Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight

by Howard Bingham

  In Utah, news of the WBA decision reached Bill Faversham, head of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, which still held Ali’s contract. Faversham and the rest of the group had hit upon a potential bonanza when their fighter won the title. But now the controversy jeopardized millions of dollars in promotional deals and other traditional financial perks that came with the heavyweight title. Putting on a brave face, Faversham told the media, “I’m amazed that the WBA is trying to take away Clay’s title. He has done nothing illegal or immoral.”

  Indeed, the list of heavyweight champions before Ali was filled with criminals and thugs. Sonny Liston himself had served five years in prison for robbery and still consorted with an organization far more sinister than the Nation of Islam, the Cosa Nostra. Yet Ali was singled out for conduct “detrimental to boxing.”

  Ali seemed genuinely perplexed. “Ain’t this country supposed to be where every man can have the religion he wants, even no religion if that’s what he wants?” he asked in a Playboy interview. “There ain’t a court in America that would take a man’s job, or his title, because of his religious convictions. The Constitution forbids Congress from making any laws involving a man’s religion. But they want to take away my title—for what? What have I done to hurt boxing? I’ve helped boxing. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t bother with nobody.”

  As the controversy threatened to derail what he had worked so long to achieve, Ali’s defenders were few and far between. Two well-known black athletes waded into the dispute. Jackie Robinson was one of the first to rise to Ali’s defense. “Many people have asked me whether I am disturbed because, ideologically, Cassius has taken on a new trainer, Malcolm X,” he wrote in his syndicated column. “Why should I be disturbed? Clay has just as much right to ally himself with the Muslim religion as anyone else has to be a Protestant or Catholic. There are those who scoff at the claim by Muhammad’s Muslims that they represent a religion. These people have a right to their opinion. People who are concerned over Clay’s alliance with the Muslims seem mainly worried lest great flocks of young and adult Negroes will suddenly turn to the Islam ranks. I don’t believe this will happen.” Despite Robinson’s support, he couldn’t quite bring himself to use the new name.

  Joe Louis wasn’t quite as open-minded. “I’m against Black Muslims,” he said crankily. “I’ve always believed every man is my brother. Clay will earn the public’s hatred because of his connections to the Muslims. The heavyweight champion is the champion of all people. He has responsibilities to all people.”

  Then, on March 24, Ali’s problems reached the floor of Congress—and he won an unlikely defender. An influential senator rose to his feet and launched an eloquent and impassioned defense of the new champion:

  Mr. President, I have pointed out before that a wave of intolerance accompanied by a determination to enforce conformity of thought and action on all men was sweeping through the nation. I repeat that intolerance and the demand for conformity poses a serious threat to the rights of every American citizen. Cassius Clay, in common with 180 million other American citizens, has a right to join the religious sect of his choice without being blackmailed, harassed, and threatened with the severe punishment of being deprived of the heavyweight championship. This is an example of the sort of intolerance which grips this country today.

  The speaker was none other than Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, an avowed racist and segregationist who believed Martin Luther King Jr. was a traitor to the country. Why, then, would he rise to the defense of a black militant? The words Russell chose to read into the Congressional Record, taken from Ali’s recent newspaper interviews, provide a clue to his motivation:

  I don’t believe in forced integration … we should stay with our own … tigers stay with tigers, red ants with red ants, Cubans with Cubans …. Why do two Negroes have to go two miles out of the way to a white school, upsetting the whole school …. We believe that forced and token integration is but a temporary and not an everlasting solution to the Negro problem….

  Russell unwittingly revealed one of the great ironies of the Black Muslim movement, that they shared a common goal with the racist defenders of Jim Crow and the forced separation of the races. This reality hit home when Malcolm X revealed in his autobiography that on behalf of the Nation of Islam, he personally had negotiated a secret pact with the Ku Klux Klan, in which the white supremacists pledged not to interfere with the Nation of Islam’s activities in the South. FBI files reveal that the Klan sent an annual financial contribution to the Nation of Islam for many years.

