GaryMrMets
11-20-2005, 06:08 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/story/367452p-312777c.html
Life of Ali ... redefined
New museum sheds light on greatest & worst of The Champ
BY TIM SMITH
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
LOUISVILLE - Muhammad Ali slowly made his way through the new center that bears his name Friday, braced on either side by his wife, Lonnie, and singer Kris Kristofferson.
He stopped before an exhibit entitled "Conviction," dating from 1960-65, silently taking in the images from that tumultuous period in American history.
For a brief moment, "The Greatest of All Time" looked small, dwarfed by the magnitude of his place in history and the gleaming $75 million, 93,000-square feet edifice devoted to his convictions and beliefs.
The bravado of the young Ali leaped from the walls and the video screens. His braggadocio boomed from speakers overhead. The 63-year-old man, frail from recent spinal surgery on his neck and muted by the ravages of a 24-year battle with Parkinson's syndrome, appeared humbled.
The evolution of Muhammad Ali from iconoclastic superstar athlete, whose refusal to fight in Vietnam because of religious beliefs made him an object of hatred to many, into a sports folk hero adored by millions worldwide was accomplished nearly a decade ago when he lit the torch during the opening ceremonies for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Now, the former three-time heavyweight champion has moved into a realm no athlete of this generation has entered: statesman.
"We wanted a place where you look at Muhammad Ali, not through the eyes of sports writers, but completely different lenses," says Dr. Susan L. Shaffer Nahmias, chief curator of the Muhammad Ali Center.
The center, which will open to the public on Monday, is much more than a typical sports museum. It casts Ali in a light mostly shone on former Presidents.
The exhibits are set around themes such as confidence, conviction, spirituality, dedication, giving and respect. The memorabilia on hand is scattered among the exhibits that deal with those themes. A white, sequined robe that was given to Ali by Elvis Presley for Ali's match against Joe Bugner is the only hint of frivolity.
The remarkable transformation on display in the center will bolster Ali's legacy for years to come and likely make his future estate more valuable than other sports figures such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, and could rival those of show biz icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.
* * *
Not everyone is pleased with the way that Ali's legacy is being shaped by his wife. Some of his former boxing associates believe they have been squeezed out of the former champ's life as Ali. They point to the fact that key members of his boxing entourage were left off the guest list for the grand opening festivities for the Ali Center.
"I didn't have a clue," says James Anderson, a member of Ali's security team in the 1970s. "But we've become the invisible crew. We were there when history was being made, but you'd never know it now. It would have been nice to be invited. Even if you don't go, it would be nice to say, 'Thank you for the invitation but I can't go.'"
Lonnie Ali says no one was deliberately left off the invitation list, and that all of his former associates are free to call and visit him any time they want.
"The whole time they were putting this list together of invitees they were using the Rolodex," she says. "If we didn't have their name in the Rolodex with an address they probably didn't get an invitation. That was the only way we had of contacting them. But they still had access to buy a ticket through the Web site. You didn't even need an invitation."
A tour through the Ali Center would probably assuage some of the concerns of Ali's former associates. There is a stone monument taken from Ali's training facility at Deer Lake, Pa., with the names of his former boxing camp members, including Anderson's. Every facet of Ali's life is examined - warts and all. His early views, shaped by his association with the Nation of Islam, that white men are devils, and his statements about the subservience of women, are given the same treatment as the kinder, gentler, more tolerant Ali who emerged years later.
Author Thomas Hauser, in an essay in his book "The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali," says he believes that those around Ali have set about sanitizing his background to make him more commercially appealing. To Hauser the trend escalated after the 1996 Olympic Games where Ali lit the flame at the Opening Ceremony.
"It was a glorious moment," Hauser writes. "Three billion people around the world watched on television and were united by love and caring for one man. But there's a school of thought that the 1996 Olympics carried negatives, as well, for it was in Atlanta that corporate America 'rediscovered' Ali.
