Boxing: Ali -- The forgotten storyteller

After school had let out, the streets of Louisville's black neighborhoods would be almost eerily empty of children. It was as if some band of kidnappers had swept through like animal control after a pack of wild animals and swooped them all up. Yet they were all safely and happily congregated together, gathered around the front porch of the Clay house as young Cassius would enthrall the audience with his magnificent tales and storytelling.

Other endeavors of childhood, stickball or tag perhaps, were all left behind for the magical words of one superb, young wordsmith.

It was Cassius Clay's very boisterous and passionate personality that would eventually get him into the boxing area, a forum where his storytelling would only grow. And perhaps one would not think to give thanks to a thief for anything, yet without falling victim to bicycle theft, the names Cassius Clay or Muhammad Ali may never have meant anything to anyone outside out Louisville.

Upon leaving the Louisville Home Show, only to find his new Schwinn stolen, a furious Clay marched up to patrolman Joe Martin and expressed his great displeasure. He gave a stirring monologue on how he would beat those punks up who stole his bike if they ever crossed his path, and so impressed Martin that he suggested Clay head to his gym to learn how to box so he really could teach those kids a lesson.

Clay was indeed a paradox, a man who made his living beating the stuffing out of other men, yet a passionate, kind, loving, and deeply religious man. So religious was Clay that when he defeated Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title in 1964, he would keep it no longer in the shadows, proudly letting the world know that their champion was a devout Muslim, and would be Cassius no longer.

The man we know today as Muhammad Ali was very devoted to his faith in Allah and the Nation of Islam, and its prized minister Malcolm X. Ali was a student of Malcolm's and the two grew to be very close, brothers who would see each other through to the end.

Though Malcolm and the Nation were both very opposed to boxing (seeing it as black men reduced to beating each other left and right for the amusement on the white man), the minister would often be seen ringside for Ali's bouts, just as the champ would frequently sit in on Malcolm's talks and sermons.

Though it was through Islam that Ali found peace, love for his world and all those in it, his association with the Nation turned much of the American public against him. He was no longer the good kid who won gold for his country at the Rome Olympics, he was now associating with a bad crowd, and when coupled with his already arrogant and outspoken demeanor, he made for a good enemy, a bad guy to root against.

What boxing fans saw in Ali was only a fraction of the man himself. Few ever saw, heard, or particularly cared to of his religious voyages to Egypt, the time he spent with "his people" in Africa, home of his roots as he was often proud to declare. Instead his kindness and heart was overshadowed by a perceived lack of patriotism in Ali's refusal to enter the draft on grounds he was a Muslim minister.

And, alas, as all good things must come with a genesis and finale, the sun would eventually begin to set on the career of the greatest fighter the world has known. His blistering speed would begin to slow, his powerful punch no longer carry with it the force to knock even the strongest man out of his senses. Even with his career ending in defeat to the mediocre Trevor Berbick in 1981, Ali would forever be a faithful servant of Allah, and through his love for himself, his loved ones, and his religion, found his peace through which he could finally let go of boxing for good.

Nearly twenty years after his ultimate retirement, one could easily mistake the champ's preaching of love, family, self-respect and introspection for a passage from "Tuesdays With Morrie," yet it has been since the end of his career that the public has embraced him.

The once booed and disliked Ali is now a beloved icon of sport by the America that once deemed him unpatriotic, a bad American. Perhaps it shows how the times can indeed change, and dramatically at that. Or, perhaps what it shows is that for the first time we are seeing Muhammad Ali as he truly is -- a loving, intelligent man with whom many of us grew teary-eyed for his magnificent return to the Olympics when he lit the torch in Atlanta in 1996.