Ali-Frazier: The Fight of the Century Plus Forty

[Orginally posted on November 6, 2008 -- now it's forty years later . . .]

Taking a break from the present, I found a ticket dated March 8, 1971, saved from when my Dad took little-kid-me over to Raleigh, North Carolina, to see "THE BATTLE OF CHAMPIONS" on large closed circuit TV at Reynolds Coliseum on the North Carolina State University Campus. The champions in question were Muhammad Ali and Smokin' Joe Frazier. What I remember: the palpable excitement, my Dad favoring Frazier because of his Philadelphia connections, and Frazier winning after fifteen tough rounds of mutual Frazier-Ali bashing. It was amazing to experience, and both men came off memorably well (hell -- here I am fondly writing about it thirty-seven -- yes, thirty-seven -- years later . . .)

What I didn't know then was that Ali had to fight in order to regain the championship -- he'd had his title taken away for protesting Vietnam. Good God, the more things
change . . . I also had no idea at the time that several of my favorite artistes were at the actual ringside in Madison Square Garden, wild cats as widely ranged as Woody Allen and Frank Sinatra (gee, was Mia Farrow there?), Norman Mailer and Burt Lancaster.

Glad that both Ali and Frazier are still alive and in their mid-sixties, about the same age as many of my favorite rock stars from the 1960s and 70s . . .

Today's Rune: Harvest.