  In the end, the World Boxing Association’s influence was limited, and its decision carried little weight. Both the New York and Illinois athletic commissions met and voted unanimously to continue recognizing Ali as the world champion, regardless of any action the WBA might take. Melvin Kurewich, chairperson of the New York State Athletic Commission, declared, “Within the limits of the Constitution, the right to freedom of speech and to religious beliefs are inviolate. No title of a world champion has ever been vacated because of religion, race, or religious beliefs.” Ali told reporters, “That New York board is the smartest. It knows I’m the greatest, and that I certainly can’t lose my title outside the ring.”

  Nevertheless, the damage was done, the outrage incurred on both sides. For the second time, a black heavyweight champion had stood up to white America and thumbed his nose at its prejudices and preconceptions. In so doing, Ali had provoked a backlash that had not been seen since the boxing establishment turned against Jack Johnson a half century earlier.

  Just as one major controversy was deflected, an announcement came from Washington that was about to unleash an even greater firestorm. The day after Ali announced his conversion to the Nation of Islam, J. Edgar Hoover ordered his agents to inquire about the boxer’s draft status. The easiest way to keep a troublemaker in line, he figured, would be to keep him under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam for two years. The same day, the head of Ali’s Louisville Draft Board told reporters the new champion would be “drafted within three weeks.”

  However, the results of Ali’s army aptitude tests, taken six weeks earlier, had not yet been compiled. Finally, on March 20, the results were in. CASSIUS CLAY REJECTED BY ARMY! screamed the headlines.

  The Pentagon had issued a communique which, according to the New York Times, was cleared through command channels “with the care normally attached to the status of missile scientists.” The communiqué announced that the Department of the Army had reviewed Ali’s pre-induction examination and had determined that “he is not qualified for induction into the Army under applicable standards. Tests given Clay included measurements of aptitudes and various skills needed in military service. Clay was given a second test after it was determined that the results of the initial test were inconclusive.”

  The official announcement explained that Ali had been tested for aptitude in “various skills needed in military service.” In failing this test, Ali fell into the category of the 18.8 percent of prospective draftees who demonstrate they “lack trainability” for even limited military skills. After taking his first test in January, and failing the mathematical section, Ali had been summoned back in early March to take a second test in Louisville. This time, an army psychologist was assigned to watch him and determine whether he was deliberately attempting to fail. The expert concluded that “Clay tried his best.” Among the questions asked in the mathematical question, two in particular gave him trouble:

  1. A man works from six in the morning to three in the afternoon with one hour for lunch. How many hours did he work?

  a) 7 b)8 c)9 d) 10

  2. A clerk divided a number by 3.5 when it should be multiplied by 4.5. His answer is 3. What is the correct answer?

  a)3.25 b) 10.50 c) 13.75 d) 47.25

  Ali was embarrassed by the publicity given his poor results. “I said I was the greatest, not the smartest,” he told reporters. “When I looked at a lot of them questions, I just didn’t know the answers.
I didn’t even know how to start about finding the answers.”

  Reaction around the country to the news Ali had avoided the army by failing his induction test was almost as outraged and indignant as the announcement of his conversion. “Had I flunked math, I still could have peeled potatoes for the first two months of my army service—which I did,” said Representative William Ayers of Ohio on the floor of Congress. “Anybody that can throw a punch like Cassius ought to be able to throw a knife around a potato.”

  A Georgia lawyer started up a “Draft That Nigger Clay” campaign. South Carolina Congressperson L. Mendel Rivers embarked on a speaking tour, crusading to have Ali reclassified. “Clay’s deferment is an insult to every mother’s son serving in the armed forces,” he raged. “Here he is, smart enough to finish high school, write his kind of poetry promote himself all over the world, make a million a year, drive around in red Cadillacs—and they say he’s too dumb to tote a gun! Who’s dumb enough to believe that?” A number of incensed senators and congressmen immediately called for a Senate hearing on the matter.

