BREAKING 'The Greatest of All Time': Muhammad Ali Dead at 74
Source: NBC
Too soon. An icon passes.
Muhammad Ali, the silver-tongued boxer and civil rights champion who famously proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and then spent a lifetime living up to the billing, is dead.
Ali died Friday at a Phoenix-area hospital, where he had spent the past few days being treated for respiratory complications, a family spokesman confirmed to NBC News. He was 74.
"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74. The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News.
Ali had suffered for three decades from Parkinson's Disease, a progressive neurological condition that slowly robbed him of both his legendary verbal grace and his physical dexterity. A funeral service is planned in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
Even as his health declined, Ali did not shy from politics or controversy, releasing a statement in December criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States. "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," he said.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Only 5 years older than my mom.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Basic LA
(2,047 posts)Too much of this lately.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)Response to bravenak (Reply #2)
Post removed
bravenak
(34,648 posts)SCantiGOP
(13,873 posts)For the hide.
Turin_C3PO
(14,047 posts)Sorry you get attacked like that :/
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Nice to see the jury was aware, they did good
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)sheshe2
(83,898 posts)Sorry, that was completely uncalled for.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)Cha
(297,655 posts)attacks are their raison d'etre.
Sorry about the vicious, dishonest personal attack of that poster.
And, for Ali's passing~
bravenak
(34,648 posts)I wish people could drop the partisanship for a while and mourn the passing of a legend. Very hurtful.
Cha
(297,655 posts)HuffPost BlackVoices
✔ ?@blackvoices
Rare photos show #MuhammadAli's charisma outside the ring http://huff.to/25E4gpM
9:45 AM - 4 Jun 2016
80 80 Retweets 132 132 likes
https://theobamadiary.com/2016/06/04/rest-in-power-muhammad-ali/
NBachers
(17,136 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)Glad to see the jury was not having it today
lunamagica
(9,967 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)brer cat
(24,605 posts)is astounding. The narcissism does come out.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)I actually was surprised
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)We all know that but you should consider self delete. Be nice ROR.
Gothmog
(145,554 posts)Ali was a truly great man
phazed0
(745 posts)This sucks. Lots of icons passing away.
ciaobaby
(1,000 posts)Warpy
(111,339 posts)I hope his family all realize that he will be sorely missed and they have a lot of company in their grief.
hibbing
(10,109 posts)Spoke out loudly against the Vietnam War and poverty, converted to Islam, in addition to a whole lot more.
Peace
Warpy
(111,339 posts)He always managed to piss off all the right people.
elleng
(131,105 posts)Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,630 posts)Quackers
(2,256 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Mohamad Ali will always BE the GREATEST. Peaceful journey to an evolved soul...
montana_hazeleyes
(3,424 posts)He is an absolute hero of mine since I was a young teenager and he just had become champ. And he has done so, so much more. You are so loved.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)UtahLib
(3,179 posts)Onlaketime
(65 posts)Knew he was in a bad way due to too many punches, but still sad to hear.
tandot
(6,671 posts)ailsagirl
(22,899 posts)Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)uppityperson
(115,679 posts)Ptah
(33,037 posts)Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)One of the defining moments of the war.
montana_hazeleyes
(3,424 posts)THIS is why he was The Greatest!
Truth Talking to Power
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Stood up and gave it right back to them white boys. He had no fear. Shite, I thought he was very well spoken. What he said was never lost on anyone.
Never ever be afraid to speak truth to power, truth to ignorance, truth to bigotry, truth in the face of deceit. Never ever abandon your convictions.
All's quiet now and Ali is going home.
raccoon
(31,119 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,379 posts)Banned from his profession for more than three years in the prime of his career (ages 25-28). No athlete ever made such a courageous choice. Taking a Muslim name in the mid-60s didn't exactly endear him to white America either. Ali went out on a limb, took his stands and just about the whole world was won over within a decade. The one and only. RIP, Champ.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)In the context of the time, it was unbelievably brave. The man was the definition of integrity.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Imagine if somebody had said that Islamists never called them the N-Word. the Corporate MSM would destroy them.
JEB
(4,748 posts)You want me to go and fight and you won't even stand up for me here at home.
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)Great fighter. Great man. Great American.
cloudythescribbler
(2,586 posts)Old Vet
(2,001 posts)bkkyosemite
(5,792 posts)Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat,
if Liston goes back an inch farther he'll end up in a ringside seat.
Clay swings with his left, Clay swings with his right,
Look at young Cassius carry the fight
Liston keeps backing, but there's not enough room,
It's a matter of time till Clay lowers the boom.
