What i admire most about mohammed ali is his moxie and boastfulness both in and out of the rain. And his courage to stand up against an unpopular war. That made him hated by people in the right and you supported the war. All the great matches of his career including his ine like thethrilla manila and the rumble in the jungle. Certainly one of the first boxers that sort of promoted himself. He combines sportsmanship. I think he combined a little bit of the entertainment. Bitink he was a little probably a huge influence for generations of fighters both here and around the world. Back to tavis smileys oped this morning and usa today. When i think of mohammed ali, i think first not of his dominance inside the ring but rather of his perfunctory gem deep love for all of humanity. Courage is in deep slide supply these days. Mark is in melbourne, florida. The legacy of of mohammed ali. Caller id like to speak more about his muslim religion if i could. Ofy talk about his religion peace, you tell that to those people in the world trade center. N september 11 i dont think theres anything piece of peaceful about the muslim religion. 202 is the area code if you want to talk about mohammed ali. We will be coming be covering his Memorial Services afternoon. From the Washington Post this is , this isical back page a short summary. Inn ali was called to serve 1967, he refused. He said it was against his religion and he was a member of the nation of islam. Boxing official strip him of his title and did not allow him to fight the most four years. His decision to follow his religion cost him millions of dollars and several important years of his career. Later, he came back and won the heavyweight crown again, but he may be remembered more for following his examples than any of his boxing titles. He stood up for what he thought was right, even when it was not easy and cost him a lot. Thats in the Washington Post. Time magazine. The cover story is on mohammed ali. Here is the inside story. He also worked at espn and other outcast, hero, legend, is the title of the article. It has several historical photos and here. Mohammed alis father instilled in him the sense that he would have to make his way by following white man rules. He felt like he was big enough to make them on. Style that probably ruined many other fighters who did not have his speed and talent. You can get away with holding their fists at their waste and avoiding punches and pulling back, leaving one side to the other. His style led people to believe he could not take a punch. He made the u. S. Of a victory for the 1960 rome games and was a sensation. Handsome, eight outgoing, 18 year old, he chased wilma she could not stop laughing. He took pictures with his camera when a soviet journalists digging for controversy as tim about racial segregation them in america, cash is clay at the time said, tell your readers we have qualified people working on that and im not worried about the outcome. To make, the usa is still the best country in the world, including yours. I aint fighting alligators and living in a mud hut. He would later rate write that code regret that quote. Here was a descendent of slaves grateful for the advantages of democracy. He was not agitating to peoples the hot lunch counters. He was knocking down commie boxes with those fists. But back, he was, in his own words that others the olympic n. When he was refused service in louisville he said he threw his gold medal in the ohio river. This was not true, the metal was stolen when he left it unattended. This is Time Magazine this week. Marlboro,upper maryland. Caller yes. I just wanted to call in and say the whole week long tribute to him has been great. He was a great rocks are. I grew up watching him with my he was excited. He was larger than life. I think the coverage is misplaced. We are not having a conversation about the things in his life that caused him to be so hated by the american public. The fact that he was against the war. Going from problems clay. S clay cash is why is it hard to treat mohammed. Li so poorly as a black man the conversation this so we has been centered on the man, but we are not having conversations about the issues in our society that caused this mans life to be so controversial. Do you have to be larger than life and a glowing personality to garner that attention or gain that respect . We are not focusing on our country. That is a terrible situation that we have, some of the same issues that he dealt with in the 60s and 70s. Host thank you for your comments. Thank you for having me. I agree for what the previous caller just said to and i disagree with the comments from a guy in florida. And the other guy talking about their religion of islam. I am a veteran. It doesnt speak for the entire religion of islam. He was a larger than life figure. He did a lot of humanitarian things. Manrson has to be a black that they want to denigrate him and dont want to give him credit and comparing him to steve jobs. Racism is so out of this world it is amazing how stupid some people can be. Holding those views. He recognized all over the world. I met him. He was a very intelligent guy. Besides the fight game, he always won. He won out of the rain. He stood against the war that became unpopular before most people even realized it host where did you meet him . Caller i met him at a hotel in midtown manhattan. I forget the name about tell hotel. He he has a funny sense of humor, he made me laugh. It was a real pleasure to meet him. Shame racism in this country. I have been trying to call the station when you have other subjects, and it is almost impossible to get through with the trump supporters. Hope you keep watching and keep trying to call. Tweeted thisma out, we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rest in peace. Yolanda, national city, california. Woman, what i ider myself a person i amup in the 1950s and 64 years old. He never was a person that cared for the sport. It is brutal, dehumanizing another human being. But growing up in the civil rights movement, this man gave so much to me as far as speaking out against injustice. Like the other people that comment on all these ignorant people that talk about muslims stuff, asers kind of out during spoke segregation in texas, growing