Class News
Tony Lavely ’64 explores Yale connections to Muhammad Ali
September 21, 2021
Tony Lavely wrote:
While watching the recent Ken Burns series “Ali,” I got curious about Ali’s Louisville connections in the 1960s. The syndicate of eleven Louisville men who sponsored Ali after his 1960 Olympic Gold Medal was reported in Burns’ documentary.
The father of our 1964 classmate Owsley Brown II — William Lee Lyons Brown — was one of the eleven men in the syndicate. While he did not attend Yale, others in the syndicate did.
More recently, Owsley Brown III, our classmate’s son (who went to UVA), was one of the underwriters of Burns’ documentary. Steve Bingham ’64 told me he wasn’t related to the Louisville Binghams who were also in Cassius Clay’s syndicate (Ali’s name at the time).
Dick Niglio ’64 and I (we were working together at Kentucky Fried Chicken at the time) attended the first Ali-Frazier fight in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971.
Years later, in 1998, I would meet Ali personally at the launch of the Muhammad Ali Center.
The last connection is that our classmate Terry Holcombe ’64 is a next-door neighbor to Ken Burns in Walpole, NH. Terry and Marya probably got a sneak preview of the Ali documentary.
Whether you are a boxing fan (I am), or not, the Ali documentary is a fascinating walk down the 1960s memory lane.
Addendum: Email from John Podeschi ’64
November 8, 2021
Cassius Marcellus Clay —
Kentucky planter, politician,
and emancipationist
Tony, I just read your piece on Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali in the Class Notes. As you probably know, Ali's original name of Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. has Yale connections. Ali's father was named for the famous Kentucky abolitionist, Lincoln stalwart, and aboriginal Republican, Cassius Marcellus Clay, who graduated from Yale in 1832. I think that someone even proposed renaming Calhoun College “Clay College” in honor of that great crusader for emancipation. [For more on the politician Cassius Clay, see the video below.]
I personally thought that Calhoun College, if renamed, should have been named in honor of Noah Webster, who graduated from Yale in 1779 and produced the three most influential books in American history: his dictionary, his speller, and his grammar. Webster is buried in Yale's backyard, in Grove Street Cemetery, also the resting place of Yale luminaries like Eli Whitney.
Noah Webster
Regarding Muhammad Ali, I am not sure that Ken Burns captured the personal warmth of Ali's character. It was easy to obtain film of Ali's sometimes mocking theatricality. In the 1980s, I occasionally sold sports memorabilia at some of the big sports-card conventions. Big-name athletes were brought to these shows to meet fans and sign autographs. Dealers were polled on which of these guest “greats” were most popular. The very personable Muhammad Ali was by far the favorite of dealers and fans. They truly loved him. I was told that he was especially good with young people. In contrast, one famous athlete, who was at lots of shows, was universally despised by dealers … that was the mean-spirited Pete Rose.