Now Clay lands with a right, what a beautiful swing,
And the punch raises the Bear clean out of the ring.
Liston is still rising and the ref wears a frown,
For he can't start counting till Sonny goes down.
Now Liston is disappearing from view, the crowd is going frantic,
But radar stations have picked him up, somewhere over the Atlantic.
Who would have thought when they came to the fight?
That they'd witness the launching of a human satellite.
Yes the crowd did not dream, when they put up the money,
That they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)He will be missed.
RIP
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)To the Greatest!
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)And let the good get even.
RIP to the GOAT.
littlemissmartypants
(22,797 posts)DemoTex
(25,403 posts)I posted my "Breakfast With the Champion" here a few years ago. I had breakfast with Mohammad Ali in about 1998. I'll try to find that post. I am sad.
still_one
(92,394 posts)Condolences to his family
Duppers
(28,127 posts)brush
(53,847 posts)Babel_17
(5,400 posts)He's floating like a butterfly, in heaven.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)me b zola
(19,053 posts)jpmonk91
(290 posts)Was and always will be a legend
KT2000
(20,587 posts)he was never bought by the love that was showered on him. He insisted upon respect be shown to him and others. A good man has passed.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)kyburbonkid
(251 posts)In Louisville ALI is king. He is beloved by everyone. It wasn't always so. When my friends and I (all white btw) got together after Jr Highschool classes let out no one could stand "the Lip". Everyday, we where bombarded by Vietnam, Louisville's own racial segregation problems, and Nixon, civil rights, and Woodstock. I remember our political science teacher putting Nixon in the group of the nation's top 4 presidents of all time!??!? We would get special permission from our parents to stay up and watch the fights with "Howard Cosell". What a wonderful time. About 10 of us all staring at a small B/W TV. As much as we hated him, you had to admire him. When the draft caught up with Ali, and he "got religious". In our little junior minds he was just dodging the draft, but he stood his ground and took the new name ":Mohamed Ali" and talked of a strange religion called Islam and he became a Muslim. At the time my buddies and I were all turning decidedly against Vietnam, every day there was an announcement on the PA of a senior student being killed in Vietnam. Me and my jr hs friends all agreed no-one should go that war, and it should end. Then came his big fights; the guy was like amazing. Any sense of racism from us disappeared. He wasn't about hate, war, politics, racism. He was about representing Peace.
Ali will always be fighting for Peace.
That is what he does.
It's sad. I feel I lost my hero.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)raging moderate
(4,308 posts)Last edited Sat Jun 4, 2016, 05:54 PM - Edit history (1)
You are right; he was a true hero. And, speaking of "the Lip," I thought at the time how strange it was that an equally lippy but far less articulate and far less idealistic athlete, Joe Namath, was admired by many in the press and the public, while Muhammed Ali was rebuked by many, as though he had no right to speak. I think his perceptive arguments against the Vietnam war were too accurate for their taste. Also too effective.
Gomez163
(2,039 posts)There used to be holdouts. They died first
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)2 posted on 2016-06-04, 1:23:09 AM by Pox (Good Night. I expect more respect tomorrow.)
romanic
(2,841 posts)PoliticalMalcontent
(449 posts)I respect Muhammad Ali for standing up for what he believed in even against popular opinion and the government.
A man who had convictions. I have the utmost respect for what he stood for, made all the more impressive by the racism he had to overcome.
Puha Ekapi
(594 posts)...brother was badass and right on and everything else good I could say about him. Really admired that man.
RIP Muhammad.
Lithos
(26,404 posts)imari362
(311 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)the sport destroyed his poetic "silver-tongue".
Stallion
(6,476 posts)...as a 8 year old in Dallas, Texas my first hero was named Jerry LeVias who happened to be the first African American who received a football scholarship to the old Southwest Conference. You can't hate your heroes especially when you are too young to understand why people hate another just because of the color of their skin
To all those sports heroes like Jerry Levias, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali and thousands of others in hundreds of communities and in all walks of life-Thanks for bring us together through sports. Sports, Entertainment and Music have played such an important role in Americans accepting people that a different from their own
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)TygrBright
(20,763 posts)If I had to name the people during my lifetime who did the most to demonstrate the integrity of living a human life on their own terms, he'd be right up there at the top of the list.
Go gently, gentle warrior.
respectfully,
Bright
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)That's a great picture.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)Boldine
(86 posts)Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision.Muhammed Ali
May he rest in peace.
andym
(5,445 posts)There will never be another like him.
ismnotwasm
(42,008 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)RIP champ.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Thanks for your courage, thanks for your defiance. Thanks for your strength.
