Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="Townie72, post: 1782204, member: 780"]
At least some of Ali's bombast and schtick resulted in him and Boxing gaining public attention, selling tickets and building large TV audiences (including the first in-theater Pay TV audiences).

Baseball was the big deal in the US through the first half of the 1960's. College football was popular and Boxing may have been the #3 sport in the US. Very few people watched the NFL and the NBA (which had franchises in places like Rochester and Syracuse)

But when Ali came on the scene in 1964, boxing was waning as a sport. He revitalized it and re-focused public attention on Boxing. Polarization was part of it. Ali and the Boxing establishment didn't care if you bought tickets to see Ali win or to see him lose.

I always had a soft spot for Clay/Ali as I had won a lot of money (a serious amount) on the Feb, 64 fight against Liston. I was stationed on a large air base in the Far East. My roommate was a black guy from Indianapolis, Mike Coe, who was an ex-Golden Gloves boxer and was so somehow still tied into people in the sport. Based on letters he had received from his buddies in the US, he guaranteed me Clay was going to win even though Liston was an 8-1 favorite.

I bankrolled the bets and Coe, whose idea it was, also handled after - fight collections.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?