Randy Smith
It's hard for me to think about Muhammad Ali without smiling. The man was the ultimate professional athlete; complete with amazing skills, personality and tremendous showmanship. He was most certainly controversial but in the end it was his huge heart and love for all mankind that will be remembered. I first heard of "Cassius Clay" in 1964 when I was thirteen years old. He won his first world heavyweight title that year when he beat Sonny Liston with a 7th round TKO. He became the youngest man at age 22 to ever win the heavyweight title from a reigning champion.
Soon after that victory, he would become a Muslim and change his name to Muhammad Ali. Ali would go on to record an overall record of 56 wins and just 5 losses.
What is most amazing to me is that he compiled that brilliant 56-5 record and still missed three and a half years in the prime of his career. He missed that time suspended from boxing while the courts decided his fate. He was sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to enter the army. The United States was involved with the Viet Nam War at the time; a very controversial war indeed. Ali refused to join because of his Muslim faith, saying, "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. Why should they ask me to put on a uniform, and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Viet Nam while so-called negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied basic human rights."
Ali was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. His appeal was also overturned, but after more than three years, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned his conviction in 1967, and he returned to the ring. Those three years off forced Ali to change his boxing style, because that much inactivity caused him to lose some of his amazing speed.
Ali won the heavyweight crown for the third and final time, beating Leon Spinks in New Orleans. Spinks had upset Ali previously, taking the title from him.
But his legendary boxing career only made up part of the man we all called, "The Greatest." He was a defender of human rights, working tirelessly in the Civil Rights movement. He became an internationally known figure that was loved throughout the world, and for the last 34 years had bravely fought Parkinson's Disease. Perhaps the most poignant moment in sports history came at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, when Muhammad Ali surprisingly appeared to light the Olympic torch.
Very few people who ever lived could light up a room or a gathering with just an appearance. Very few people in history could equal the athletic success that was compiled by Muhammad Ali, and very few people could ever have the international impact on human rights that Ali had. He was bigger than life. Love him or hate him, you had to admire his ability to stand up and face adversity head-on. I loved Muhammad Ali. He was "The Greatest of All-Time."
Rest in Peace, Champ.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.
He can be reached at rsmithsports@epbfi.com