up in texas, just in the small towns of texas, that man gave me so much courage. I think he has done so much for other people that are now benefiting from his kind of courage. You dont have to be a lover of muslims the muslim religion, but you can be a good christian, and you can be a good jewish person. You can be a good buddhist. You can still get so much inspiration and courage from a host . E him some of the video we have been. Howing you was from 2005 this is from 1996, the opening of the atlanta olympics. Representative barbara lee, from the oakland area, deeply saddened to learn of his passing. No one had his passion and commitment for peace. Said. N power, she she includes a picture of herself with mohammed ali. Says, ali was the future. He showed the greatest of usa. Mylan says ali expose the injustice of the vietnam were. Helplped to end it and people like me. He had someeading, good thoughts of the general gentlemen, but his islam legacy will forever taint his legacy. Next call is steve in robert still, missouri. Please go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to make the common that he is really a good man, and he did a lot of things for. Eople he helped the poor. There is only mistake he made. You cannot turn your back on god, christ, the son of all your good does not get you to heaven. Glory toist gave up come to earth to save our souls. Thats the only difference between christians and every other religion, we cannot save ourselves. It takes the son of god to save us. I hope everybody who believes in jesus christ. Host we have divided our phone lines this morning by region or it if you live in the eastern percent of time zones, 748, 800100, 202, mountain and pacific time zones. Bertha, good morning. Caller i remember going to college with people who were ,lassmates of mohammed ali supposed to have graduated in 1959. The schools did not offer the foriculum that they needed someone who possibly had dyslexia. Brilliant and he had a heart of gold. Himself in a positive way, despite the fact that segregation did not treat him very well. The previous caller, who called that pretty i pray , im not talking about one individual but a country that leads in theynity they are need to pray. Ryan, rest inpaul peace champ. You inspired a generation. Stephen in so long, ohio. My name is steve willis. Hello . Listen, i remember mohammed ali d like it was yesterday. I am 68. He made me proud to be black. He made me proud to be black. To be a negro during that. Of time was a curse. I remember it like yesterday. And i am a proud vietnam veteran. He made me proud of my people. I still today have a prejudice against the old south. But god bless america, because i love this country and god bless mohammed ali. You do you remember what thought about when he refused to go to vietnam . He was in my opinion, right in his own words. My people were struggling during that. Of time. They were desegregated and deeply hated. Because i amtnam still an american, no matter what. And i served proudly. Mohammed ali refused to go, i understood it. I still went and served my country and i am proud of it. America and the world lost a legend. Mohammed ali became the greatest and lived like life with strength, principal and generosity. Next call is jean, in louisiana. I thought about this. I looked at donald trump, mitt gotey, bush, they all deferments for fighting and not vietnam. They were all white, rich, man. Stripped this black man of everything that he had. To mr. Sanders, this is a man who had the courage of his convictions. Debt that she did not wait to lead a revolution. Host rita youre on the washington journal. Caller id like to make a comment for those who keep calling in talking about his religion. Christianity as a perfect religion. Christianity was used for slavery. Christianity had violence in it. Please remember for those who christians, dont put down some elses religion and if youre going to speak about islam, please have the decency to do your research somee you spout off stupidity. Historyto understand before i speak out stuff. They have no idea about it. Just spouting off stuff. They sound so ignorant. And also i would like to say that i believe what mod ali did i not going to the vietnam war was great. He stood on his principles. And to be called during that on evilness, couldnt get jobs, be inbred lines and live on the street and have to go over there and fight against another country that never did anything to you. I would not have gone either. Host we got the point. Here is some video from 1969. [video clip] black people dont have nothing to fight for. We go to vietnam and we come and brother coming back with one leg cut off and no arms. Come back home and fight for freedom and we get our heads be up. I just am think i should go 10,000 miles from here and shoot some black people who never called me later. Back, and i read while im in the foxhole i reading us onwhite folks killing the streets of america. H this in mind host wallet ali really was the greatest, unmatched not just in power and skill but also encouraging conscience, thinking of his family. At donald trump tweeted this out, mohammed a lead is dead at 74, a truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all. Ext call is from cincinnati originally i am from india area. In the 1960s i was a High School Student and india. Introduced, we were and in the 1970s, when i was a dental student he decency ofus to the human moral integrity and high principles. Champion around the world. Thank you very much. Longtime spies sportswriter who work with mohammed ali over the years,. Ack to his article soon he would renounce his slave name and demand to be called, cacaches ask. Ali, worthy of most praise. The press mostly refused to honor the name change, mostly calling him champ. Host the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, at a time when that title had significance was turning his back on mainstream religion, politics and commerce. He was making a powerful statement in the turbulence 60s cities, ands swept the vietnam war was expanding. Critics, aters and pauli was now seen as an out broken agent of change and he was seen as the mouth and muscle of the american counterculture often n. Y. C. Could not fully understand