"And since then, there has been a determined effort to rewrite history. In order to take advantage of Ali's economic potential, it has been deemed desirable to 'sanitize' him. And as a result, all of the 'rough edges' are being filed away from Ali's life story."
Filing away those "rough edges" means millions of dollars to Ali's bottom line. After his death, that could make Ali's estate bigger than Elvis Presley's or Marilyn Monroe's.
"He'll rank very high," says Craig Hamilton, who specializes in appraising sports memorabilia for auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's. "Although boxing as a collectibles is a small market compared to baseball and Hollywood, Ali's recognition is higher than all those people. He would pass someone like DiMaggio and become like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Onasis.
"You could even argue that he could go beyond that because he had a tremendous impact on the lives of a lot of people. Maybe the commercialization has been good in that area because it has heightened people's awareness of him more."
Lonnie Ali says there has never been a concerted effort to remake Ali's image for commercial purposes or to cast him in a role that makes him more statesman-like.
"He evolved over time," she says. "That's exactly what Muhammad has evolved into - a great humanitarian and statesman that is respected worldwide and loved by many. He has become who he is because of the values he lives by and the convictions he has."
She says it would be too simplistic, particularly after all Ali has done, to try to make his life only about his boxing accomplishments.
"If that's what you're leaving for future generations to define this man by, then you've done them and him a great disservice," she says. "He is and always will be much more than that. Muhammad has said that boxing was just his platform to go forward to do the things in life that he always wanted to do. It gave him the world recognition and the things he needed to carry on with the things he was put here to do."
Lee Skolnick, the New York architect whose firm helped design the center, says Muhammad and Lonnie Ali were not interested in celebrating his past.
"They didn't want to aggrandize him," Skolnick says. "They didn't want it to be a shrine to him. They weren't interested in making it too brash. They wanted someplace that would embody Muhammad Ali. A place that spoke to why it's good to have beliefs and why it's good to stand up for those beliefs."
* * *
Ali's inability to speak has allowed his statesman-like image to blossom. If Ali were as vocal and verbose as he was when he was the reigning heavyweight champion, would he co-sign with the commercialization of his image? Would his religious views have an impact on his commercial interests?
In his book, Hauser points to a June 2002 interview with David Frost on HBO's "Real Sports" during which Ali was asked about Al-Qaeda, but deflected the question by saying, "I dodge those questions. I've opened up businesses across the country, selling products, and I don't want to say nothing and, not knowing what I'm doing, not (being) qualified, say the wrong thing and hurt my businesses and things I'm doing."
Hamilton says he doesn't think that Ali's convictions were shaped by financial concerns.
"You have to remember that when he was banned from boxing he was the highest paid athlete in sports," Hamilton says. "He gave that up for three years and he was broke. All he had to do was go into the Army and entertain some troops and continue to make money. But he didn't do that."
Recent news about his health has brought Ali's legacy and estate into sharper focus. He had surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck to relieve chronic pain at Emory University Hospital two months ago. Lonnie says Ali was suffering from spinal stenosis.
The surgical scar was visible as he toured the center on Friday afternoon. It ran from the nape of his neck downward and disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt. Ali appears to have lost a considerable amount of weight, looking more like the skinny kid who won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games than the strapping boxer who survived "The Thrilla in Manila" and "The Rumble in the Jungle."
He moves on unsteady legs, his gait halting at times to keep his balance. The grace of the man who claimed to "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee" is gone. But the tremors that have plagued him in the past were not visible on Friday during his brief tour on the fifth floor of the Center. He was even able to strike a pose in his boxing stance for the photographers without trembling.
Lonnie says her husband is in good physical condition other than the Parkinson's. She said he is on a cycle of medication for his Parkinson's that must be administered every three hours and, depending on where he is in that medication cycle, his condition can change from energetic to lethargic.
Last month, his daughter, Laila Ali, said she had noticed a drastic deterioration in his physical condition.
