Roy Exum
I remember the moment like it was yesterday. Tennessee’s football team was playing at Louisville on Sept. 5, 1991, and it was a big deal for the UofL. Some TV guys I had befriended years before at some Kentucky Derby had called earlier in the week and wanted me to do a TV spot at a corner of the field just before the game started. Back then I’d do anything for race-card tips on Derby week.
Since the game was nationally televised, the Louisville people were putting on a huge show in the pregame activities and as I stood waiting to give the Louisville viewers the “inside skinny” on the Vols, a golf cart pulled within a foot of where I stood. I turned to see more of this arrival and – presto – I am within a foot of the most famous man in the history of Louisville, as well as the world itself.
So I reacted quickly with a “What ‘cha say, Champ!” and Muhammad Ali, already numb with Parkinson’s disease, grabbed me around the neck and with a big smile, placed the most famous fist that sports has ever known on the side of my face. As I told him such a moment was one of the biggest thrills of my life, he nodded and smiled, this just before the golf card zipped him to the center of the field amidst a thunderous standing ovation.
I grew up with Ali. I started following him when he was Cassius Clay and was just beginning high school in 1964 when he whipped Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title. Ever since then I have been convinced he was a genius and was saddened early Saturday morning when his soul left this mortal orb.
There will be countless stories told about him in the days and weeks to come. After all, Sports Illustrated named him as The Man of the Century. So let’s take a different path and allow me to share Ali’s quotes, which I have adored with each new offering. No one could talk “trash” or the truth better than The Champ:
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“I'm the king of the world, I am the greatest, I’m Muhammed Ali, I shook up the world, I am the greatest, I'm king of the world, I'm pretty, I'm pretty, I'm a baaaad man, you heard me I'm a baaad man, Archie Moore fell in four, Liston wanted me more, so since he's so great, I'm a make him fall in eight, I'm a baaad man, I'm king of the world! I'm 22 years old and ain’t gotta mark on my face, I'm pretty, I easily survived six rounds with that ugly bear, because I am the greatest."
“No one knows what to say in the loser’s locker rom.”
“I never thought of losing, but now that it is happening, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t learned anything.”
“I ain’t got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a n****r.”
“I’ve wrestled with alligators. I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning. And thrown thunder in jail.”
“Give up what appears to be doubtful for what is certain. Truth brings peace of mind, a deception doubt.”
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
“Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.”
“I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I’ll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I’m gonna tell ya, that’s one helluva man, and God bless him.”
“I’ve seen George Foreman shadow boxing. And the shadow won.”
“That all you got, George?” - Ali to Foreman during the Rumble in the Jungle.
“He’s [Sonny Liston] too ugly to be the world champ. The world champ should be pretty like me!”
“Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.”
“I saw your wife. You’re not as dumb as you look.” To President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines a few days before he beat Joe Frazier on Oct. 1, 1975.
“The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain't ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month? I said I was 'The Greatest', I never said I was the smartest!"
“People say I talk so slow today. That’s no surprise. I calculated I’ve taken 29,000 punches. But I earned $57 million and I saved half of it. So I took a few hard knocks. Do you know how many black men are killed every year by guns and knives without a penny to their names? I may talk slow, but my mind is okay.”
"My name is known in Serbia, Pakistan, Morocco. These are countries that don't follow the Kentucky Derby." — New York Times interview, April 1977.
“When you are as great as I am, it’s hard to be humble.”
“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have inside of them – a dream, a desire, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, don’t quit. Suffer now and live for the rest of your life as a champion.”
“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
“If you even dream of beating me you better wake up and apologize.”
“Superman don’t need no seat belt.”
“I wish people would love each other the way they love me. It would be a better world.”
“It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.”
“It’s a lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges. I believed in myself.”
“I am not the greatest; I am the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round.”
“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
“Old age is just a record of someone’s whole life.”
“Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.”
“I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.”
“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you are not, pretend to be.”
“I am going to beat him so bad he’ll need a shoe horn to put his hat on.”
“Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.”
“It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.”
”I am the most recognized and loved man that ever lived cuz there weren’t no satellites when Jesus and Moses were around, so people in far-away villages didn’t know about them.”
“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams … they all have different names but each contains water. Just as religions do, they all contain truths.”
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it is the pebble in your shoe.”
“We have one life; it will soon be past; what we do for God is all that will last.”
royexum@aol.com