter what you thought about him; you reveled at being there. People who thought they hated his guts would see him, come over, and shake his hand. Even racist redneck bigots would hold out their babies for him to kiss.

MUHAMMAD ALI:
Life is strange. When I wasn’t allowed to fight, it was the Jewish newspaper people [Jerry Izenberg, Robert Lipsyte, Stan Isaacs, Leonard Schecter] and the Jewish TV people [Howard Cosell] who supported me most.

JAMES EARL JONES:
Ali visited the set at Twentieth Century Fox when we were filming
The Great White Hope
. We got in the ring together. We were both wearing boxing gloves. The photographers were busy flashing. Muhammad said, “Go ahead, hit me as hard as you can.” Well, I’d played the Jack Johnson character since the play opened on Broadway. I’d been put through my paces by real boxing trainers. So I gave Muhammad my best left hook; he blocked the blow. And in the process, quite accidentally, he broke my thumb. You know, when a fighter like Ali blocks a punch, the block is devastating in its own power. I felt the pain immediately.

MUHAMMAD ALI [AFTER SEEING
THE GREAT WHITE HOPE
ON BROADWAY]:
One thing is bothering me. What are they gonna do fifty years from now when they write a play about me? I wish I knew how it was gonna turn out.

MUHAMMAD ALI [ON HIS THESPIAN CAREER DURING HIS EXILE FROM BOXING]:
I was in a play called
Buck White
. The play was a flop; it lasted six days. But I was a hit.

BARTLETT GIAMATTI [FORMER PRESIDENT OF YALE UNIVERSITY AND COMMISSIONER OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL]:
It is Ali who brought to the surface the actor in every athlete more successfully and obsessively than anyone else.

DICK SCHAAP:
In 1969, the year the Mets won their first World Series, I spent the last few days of the regular season with the team in Chicago. Ali was living there at the time. I was writing a book with Tom Seaver, and the three of us went out to dinner together. We met at a restaurant called The Red Carpet. I made the introductions. And of course, this was the year that Tom Seaver was Mr. Baseball, maybe even Mr. America. Ali and Tom got along fine. They really hit it off together. And after about half an hour, Ali in all seriousness turned to Seaver and said, “You know, you’re a nice fellow. Which paper do you write for?”

COED:
Would you say you’re the greatest?

MUHAMMAD ALI:
I don’t say that no more. Would you say I’m pretty? Let me hear you.

COED:
I’m pretty.

MUHAMMAD ALI:
But you’re not just asking me to say I’m great. You’re asking me to say I’m the greatest. You say, I’m the prettiest.

COED:
I’m the prettiest.

MUHAMMAD ALI:
You’re lying! [The audience dissolves into laughter] No, darling; I was just playing. Don’t pay no attention. You’re as pretty as you believe and as pretty as you think you are.

HOWARD BINGHAM [ALI’S PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHER AND FRIEND]:
Ali had one of those faces that you could not get enough of. All you had to do was aim, and every photo was an excellent photo. You could not miss with Ali.

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR:
Ali would kid me all the time. He’d say I was almost as good-looking as he was. That’s the best compliment I ever got; someone saying I was almost as good-looking as Ali.

MUHAMMAD ALI:
Talking is a whole lot easier than fighting.

HOSEA WILLIAMS [CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST]:
When Ali gave up the championship, he became America’s number one role model in the black community. And when he came back, he truly convinced us all that, if you stand up and speak out for what is right, you will win in the end; that as tough as it is, even though you’re black and poor, you can make it if you really try.

BRYANT GUMBEL:
Joe Frazier was an available symbol behind whom people who hated Ali could unite. Was it Joe’s fault? Of course not. In fact, one of the sad stories to be written about that era is that Joe Frazier never got his due as a man. In some ways, he symbolized what the black man’s struggle was about far more than Ali did. But it was Joe’s misfortune to be cast as the opponent of a man who was the champion of all good things.

JOHN CONDON:
Joe never liked Ali. He doesn’t like him, didn’t like him, and never will like him. But except for that one incident before their second fight when he went at Muhammad in a TV studio, Joe kept his feelings inside. He bottled them up, stored his hatred, and let everything out in the ring.

BUTCH LOUIS [BOXING PROMOTER AND FORMER “ROAD BUDDY” OF JOE FRAZIER]:
Ali and Joe were like peanut butter and jelly. They needed each other to make things happen.

JOHN CONDON:
You’ve seen the press-guide photo for the first Ali-Frazier fight; the one with Ali and Joe standing nose-to-nose, forehead-to-forehead. That was taken at Joe’s gym in Philadelphia. I wanted something different, so I told both guys, “Put your foreheads together.” And they did. Then I said, “Get closer; touch noses.” But they wouldn’t do it. So I went over, put their heads closer together with one hand behind Ali’s head and the other behind Joe’s, jumped out of the way, and told the photographer, “Get it!” And he got it. It was a great photo. The problem was, it was so great that no one believed it was for real. Everyone thought it was superimposed. I had to show people the negative to prove it was real.

DAVE ANDERSON [SPORTSWRITER, ON ALI-FRAZIER I]:
I’ve never forgotten the noise that I heard, the thunderclap of Ali crashing on the canvas about three feet in front of me. But as powerful as Frazier’s punch had been, as flattened as Ali was, he was up at referee Arthur Mercante’s count of three; up as fast as any human could be.

BERT WATSON [BUSINESS MANAGER FOR JOE FRAZIER IN THE 1980S AND ’90S]:
The first trip that Joe and I took together, we were driving in Florida and stopped for gas. We’d been talking about Ali. Right before I got out of the car to go to the bathroom, I said, “One thing you’ve got to admit; the man was a great fighter.” Anyway, I go to the bathroom, come back, and Joe is gone. I had to hitchhike to the motel where we were staying. Finally, I got there. Joe was in his room. I went in and said, “What happened? Why’d you leave me like that?” And Joe told me, “When you work for me, you don’t say nothing good about Ali.”

LEROY NEIMAN:
One interesting thing about Ali’s appearance is that he spanned an era when people wore big bushy Afros and lots of facial hair, but he never gave in to that trend except for a few weeks when he had a mustache. I personally took it upon myself to tell him to get rid of it. Maybe, given my own mustache, I shouldn’t criticize someone else’s, but he looked ridiculous. When a prominent person has a certain look, he doesn’t change it. Dwight Eisenhower didn’t start wearing a hairpiece. George Bush isn’t going to grow a beard. Except for the Army, Elvis Presley never got a crewcut. In fact, most people, whether they’re famous or not, tend to keep their look. Maybe they make a few changes in deference to the style of the times, but Ali didn’t even do that. And he was so extraordinarily good-looking that I thought the mustache was a real detriment.

PAT PATTERSON:
Ali could walk up to a piano and entertain you, like you’d swear he could play the piano. He memorized how to play a few songs, and he’d sit there and play just enough to impress you. Little Richard was his favorite—“Bop-bop-a-lu-bop-a-wop-bam-boom!” He’d play and he’d sing; and by the time he got through, you’d say, “Wow; this guy is really talented.” But once he did that, he couldn’t play nothing else; not at gunpoint if his life depended on it.

CATHAL O’SHANNON [IRISH TELEVISION HOST]:
With Ali, there was no way you could go wrong from an interviewer’s point of view. He was such a bloody showman.