"If you look at Muhammad 20 years ago and today you might think so," Lonnie Ali says. "Of course you're going to see the progression of Parkinson's over time, but no, not on a day-to-day basis, and no, not even on a year-to-year basis do you see that (a drastic deterioration)."
"I really can't speak for her," Lonnie says of Laila's assessment of her father's health. "She doesn't see her dad that often. The only thing I can think of is over a lifetime of when she did see him until now (she noticed this change). Knowing that her schedule is busy, when we're in L.A. is when we're able to connect. It's usually after a long workday where he's been making appearances. She stops by and he's usually very tired. I don't know what she was thinking when she said that."
* * *
Perhaps nothing demonstrates how much Ali's image has evolved than his being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony two weeks ago. Veterans of Foreign Wars, once one of the more vocal critics of Ali for his refusal to be inducted into the Army in 1967, didn't protest his receiving the medal, the nation's highest civilian citation.
Joe Davis, a VFW spokesman, told The Associated Press that the organization has moved on. "He (refused to serve) for religious principles, and he paid the price," Davis says. "And what he did in his later life, he was an excellent representative of the United States of America."
Lonnie says that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was an honor that Ali never thought he would receive.
"For Muhammad to come from one point in life and to come to where he is in life now has been a journey. His convictions have never changed, his values have never changed," she says. "His approach in how he gets things done has developed over time. As you grow older you grow in wisdom. He's no longer the warrior that he used to be, the physical warrior. He's learned to use his talents in a different way. The idea of his being a statesman is accurate. He's an ambassador of goodwill, probably more so for the United States."
Originally published on November 19, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/375-ali_kristofferson.JPG
Muhammad Ali, accompanied by friend Kris Kristofferson, tours Louisville's new center devoted to life of heavyweight champ at museum's unveiling Friday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/831-ali_museum.JPG
Visitors to the Ali Center in Louisville take in exhibits of 'The Greatest'.
Life of Ali ... redefined
New museum sheds light on greatest & worst of The Champ
BY TIM SMITH
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
LOUISVILLE - Muhammad Ali slowly made his way through the new center that bears his name Friday, braced on either side by his wife, Lonnie, and singer Kris Kristofferson.
He stopped before an exhibit entitled "Conviction," dating from 1960-65, silently taking in the images from that tumultuous period in American history.
For a brief moment, "The Greatest of All Time" looked small, dwarfed by the magnitude of his place in history and the gleaming $75 million, 93,000-square feet edifice devoted to his convictions and beliefs.
The bravado of the young Ali leaped from the walls and the video screens. His braggadocio boomed from speakers overhead. The 63-year-old man, frail from recent spinal surgery on his neck and muted by the ravages of a 24-year battle with Parkinson's syndrome, appeared humbled.
The evolution of Muhammad Ali from iconoclastic superstar athlete, whose refusal to fight in Vietnam because of religious beliefs made him an object of hatred to many, into a sports folk hero adored by millions worldwide was accomplished nearly a decade ago when he lit the torch during the opening ceremonies for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Now, the former three-time heavyweight champion has moved into a realm no athlete of this generation has entered: statesman.
"We wanted a place where you look at Muhammad Ali, not through the eyes of sports writers, but completely different lenses," says Dr. Susan L. Shaffer Nahmias, chief curator of the Muhammad Ali Center.
The center, which will open to the public on Monday, is much more than a typical sports museum. It casts Ali in a light mostly shone on former Presidents.
The exhibits are set around themes such as confidence, conviction, spirituality, dedication, giving and respect. The memorabilia on hand is scattered among the exhibits that deal with those themes. A white, sequined robe that was given to Ali by Elvis Presley for Ali's match against Joe Bugner is the only hint of frivolity.
The remarkable transformation on display in the center will bolster Ali's legacy for years to come and likely make his future estate more valuable than other sports figures such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, and could rival those of show biz icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.
