海角大神

In retrospect, it seems odd that, back in 1964, my fellow fourth-graders and I were as aware of the coming Liston-Clay fight as we were.聽

But so it was. We fully expected Sonny Liston to clobber the 鈥渕outhy underdog,鈥� Cassius Clay 鈥� to use the name he was about to jettison. The morning after, we were abuzz over the upset; but, hey, most of the bookies had gotten it wrong, too.聽

I would never have imagined then that three days after the death of Muhammad Ali, as the erstwhile 鈥渦nderdog鈥� would by then be known, I would find myself on the front lawn of his childhood home along with a gaggle of others paying last respects.

But so it was. I鈥檇 planned to be in Louisville, Ky., Mr. Ali鈥檚 hometown, anyway, as part of a tour of heartland cities. Our group was interested in, among other things, affordable housing and social justice. We just had to swing by the modest pink house on Grand Avenue in west Louisville.聽

Ali鈥檚 death was noted in lexicographical as well as sporting circles: 鈥淗e was known almost as much for his verbal sparring as for his agile boxing style,鈥� the Merriam-Webster dictionary website notes.聽

The word truculent 鈥渢rended鈥� June 4 as people were reminded of an exchange Ali had had with sportscaster Howard Cosell before one of Ali鈥檚 big fights: 鈥淚鈥檓 always confident,鈥� the boxer had said. 鈥淚鈥檒l whup all of 鈥檈m.鈥澛�

Cosell responded, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e being extremely truculent,鈥� to which Ali replied, 鈥淲hatever 鈥榯ruculent鈥� means, if that鈥檚 good, I鈥檓 that.鈥澛�

For the record, Merriam-Webster defines truculent in this context as 鈥渁ggressively self-assertive鈥� or 鈥渂elligerent.鈥� If anyone has turned being 鈥渁ggressively self-assertive鈥� into an art form, it鈥檚 Ali. As a kind of rapper avant la lettre, he made up taunting rhymes to wear down his opponents.

Thus, before that fight with Liston:

Now Liston disappears from view,

The crowd is getting frantic.

But our radar stations have picked him up,

He鈥檚 somewhere over the Atlantic.

Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written about Ali as a 鈥減olitical poet鈥� for his use of language. Ali 鈥渉elped move black radicalism into the mainstream through his voice, his canny use of rhyme,鈥� Professor Gates wrote.聽

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who won the Nobel Peace Prize the same year Ali beat Liston, quoted Ali when denouncing the war in Vietnam: 鈥淟ike Muhammad Ali puts it, we are all 鈥� black and brown and poor 鈥� victims of the same system of oppression.鈥澛�

Isn鈥檛 it amazing how people change? The original Cassius Clay, for whom the boxer鈥檚 father was named, was the son of a slave-owning family who became an abolitionist.聽

Muhammad Ali changed his name and his religion, and then helped change American minds on the war. He did it partly with his fists 鈥� but also with his words.