Superlatives, contrasts defined life of America’s champ, Muhammad Ali

In rewinding the life and times of boxer extraordinaire Muhammad Ali, one cannot help but be mesmerized by the wealth of superlatives and collection of contrasts that embodied the sports legend and cultural icon.

Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., died Friday night, losing perhaps the greatest and longest fight of his life against Parkinson’s disease.

But over his 74-year-long life, losing rarely was in his genes. The three-time world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist, amassed a 56-5 record with an amazing 37 knockouts.

Those victories coupled with his outspoken persona and humanitarian compassion, led Sports Illustrated in 1999 to name him “Sportsman of the Century”; the British Broadcasting Corp. named him “Sports Personality of the Century” that same year. In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honor.

Amid all of those superlative achievements, however, stood a man oftentimes exuding in seemingly striking contradictions.

After all, Ali rose to fame as a champion in one of the most violent rough-and-tumble sports on the planet, but at the same time became a standout in the public arena as an advocate of peace.

He first boldly demonstrated that commitment when in 1967 at the height of his boxing career, he refused to be inducted into the military to fight in Vietnam, a war that he found unjust.

As Dr. Adam Earnhardt, Youngstown State University associate professor and chairman of the Department of Communications, put it, “He took a political stance, and he did so with gusto.”

Man of conviction

Above all else, Ali was a man of conviction. That strain in his DNA was evident as early as age 12, when after discovering his bicycle had been stolen, he immediately vowed to get justice and hightailed it to the nearest boxing gym, where a Louisville, Ky., police officer would first mentor him in the sport that would define his life.

Ali paid a high price for his convictions, sacrificing four years of prime boxing time as a result of his defiance of the draft. Ultimately, the Supreme Court defended his conscientious objector status and public opinion increasingly shifted toward Ali’s point of view toward the divisive conflict. Ali even back then proved to be a man whose moral convictions proved to be ahead of his times as the majority of the nation later would share his opposition to the war.

The evolution of Ali also can be viewed through the prism of personality. In his younger years, he was never afraid to boldly, loudly and proudly boast about his self-perceived superiority. “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am.” “I’m not the greatest. I’m the double greatest.” rank among some of his most famous outbursts of bluster.

As a result, for many Americans, Ali was as much revered as he was reviled.

Over the years, however, that bluster increasingly was replaced with humility. He attributed it to the process of maturation. “A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life,” he said.

As he grew older, he vowed to use his fame to help lift up and inspire people around the world. Though not as well known as his victorious forays in the boxing ring, Ali’s praiseworthy humanitarian conquests are equally voluminous and awesome.

The causes to which he donated his time and fortune were many and included world peace, civil rights, cross-cultural understanding, interfaith relations, humanitarianism and hunger relief.

Even before Parkinson’s disease, a product of his aggressive boxing years, largely silenced his once deafening voice, Ali’s cadence had softened. He measured his words slowly and carefully with an accent on helping others and healing the world.

That style is one that many would yearn to see take stronger hold today, particularly amid the mean-spirited rhetoric that has come to define this presidential election year.

As leaders from sports and nations around the world prepare for Ali’s public funeral Friday, heart-felt eulogies keep rolling in. One of the most poignant comes from President Barack Obama, whom Ali inspired to rip down barriers to advance to the highest office in the land:

“Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it.”