Franco Harris (b.1950) was a  running back with the Pittsburgh Steeler’s offense from 1972-1983. He won four Super Bowls, including XIV in 1980, during which he wore this helmet.
Gift of the Pittsburgh Steelers Football team -National Museum of American History, Behring Center

Washington, D.C.

Muhammad Ali we love you. Thank you for all that you did. Thanks for showing us the benefits of hard work and character.

Howard Cosell

 He was one of the most outrageous figures in American sports history. His fearless reporting, maddening bombast, and unforgettable voice-like a pealing. staccato diesel engine-became the very soundtrack of a generation. Has any other sports announcer ever needed armed guards upon entering and exiting a stadium? As Mark Ribowsky, New York Times Notable Book biographer, makes clear, Howard Cosell wasn’t just a sports announcer; he was an outlaw in an increasingly corporate world.

No mere jock turned “pretty-boy” broadcaster, the Brooklyn-born Howard William Cohen first received a law degree from NYU before hosting a Little League radio program for ABC in the 1950’s. Yet the man who reminded the Baltimore sun of “a guy behind a Brooklyn delicatessen counter reciting Leviticus” could not be contained by just child’s play, and soon began reporting on those infamous Mets of 1962.

It was however, in the arena of boxing that Cosell demonstrated his genius First promoting the careers of sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson, he became most identified with the you Cassius Clay, and it was this symbiotic relationship between the boastful Muslim convert and the Jewish lawyer that propelled both to super-stardom. Even after Ali was stripped of the heavyweight crown betrayed by the media who had previously anointed him, it was the fierce civil rights advocate Cosell who stuck in Ali’s corner, making the case that eventually led to Ali’s vindication.

Whether retelling the story of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, whose careers wre destroyed after giving the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, or recounting the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics, Ribowsky’s Howard Cosell re-creates the most famous events of the 1960′ and 1970’s sports history like no other recent book. He also animates the toxic environment of Monday Night Football, where the never-ending battles between Cosell and his co-stars, don Meredith and Frank Gifford, provided as much drama as the game itself.

With more than fort new interviews, Mark Ribowsky presents Cosell’s life as part of an American panorama, examining racism, anti Semitism, and alcoholism among other sensitive themes. Cosell’s endless complexities are brilliantly explored in this haunting work that reveals as much about the explosive commercialization of sports as it does about a much neglected media giant.

from the Book cover HOWARD COSELL The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports by Mark Ribowsl

If you like sports you will love this book, cool.

On the night of the big fight even a skinny fly couldn’t have found a seat. The arena was packed. As the days of training crept past, all of England had placed its hopes in Cooper, their vaunted hero.  As matters turned out the contest answered two questions about how hard Ali had trained and how hard he could hit. On the way to the ring he had been serenaded with both boos and cheers. A scattering of catcalls came as he briefly prayed to Allah just before the bell. But there were only cheers as he jogged a victory lap around the ring as ring attendants helped poor Cooper up off the canvas. At my hotel the following morning he came to my room with a sheet of paper and handed it to me. “I’m holdin’ a press conference at Islow’s restaurant at one o’clock. Want you to be there. Read that and tell me what you think. It’ what I’m goin’ to say.” I looked at him closely. “Your face isn’t even marked.” “Nope. Can’t afford no marks. The public likes pretty gentleman fighters. So I have to be pretty forever. Go on, man, read the thing.” I read it aloud: “When I was campaigning for the championship, I did things and said things unbecoming of a champion. But I’m champion now. And today I’m measuring my words and I’m measuring my thoughts. By the help of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, this is the new Muhammad Ali.  And now I want to mention something that is nearest to me-the country where I was born…’”Wouldn’t just’ my country’ be better? I asked. “No, Elijah Muhammad  would  like it better the way it is.” “ ‘I thank the president of the United States and the officials of the government. And I thank my draft board for letting me come here to defend the title. And I thank the prime minister for his kindness and understanding. Regardless of the right or wrong back there, that is where I was born. And that is where I’m returning to’ “Beautiful brother.” Muhammad Ali sparkled with confidence and charm as he faced the battery of microphones and reporters. Later he noticed the suit I had worn for the occasion, “Where’d you get that foxy number, boss?” “At my tailor’s here in London on Savile Row.” “I’ callin’ him and ordering six just like it, but in different colors. I’m a gentleman now. Have to look like one.” Muhammad Ali had left London with an improved image, a pocketful of money, and six new suits.

From the book A HUNGRY HEART (A Memoir) Gordon Parks

This book is a winner, a knock out, a real cool read.

oldschoolgoldenyears.com