NPC in History: The Greatest

“The Mouth that Roared”

"The Louisville Lip”

“The greatest athlete of all time.” Whatever anyone thinks about Muhammad Ali, he knew how to capture a crowd.

He appeared at the National Press Club on Aug. 27, 1976, with boxer Ken Norton one month before their heavyweight championship bout at Yankee Stadium. At the head table were boxer Joe Frazier, comedian Dick Gregory and boxing promoter Don King.

Trying to keep control of the luncheon was Club Vice President Robert Farrell of McGraw Hill.

If Club members thought they were coming for a back and forth between the boxers about the upcoming fight, they didn’t know Muhammad Ali.

Norton spoke first for about three minutes of the 10 minutes he had been allotted. After that, it was almost all Ali.

At one point, to little avail, Norton said to Ali, “Let me talk, fool.”

Ali started off making news by announcing that he would contribute $100,000 of the $5 million purse for the upcoming fight to the NAACP, which faced bankruptcy after it lost a $1.25 million defamation lawsuit brought by white Mississippi merchants for the losses of a seven-year NAACP-backed boycott.

Then, instead of talking about boxing, Ali launched into a lecture on “The Real Cause of Man’s Distress.” He insisted that mankind was in so much trouble because it followed laws created by humans rather than the laws of God.

“The reason we have so many wars and so much confusion, is that man is trying to run the world according to his own desires and not obey the laws of God himself,” Ali said. “The heavens and the Earth are his property. We are his servants. His law is the law of the universe. None of his subjects have a right to put himself as the king or leader. We are all guilty of abandoning the laws of God. And by accepting those made by human lawmakers, we have surrendered our allegiance. God calls anyone of us under his control.”

Trying to write and condense Ali’s words here does not do him justice.

His rapid-fire patter is so overwhelming that even stopping the recording and repeatedly rewinding it, I still had trouble getting it all. His lecture went on for so long that the audience began to laugh when for the third time he said he was about to finish. That only made him talk more.

To appreciate Ali’s verbal abilities, you must listen to it. The Library of Congress chose it as one of the Club’s luncheons to highlight, and you can hear it and read the Library’s analysis here.

Even during the question-and-answer session, Ali dominated the floor.

When Farrell asked a question about a World Boxing Commission rule for Ali to be heavyweight champ, Muhammad exploded. He wanted to know who wrote such a ridiculous question. He wanted to get him fired. Farrell sounded defensive as he repeated a couple of times that he did not write the questions, he only asked them.

“I’m so big in this game, you can take all of my titles, don’t mean a damn thing,” Ali said. “All I need is some boxing gloves and some trunks and go to some country … Announce that Muhammad Ali is going to fight Joe Blow. Let me write some poems, and do some shuffles, and we will sell the joint out. I don’t want to brag or nothing, but I’m bigger than boxing. I’m the lord of the ring. How are you going to beat the lord? I’m bigger than the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, the Rose Bowl combined.”

Known for his poetry, Ali wrapped up the luncheon with a poem about the upcoming fight:

Ali comes out to beat Norton,
But Norton starts to retreat.
If Norton goes back an inch farther,
He will end up in a ring-side seat.
Ali swings to the left. Ali swings to the right.
Look at Ali carry the fight.
Norton keeps backing, but there’s not enough room.
It’s a matter of time that Ali lowers the boom.
Now Ali lands a right. What a beautiful swing.
He punches Norton clean out of the ring
Norton, Norton, Norton’s still rising.
But the ref runs afoul because he can’t start counting
Until Norton comes down
Now, now, now Norton disappears
Norton disappears from view
The crowd’s getting frantic,
But our radar stations pick him up.
He’s somewhere over the Atlantic.
Who would have dreamed when they came to the fight,
That they would witness the launching of a new satellite.

Ali did win the Yankee Stadium fight, but it was not so decisive – a controversial decision in the 15th round. Ali had less than five years left in his boxing career, and a year after he retired he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Yet he was such an international sensation that when an enfeebled Ali lit the torch to open the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he was cheered around the world.

This is another in a series provided by Club historian Gil Klein. Dig down anywhere in the Club’s 111-year history, and you will find some kind of significant event in the history of the world, the nation, Washington, society, journalism and the Club itself. Many of these events were caught in illustrations that tell the stories.