All honor to The Greatest.
MFM008
(19,818 posts)To mourn Muhammed Ali.
RIP.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)politicizing a rare moment of common humanity.
dhill926
(16,355 posts)Raising a glass
UMTerp01
(1,048 posts)Very saddened to hear this news. Muhammad Ali fought a greater fight in my opinion in battling Parkinson's Disease for over 30 years. He did it with such grace and dignity. He fought such a good fight and I just hope that he went peacefully and celebrate his life and the fact that he is now at eternal rest.
I need 2016 to stop doing THE MOST though with our legends!!!! Too much!! RIP to The Greatest!!! Very sad day!!
LenaBaby61
(6,977 posts)You know not the problems of this world any longer...
There will never be another Muhammad Ali: Perfect, yet humanly imperfect.
My condolences to Muhammad Ali's family, friends and fellow fans all over the world....
Grassy Knoll
(10,118 posts)RIP
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want."
RIP Muhammed Ali
ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)My hero. The guy who got people like my Dad into thinking that maybe, just possibly, that black people might be just like everyone else. He also got them thinking that the Viet Nam war was bullshit. Both took some time to do, but they happened.
King and Malcolm X and the Black Panthers and other leaders, or lightning rods, of the civil rights movement were, by the wonder years white people, agitators, uppity nigras but Ali transcended that. He was everywhere and there was no doubting his charm. He was the opposite of what boxers, and especially black boxers,
were supposed to be like. Funny, good looking, witty and without the thuggish attitude of Liston. Not the sad tale that was Floyd Patterson. He was not an animal. He was human.
And that changed everything.
I think Ali did more to advance black people in western civilization than everyone including MLK. At least on a par. And only Bob Marley on a worldwide scale. When Ali visited a country in Africa he was treated as if he were Solomon, or Selassie, and he tried to elevate that country and its people beyond what it was at the time.
For me, the Ali moment I'll never forget was opening ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic games. When he lifted the torch I could feel the strength of the entire world lifting that torch with him. I bawled like a baby. I remember where I was when he beat Liston the first time, in my parents bedroom listening of the radio. When he lost to Frazier in their first match, right after he got reinstated. Frazier knocked him down twice to win the fight and it was like an arrow had been shot into my heart. He regained his mojo though, both in the ring and with his tussles with Howard Cosell (No Cosell and the Ali story would be very different).
Tough, another one of my heroes gone, and one of the last of the universal heroes ever probably. It is impossible to dominate all things today, everything is so fragmented now, so it is unlikely we will ever see the likes of Ali again.
Hell be missed.
longship
(40,416 posts)What a guy! What a loss!
Damn!
Rhiannon12866
(206,006 posts)daleo
(21,317 posts)74 doesn't really seem that young, any more. Like Lincoln, he brought black and white into a greater understanding. Like Lincoln, he is now for the ages.
PSPS
(13,614 posts)nitpicker
(7,153 posts)BBC World Service is also running a special news edition right now.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)RandySF
(59,221 posts)Is that he and Frazier never repaired their tattered friendship before they each passed away.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)May he rest in peace.
BlueMTexpat
(15,373 posts)So sorry that this has happened but delighted to imagine that he is once again in his glorious prime with his silver tongue free to sing poetry without any physical or mental impairments ever again!
Part of my own youth goes with him and I am not that much younger than he.
Hekate
(90,793 posts)lunamagica
(9,967 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, Surya Gayatri.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)quickesst
(6,283 posts)... another like him.
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)together. RIP
BumRushDaShow
(129,442 posts)and many condolences to the family. He did pass on the boxing spirit to Laila (now retired).
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)brer cat
(24,605 posts)a messenger for peace and equality. May he live on in our hearts to light our path.
Loki
(3,825 posts)The Greatest. Honor his life and his spirit, there will never be another one like him. Peace
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Stuart G
(38,445 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Cross gently, like a butterfly, Champ. You will be greatly missed.
marble falls
(57,204 posts)and yet this feels like a blind siding. One of the only "sports" heroes who never ever had feet of clay. He walked the walk without ever needing to talk the the talk. I am truly saddened by his passing.
sinkingfeeling
(51,473 posts)Donkees
(31,453 posts)IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)Deuce
(959 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,809 posts)Say hi to Howard Cosell for us.
Gothmog
(145,554 posts)EndElectoral
(4,213 posts)Ali had converted to Islam in 1964 after the first of his two wins over Liston, and changed his name from Cassius Clay. He said Islam was a religion of peace and that he had no desire to engage in combat with those who'd done him or his family no harm.