* * *
Not everyone is pleased with the way that Ali's legacy is being shaped by his wife. Some of his former boxing associates believe they have been squeezed out of the former champ's life as Ali. They point to the fact that key members of his boxing entourage were left off the guest list for the grand opening festivities for the Ali Center.
"I didn't have a clue," says James Anderson, a member of Ali's security team in the 1970s. "But we've become the invisible crew. We were there when history was being made, but you'd never know it now. It would have been nice to be invited. Even if you don't go, it would be nice to say, 'Thank you for the invitation but I can't go.'"
Lonnie Ali says no one was deliberately left off the invitation list, and that all of his former associates are free to call and visit him any time they want.
"The whole time they were putting this list together of invitees they were using the Rolodex," she says. "If we didn't have their name in the Rolodex with an address they probably didn't get an invitation. That was the only way we had of contacting them. But they still had access to buy a ticket through the Web site. You didn't even need an invitation."
A tour through the Ali Center would probably assuage some of the concerns of Ali's former associates. There is a stone monument taken from Ali's training facility at Deer Lake, Pa., with the names of his former boxing camp members, including Anderson's. Every facet of Ali's life is examined - warts and all. His early views, shaped by his association with the Nation of Islam, that white men are devils, and his statements about the subservience of women, are given the same treatment as the kinder, gentler, more tolerant Ali who emerged years later.
Author Thomas Hauser, in an essay in his book "The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali," says he believes that those around Ali have set about sanitizing his background to make him more commercially appealing. To Hauser the trend escalated after the 1996 Olympic Games where Ali lit the flame at the Opening Ceremony.
"It was a glorious moment," Hauser writes. "Three billion people around the world watched on television and were united by love and caring for one man. But there's a school of thought that the 1996 Olympics carried negatives, as well, for it was in Atlanta that corporate America 'rediscovered' Ali.
"And since then, there has been a determined effort to rewrite history. In order to take advantage of Ali's economic potential, it has been deemed desirable to 'sanitize' him. And as a result, all of the 'rough edges' are being filed away from Ali's life story."
Filing away those "rough edges" means millions of dollars to Ali's bottom line. After his death, that could make Ali's estate bigger than Elvis Presley's or Marilyn Monroe's.
"He'll rank very high," says Craig Hamilton, who specializes in appraising sports memorabilia for auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's. "Although boxing as a collectibles is a small market compared to baseball and Hollywood, Ali's recognition is higher than all those people. He would pass someone like DiMaggio and become like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Onasis.
"You could even argue that he could go beyond that because he had a tremendous impact on the lives of a lot of people. Maybe the commercialization has been good in that area because it has heightened people's awareness of him more."
Lonnie Ali says there has never been a concerted effort to remake Ali's image for commercial purposes or to cast him in a role that makes him more statesman-like.
"He evolved over time," she says. "That's exactly what Muhammad has evolved into - a great humanitarian and statesman that is respected worldwide and loved by many. He has become who he is because of the values he lives by and the convictions he has."
She says it would be too simplistic, particularly after all Ali has done, to try to make his life only about his boxing accomplishments.
"If that's what you're leaving for future generations to define this man by, then you've done them and him a great disservice," she says. "He is and always will be much more than that. Muhammad has said that boxing was just his platform to go forward to do the things in life that he always wanted to do. It gave him the world recognition and the things he needed to carry on with the things he was put here to do."
Lee Skolnick, the New York architect whose firm helped design the center, says Muhammad and Lonnie Ali were not interested in celebrating his past.
"They didn't want to aggrandize him," Skolnick says. "They didn't want it to be a shrine to him. They weren't interested in making it too brash. They wanted someplace that would embody Muhammad Ali. A place that spoke to why it's good to have beliefs and why it's good to stand up for those beliefs."
