JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Just a question for you today, readers:

Is it a good thing to have been “The Greatest of All Time?”

Sixty-nine year-old Muhammad Ali arriving for Joe Frazier's funeral yesterday in Philadelphia

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali | 6 Comments

6 Responses

1. on November 15, 2011 at 9:49 am smartman

   First of all, I’m sure Muhammad would tell you that Allah is the GREATEST of all time.

   The Greatest Of All Time? Five words whose meaning can be and have been very subjective. Ali’s life can’t be contained in five words.

   Given my choice, I think I’d prefer to be George Foreman. He had great success in the ring and unlike most boxers has done very well outside the ring as a speaker, businessman and family man.

   Muhammad Ali had/has a purpose in this life as we all do. He certainly has impacted pop culture, politics, religion and boxing.

   Who know’s if Ali’s Parkinson’s was triggered by the punishment he took in the ring? Look at Michael J. Fox.

   Quite frankly I marvel every time I see Troy Aikman on TV. If anyone should be slurring words and drooling on a bib it’s Troy.

   Muhammad Ali lived and continues to live a life with meaning and purpose that we should all aspire to.

   
   
   • on November 15, 2011 at 11:23 am jimmycsays

     Eloquently expressed, Smartman…For better or worse, I inherited from my parents, particularly my father, a more cautious approach to life…If it’s dangerous, stay well away from it. That’s why I didn’t play organized football as a kid (or anytime else).

     That philosophy also carried over, unfortunately, to my working life, and that was the reason (fear of failure) that I didn’t accept an offer from former Star editor Mike Davies to take a columnist job in the early 80s. I could have done that; might have even been pretty good.

     Had Ali not taken up boxing, the world would have missed some incomparable showmanship and many sporting thrills. (Sonny Liston’s failure to come out for the 7th round on Feb. 25, 1964, was one of the greatest thrills of my life.) But, for his sake, I’d be a lot happier for him had he never taken up the sport and was still walking around, a whole person, on the streets of Louisville at a healthy 69 years old.

     
     
2. on November 15, 2011 at 10:51 am Nick

   Assuming the requisite skills to compete (in whichever sport) have been inherited via RND/DNA, the body chemistry through one’s formative years (that is, when testosterone or hormones overload the system: {approx} age 13 – 25), combined with the totality of one’s enculturation (e.g., physical and emotional environments – to include internal constructs like ‘competiveness’, ‘ego’, ‘faith’, et alis), rarely leave one a “choice”.

   What is, is.

   
   
3. on November 15, 2011 at 11:27 am smartman

   First of all I’m sure Muhammad would tell you that Allah is the GREATEST of all time.

   The Greatest Of All Time? Five words whose meaning can be and have been very subjective. Ali’s life can’t be contained in five words.

   Given my choice I think I’d prefer to be George Foreman. He had great success in the ring and unlike most boxers has done very well outside the ring as a speaker, businessman and family man.

   Muhammad Ali had/has a purpose in this life as we all do. He certainly has impacted pop culture, politics, religion and boxing.

   Who know’s if Ali’s Parkinson’s was triggered by the punishment he took in the ring? Look at Michael J. Fox.

   Quite frankly I marvel every time I see Troy Aikman on TV. If anyone should be slurring words and drooling on a bib it’s Troy.

   Muhammad Ali lived and continues to live a life with meaning and purpose that we should all aspire to.

   
   
4. on November 15, 2011 at 2:21 pm Hubartos vanDrehl

   Dear jimmyc,
   Remember the kids’ boxing show on TV in Louisville, Ky. Friday nights sponsored by the Police Benevolent Association? (AND IN THIS CORNER, AT 105 POUNDS, NONE OTHER THAN CASSSSEEEUUSSS MARCELLLIUSSS CLAYYYY!) Young poor kids would come at each other, windmilling their arms for three rounds and one of those kids made the big time and the big statement.
   And don’t I remember a young Fitz wagering his weekly allowance on the Clay-Liston fight, predicting that the young Clay would some day be The Greatest? Encouragement such as this made Ali the doddering Paw-Paw he is today. It’s all your fault. And, considering his accomplishments and place in history, it was all worth it.
   I Remain,
   In My Own Corner,
   Hubartos vanDrehl

   
   
5. on November 15, 2011 at 6:30 pm jimmycsays

   Oh, my, Hubartos, you’ve really laid it on me here. I don’t remember having a bet on that fight — the first Clay-Liston engagement — because, like everybody else in Louisville, I was afraid our beloved Cassius was going to have his head knocked off.

   Of course I encouraged him on. It took me a long time to realize the lunacy of boxing; it was after some professional got caught up in the ropes and his opponent beat him to death.

   Now, I’m old enough to preach. So, here’s today’s sermon: Parents, steer your children away from football, ice hockey, boxing and auto racing. Take all those sports away and all our lives would be the better for it. We’d be a more civilized society, and we’d have a lot fewer dead, maimed and brain-injured people.

   
   

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