This all went down at the height of the civil rights movement.
"Shoot them for what?" Ali asked in an interview after he refused induction. "They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They never put dogs on me. They didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. What do I want to shoot them for, for what? Why do I want to go shoot them, poor little people and babies and children and women? How can I shoot them? Just take me to jail."
JEB
(4,748 posts)He was too close to the truth and honest people of all races and backgrounds knew it was the truth.
christx30
(6,241 posts)as it was before my time and I never really cared about boxing.
But if I knew nothing else about him, that quote alone would turn me into an instant fan.
roamer65
(36,747 posts)You have no duty to serve an entity that robs you of your basic human rights.
RIP, Ali.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)...and now we have lost The Greatest.
AikenYankee
(135 posts)sofa king
(10,857 posts)I spent some time studying his life and I learned so much. I am fortunate to have lived in his time, and America won back some of her conscience thanks to him.
stage left
(2,966 posts)Auggie
(31,186 posts)underpants
(182,877 posts)PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)He was a good man. A great one, even, because he stood up for what he believed was right.
I like to think he left the prison that his body had become and is now in a better place. Atheists may believe in oblivion after death, others in some afterlife. Either way, Ali is better off than he was in a body ravaged by 32 years of Parkinson's.
May he and his memory be blessed.
niyad
(113,552 posts)niyad
(113,552 posts)and this, from the cinema for peace foundation:
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is celebrating his 70th birthday this year. The greatest living legend of sport is not only known as a great sports champion, but also for his humanitarian work and opposing war. In 1967, he declared he would refuse to serve in the United States Army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector of the Vietnam War, and stood up for his beliefs, even though he was sentenced initially to 5 years in prison, was stripped his world-championship-title and was not allowed to work for 3,5 years.
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinsons syndrome. In 1991, he travelled to Iraq during the Gulf War and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. In 1996, Ali had the honour of lighting the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, what become the most memorable moment of modern Olympic history. In 2002 Muhammad Ali went to Afghanistan as U.N. Messenger of Peace. In 2011, Ali, as one of the most prominent U.S. Muslims, appealed to Iran's supreme leader to show mercy and free two Americans held on suspicion of espionage since 2009.
On the occasion of the 30th Olympic Games in London 2012, Sports for Peace will be honouring boxing legend Muhammad Ali in a Gala event in The Victoria and Albert Museum on the 25th of July. Sports for Peace aims at praising the Olympic ideals and to convey its message, raising awareness for such important and inspirational causes as The Muhammad Ali Center, which serves both as a cultural attraction and international education center that is inspired by the ideals of its founder. Sports for Peace was created during the preliminary stages of the Olympic Games 2008 in response to the question whether sport or major sporting events could be obliged to common ideals, following a discussion with Richard Gere in 2007.
Outstanding sports personalities create unforgettable moments and serve as role models for entire generations. But it does take more than sporting triumphs, world records and gold medals to transform successful athletes into role models of entire generations.
http://www.cinemaforpeace-foundation.com/Projects/muhammad-ali
DiverDave
(4,887 posts)He suffered for years and is no longer hurting.
Wherever he is, I imagine he's giving Cosell a noogie
We are poorer for his passing.
Rest easy champ
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Loved him since I was a kid.
Happy journeys, Sir.
❤️
potone
(1,701 posts)I hate boxing: it is a brutal sport; but what a man! He was a walking paradox: the best heavyweight boxer in the world, but an intelligent, thoughtful and fundamentally kind and gentle man who put his own integrity, basic sense of fairness, and respect for human life above his own career in a deeply racist country, instead of taking the easy way out and acceding to our war against a small and weak country thousands of miles away from us that had that had never done anything to deserve our onslaught against it.
His life has been an inspiration to millions of people around the world. We were honored to have him as one of us.
Rest in peace, Mr. Ali.
He was Muslim and I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, and in our tradition we say at someone's passing from this life: may his memory be eternal. In his case, I think it will be.
lovuian
(19,362 posts)loved to watch him and he will be so missed
Oneironaut
(5,524 posts)disillusioned73
(2,872 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,457 posts)of meeting ALI 20+ years ago and spent some time with him as he signed autographs and told stories...
you couldn't do better than to put his picture in Webster's next to ..... man
sheshe2
(83,898 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)I remember an article about his seeing an article in a New York newspaper about an old Jewish Retirement home running out of money. He beckoned an aide over, told him to find out how much they needed, then told him to take that amount plus a bit more over to them but not tell them it was him.
I am sure that was not an isolated incident.
He was a great man, an icon, he will be missed by most all of us. May he RIP.