and might not have approved of his he had. Nextels harry in conyers, georgia. Good morning. We are talking about the legacy of mohammed ali. Caller good morning. Say. Can i he sacrificed everything just about. Richardshave been the richest athlete in the world. Twl two wars in vietnam. Iam 69 years old now and developed an attitude that this thats the type of guy should be recognized all over the world. At the same time, america should be very proud of the shukman. We have all kinds of religions in this country. Man, i say young man, 74 is jean to die at this time. I am so proud of mohammed host thank you. Thank you, harry for calling in kerry for calling in. Sayer i won it to call to that i was listening earlier and i heard a previous collar say caller Say Something that was very offensive. I am an original african. I am fairly young. I did not live during the time when this was going on. I did read a lot about mohammed ali and his biography. An outstandings individual and a man of great culture. To try to demonize all of that fake with a religion under the other than christianity. I am a christian but i do have friends that are muslim. I have learned a lot about their religion. Islam is a peaceful religion. What a lot of people do not understand is that it is not that muslims do not believe in jesus christ. They do not believe he died on the cross. That is the only difference. Everyone in the world is waiting for jesus christ to come down and rid the world of this evil. I won it to point that out. I wanted to point that out. Host in the cover story in time, it he talked about the friendship that malcolm ask had with mohammed ali and the role of Elijah Mohammed in the nation of islam as well. Tv whichhis year, book is every weekend on cspan2, covered about why Randy Roberts called blood brothers. It is about the friendship and the breakup of that friendship between the hamed ali and malcolm x. Between mohammed ali and malcolm x. You can watch that any time. You can see the whole program. Magazine, robert lipsyte, in 1964, mohammed ali was granted a deferment from the draft. Not qualified under current standards for the Armed Services leading some to wonder if it was a gift from the louisville draft board to the local pillars that owned his contract. Others speculated that he had been deemed mentally unstable or homosexual. Was theater, he 1964 tests had determined he was not smart enough. He had struggled to answer the questions, especially the math and his army iq was listed as 78, below the passing grade. He was retested and failed again. Later, he had not become smarter, but the army had lowered its standards. The champ was humiliating. If you blithely told reporters that he was the greatest but not the smartest. He had always been embarrassed by his weak Academic High School record. Occasions, he had admitted to the author that he had never been able to read an entire book. That humiliation was the main reason that he first said i nothing against those be at a. He may have been the most quotable athlete of all time and most of his utterances were joyous. What that quote was explosively polarizing. Apart. Ntry was falling on television, february 17, 1966, Senate Hearings raged over the war in vietnam. Mohammed ali was oblivious. As a swarm of reporters descended on his rented miami bungalow for his reaction to the reclassification, i watched his mood change. It began with bewilderment and morphed into questioning. As fellow muslims many from world war ii and the korean war arrived. He grew more manic. They told me that cracker surgeons would see that he was sent to the front lines and snickered that they would drop grenades down his pants. Continued to roll up and reporters provoked his anger. They asked him if he knew where we at nam where vietnam was. He shrugged. When a newcomer with the microphone asked the same question for the hundredth time what did you think about the viacom . Viet cong. That would be it. He would repeat his quote in many times. It was not meant to be a political declaration but rather a whiny response of a wornout and exasperated young man. The adverse reaction was so quick, it felt like all liketions and older politicians and older sportswriters were waiting for him. This is all in Time Magazine. Robert is in california. Go ahead, robert. Us . Rt, are you with let us try john in his gray, north carolina. Good morning. You are on the washington journal. Caller good morning. Alisa fan of mohammed back in the day except for the muslim thing. I guess i have to ask where a first world Muslim Country that anyone would want to live . It is a bloodbath over there. Problem with that but there was much about him that i admired. Would go so far as to say that there are muslims in this country that i would have voted for. Muslim world as producing a lot. But i will not take away from his boxing. He was the best. Thank you. Host 2 00 p. M. Eastern time, louisville, kentucky. Live coverage on cspan of the Memorial Service that is being held for muhammad ali. Billy crystal, former president bill clinton, and Bryant Gumbel will be speaking as well as his children. A couple of rabbis will also be present. There will be carotid chance koranic chance and readings. Chants and readings. The turkish president is also expected to attend this Memorial Service. Bill in reading, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. But other things have to come first instead of boring about something that is over. Time magazine. On april 28, 1967, he refused induction. Boxing commissioners who were mostly political appointees withdrew their recognition of his championship and refused to license him to fight in their state or municipality. 10 days later, he was arrested and released on jail. On bail. He was stripped of his livelihood before being committed of a crime. A jury did convict him. The judge imposed the maximum sentence, five years in jail and a 10,000 fine. He would go into exile but never to prison. Muslimmmer, he married a woman who changed her name to k halilah ali. His influence was growing. Athletes, particularly black athletes were inspired by his story to stand up for equality in their sports and in society. Well the Movement Began with black Football Players and track athletes, it woul