  Behind the scenes, Ali’s handlers were working furiously to deflect the latest controversy. He recalls being approached by Worth Bingham of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, who proposed a compromise. “He told me, ‘Look, Cassius, let’s work this thing out. They don’t want you in the army as much as they want the title back in ‘patriotic’hands. Let’s get them off you. You pick any service you want: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines — you name it. We’ll swing a commission.You come out in the reserves, Special Services. You’ll never go near a battlefield. It’s done every day.’” Ali said he’d think it over.

  Nobody was more suspicious of Ali’s test results than J. Edgar Hoover, who had been temporarily thwarted in his plan to eliminate the new convert’s national platform and, by extension, that of the Black Muslims. His agents set out to prove that Ali had been faking it. With the help of a sympathetic insider, the FBI obtained Cassius Clay’s high school records. A summary of a report sent to Hoover states:

  Person X emphasized that he was furnishing information for the assistance of the U.S. government and did not want the data made public.

  Clay re-entered Central High School in September of 1958, and remained until he graduated June 11, 1960. He ranked 376 out of a graduating class of 391. His average grades for the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th years was 72.7.

  On January 3, 1957, Clay was given the standard California Intelligence Quotient Test and attained a rating of 83. On February 15,1960, he took a college qualifications test and scored a percentile of 27. That is, 73 per cent of those taking the test scored better than Clay.

  Person X advised that, during the time that Clay was attending high school, a passing mark was 70.

  Clay earned 16 units, earning them in the following subjects:

  Subject Grades Attained

  English 75, 70, 73, 74

  Mechanical Drawing 70, 71

  Choral Music 70, 71

  Social Studies 75

  General Science 70

  Biology 70

  General Art 70

  American History 75

  Algebra 1 70

  Foods 83

  Metal Work 93

  Much to Hoover’s chagrin, Ali’s high school academic record seemed to vindicate the Army’s test scores. From this point on, the media seemed to revel in portraying Ali as not very bright. Even some of his liberal sympathizers would regularly refer to him as “unsophisticated,” “lacking book learning” and “childlike.” Never lacking in confidence before, Ali was sensitive about these characterizations. “For a while, I began to believe I was stupid,” he said. He was even more troubled by the fact that public reports said he failed the “mental test,” making him “crazy” in many people’s minds.

  But according to Jerry Izenberg, who has been covering Ali since the 1960 Olympics, “You just have to spend five minutes with him to understand how bright he is. I’ve never encountered a quicker, or a more intuitive, mind. The truth is that he’s a hell of a lot smarter than any of the reporters who covered him, and that probably includes me.”

  Ali later discussed his educational limitations with Life magazine photographer Gordon Parks. “My mother always wanted me to be something like a doctor or lawyer,” he revealed. “Maybe I’d a made a good lawyer. I talk so much. I guess I got that from my father. I’m really kinda shy. Didn’t get as much schooling as I wanted to. But common sense is just as good.”

  Malcolm X seems to have been one of the first to understand the extent of Ali’s intellect. In Miami he told George Plimpton, “Not many people know the quality of the mind he’s got in there. He fools them. One forgets that though a clown never imitates a wise man, the wise man can imitate the clown. He is very shrewd—with as much untapped mental energy as he has physical power.”

  His high school guidance counselor Betty Johnston insists that his school record and his army aptitude test do not in any way reflect his intelligence. “I now believe we failed him in high school,” she says. “We only had one guidance counselor for seventeen hundred students and he kind of got passed by. It’s possible he may have even had a learning disability, dyslexia perhaps, but we just didn’t know about those things then. One thing is clear. This is a highly intelligent person and only a fool can’t see that.”

