RIP Muhammad Ali

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

truly one of a kind

[chuckrh]

RIP, champ. There were many reasons they called him the greatest.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/bo ... n/1635243/

[Tequila Cowboy]

Arguably the most important American sports figure of all time. RIP.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see."

[Clams]

Not a good year for icons. RIP champ.

[4sooner]

The first poster I ever put up in my bedroom was Muhammad Ali. I was probably 9 years old. That would've been around 67 or 68. He was already larger than life by then. As TC said without a doubt the worlds most important sports figure.
RIP Champ.

[211poundsofpork]

Muhammad Ali, Hank Aaron, Gordie Howe, Larry Bird, Walter Payton. Top tier sports legend. Upper echelon. Transcending... Definitely one I emulated growing up in my youth.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Arguably the most important American sports figure of all time. RIP.

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see."

I would say that he is the most important, he was in a league of his own.

I consider myself so lucky to have been of an age that let me see all his classic fights. I realize now how much a fixture he was during my formative sporting years. Especially love all the crazy interviews he did with Cosell on Wide World of Sports

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

"When I’m gone, boxing will be nothing again. The fans with the cigars and the hats turned down’ll be there, but no more housewives and little men in the street and foreign presidents. It’s goin’ to be back to the fighter who comes to town, smells a flower, visits a hospital, blows a horn and says he’s in shape. Old hat. I was the onliest boxer in history people asked questions like a senator.”

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

game recognize game

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

I still think that Ali losing to Leon Spinks is perhaps the biggest sports shocker in my years of paying attention to sports

And his bout against 'rassler Antonio Inoki might very well be the biggest sham in my years of paying attention to sports

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

I had totally forgotten that Michael Dokes ever existed

[beantownbubba]

The Greatest. Period. RIP.

Saddest day in a sad year of loss of public figures.

The only good to come of it are those pics w/ Dylan which I'd never seen before and which resonate in me like very few pictures I've ever seen.

Just for yucks: Greatest (as in most impactful) sports gaps:

Ted Williams loss of 5 prime years to 2 tours of military service.
Shoeless Joe Jackson's ban for throwing the World Series. Which he didn't.
The absurd gambling ban that kept Connie Hawkins and others out of the NBA for years.
Muhammad Ali's loss of 3+ years of his prime because old rich white men are old rich white men. Still makes me angry today. But OTOH it helped make Ali into the towering figure he was, is and will continue to be while all those assholes have already been forgotten.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Sometime in the early/mid 70s Muhammad Ali came to Asheville (my hometown), totally unannounced, to visit the Rev. Billy Graham (who lived outside of town in Montreat). The local news didn't catch wind of it in time to catch him at the airport, but the word got out and the town was abuzz. The only thing I can recall ever inspiring such clamor was the several times Elvis came to town. The fathers of two different friends met him- one was the meteorologist at the airport and the other just happened to be waiting for a departing flight- and both got autographs. I was so envious of them to have the autographs

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

so much greatness seated at that table

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

with Jack Dempsey

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Ali, Floyd Patterson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Joe Frazier, & Jersey Joe Walcott

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

with all due respect: 2016, go fuck yourself

Without putting much thought into it, I am willing to be that Muhammad Ali was one of the few people on the planet that Prince couldn't "big time," and I am sure the Purple Man had the good sense to not even try