* * *
Ali's inability to speak has allowed his statesman-like image to blossom. If Ali were as vocal and verbose as he was when he was the reigning heavyweight champion, would he co-sign with the commercialization of his image? Would his religious views have an impact on his commercial interests?
In his book, Hauser points to a June 2002 interview with David Frost on HBO's "Real Sports" during which Ali was asked about Al-Qaeda, but deflected the question by saying, "I dodge those questions. I've opened up businesses across the country, selling products, and I don't want to say nothing and, not knowing what I'm doing, not (being) qualified, say the wrong thing and hurt my businesses and things I'm doing."
Hamilton says he doesn't think that Ali's convictions were shaped by financial concerns.
"You have to remember that when he was banned from boxing he was the highest paid athlete in sports," Hamilton says. "He gave that up for three years and he was broke. All he had to do was go into the Army and entertain some troops and continue to make money. But he didn't do that."
Recent news about his health has brought Ali's legacy and estate into sharper focus. He had surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck to relieve chronic pain at Emory University Hospital two months ago. Lonnie says Ali was suffering from spinal stenosis.
The surgical scar was visible as he toured the center on Friday afternoon. It ran from the nape of his neck downward and disappeared beneath the collar of his shirt. Ali appears to have lost a considerable amount of weight, looking more like the skinny kid who won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games than the strapping boxer who survived "The Thrilla in Manila" and "The Rumble in the Jungle."
He moves on unsteady legs, his gait halting at times to keep his balance. The grace of the man who claimed to "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee" is gone. But the tremors that have plagued him in the past were not visible on Friday during his brief tour on the fifth floor of the Center. He was even able to strike a pose in his boxing stance for the photographers without trembling.
Lonnie says her husband is in good physical condition other than the Parkinson's. She said he is on a cycle of medication for his Parkinson's that must be administered every three hours and, depending on where he is in that medication cycle, his condition can change from energetic to lethargic.
Last month, his daughter, Laila Ali, said she had noticed a drastic deterioration in his physical condition.
"If you look at Muhammad 20 years ago and today you might think so," Lonnie Ali says. "Of course you're going to see the progression of Parkinson's over time, but no, not on a day-to-day basis, and no, not even on a year-to-year basis do you see that (a drastic deterioration)."
"I really can't speak for her," Lonnie says of Laila's assessment of her father's health. "She doesn't see her dad that often. The only thing I can think of is over a lifetime of when she did see him until now (she noticed this change). Knowing that her schedule is busy, when we're in L.A. is when we're able to connect. It's usually after a long workday where he's been making appearances. She stops by and he's usually very tired. I don't know what she was thinking when she said that."
* * *
Perhaps nothing demonstrates how much Ali's image has evolved than his being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony two weeks ago. Veterans of Foreign Wars, once one of the more vocal critics of Ali for his refusal to be inducted into the Army in 1967, didn't protest his receiving the medal, the nation's highest civilian citation.
Joe Davis, a VFW spokesman, told The Associated Press that the organization has moved on. "He (refused to serve) for religious principles, and he paid the price," Davis says. "And what he did in his later life, he was an excellent representative of the United States of America."
Lonnie says that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was an honor that Ali never thought he would receive.
"For Muhammad to come from one point in life and to come to where he is in life now has been a journey. His convictions have never changed, his values have never changed," she says. "His approach in how he gets things done has developed over time. As you grow older you grow in wisdom. He's no longer the warrior that he used to be, the physical warrior. He's learned to use his talents in a different way. The idea of his being a statesman is accurate. He's an ambassador of goodwill, probably more so for the United States."
Originally published on November 19, 2005
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/375-ali_kristofferson.JPG
Muhammad Ali, accompanied by friend Kris Kristofferson, tours Louisville's new center devoted to life of heavyweight champ at museum's unveiling Friday.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ips_rich_content/831-ali_museum.JPG
Visitors to the Ali Center in Louisville take in exhibits of 'The Greatest'.