  Typical Americans seemed to sense the same thing. News of Ali’s draft-exempt status prompted a deluge of angry letters to President Johnson, the Commander-in-Chief. Most found it impossible to believe the quick-witted boxer wasn’t smart enough for the Army. A sampling of these letters indicates the pressure the Johnson Administration faced:

  “Dear Mr. Johnson: As a citizen of the most wonderful country in the world, and the mother of a young boy that has just been drafted, I would like to ask a few questions. I hope you will take the time to answer them for me,” wrote one Pennsylvania housewife. “I read in the paper that Mr. Clay was not being drafted because he was not mentally acceptable. Mr. President, I can hardly believe that! Is it because he is a millionaire and pays a lot of taxes? Is it because he is heavyweight champion of the world? Is it because he is colored and colored people are being handled with’kid gloves’these days?”

  Another citizen wrote the president, “Unless Clay is drafted into the army, you will be personally sorry.”

  Johnson felt he needed a capable, high-ranking government official to deflect the furor and handle the situation, so he assigned the dossier to Secretary of the Army Stephen Ailes. In a letter to Carl Vinson, chairperson of the House Armed Services Committee, who was demanding a public hearing on the matter, Ailes explained the decision to classify Ali 1-Y. “In my judgment, we must depend on the established standards which our mental tests measure in a very accurate degree. The requirements of today’s Army do not allow acceptance of those personnel not offering a reasonable value to the defense effort.”

  But Johnson was so sensitive to public criticism of the Ali matter that he ordered Secretary Ailes to personally write letters to some members of the public, a job usually designated to a much lower official. In one of these letters, Ailes unwittingly reveals the extraordinary attention the government paid to Ali’s induction exam and certainly lends credence to the theory that the boxer was singled out.

  To an Idaho man who wrote the president speculating that Ali had faked his results, Ailes wrote, “You are concerned as to whether Clay misled the army into believing he could not acquire the needed skills. So was I. For this very reason I asked that he be re-tested. Furthermore, I sent the senior Army civilian expert in the testing field to Louisville to review the test results, to observe Clay during the test, and to observe the subsequent interview between Clay and the Army psychologist. Clay’s attitude was cooperative and our people were convinced that he made a sincere effort on the tests. Accordingly, we had no basis for inducting him.”

  In April, anxious to leave the draft controversy behind, Ali set off on his previously scheduled tour of Africa. In co
ntrast to the chilly reception he now received in his own country, huge crowds greeted the world champion, especially in the predominantly Muslim countries where Ali was considered a hero of the faith as well as a sporting great.

  When he had announced his planned African trip at the UN two months earlier, Ali had promised, “Malcolm X will be at my side.” Now, however, the two were completely estranged; indeed, they had not spoken since Malcolm had announced the formation of his new movement the month before. In the meantime, the former champion of black supremacy had visited Mecca and seen white and black Muslims worshipping side by side. The sight and its significance had prompted a profound shift in his thinking. Malcolm now believed the Nation of Islam was a racist movement and that he had been misguided in his own long-held views.

  By coincidence, during the course of Ali’s African trip, the boxer arrived in Ghana—through which Malcolm X was passing on his way to Mecca. At one point, the two passed each other in a marketplace but didn’t speak. Moments later, Ali turned to Herbert Muhammad—the Messenger’s son who was travelling with him—and offered an assessment of his former teacher.

  “Man, did you get a look at him? Dressed in that funny white robe and wearing a beard and walking with a cane that looked like a prophet’s stick? Man, he’s gone so far out he’s out completely. Doesn’t that just go to show that Elijah is the most powerful; nobody listens to that Malcolm anymore.” This conversation was captured in an FBI surveillance report.

  Ali sounds like a man trying to convince himself he had done the right thing in choosing the Messenger over Malcolm. In later years, he would feel shame about turning his back on the man who had advanced his spiritual growth, guided his thinking, and been like family to him. But the most ironic aspect of their split was that Malcolm’s new philosophy—a more flexible version of black nationalism, international solidarity, and economic self-help without the racism—closely paralleled the vision of Ali, who in the years to come sounded a lot more like Malcolm X than like Elijah Muhammad.