"The Times They Are a-Changin’," words written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1964 album by the same name, certainly were true of the era. The United States during the 1950s had experienced an economic boom spawning an increase in manufacturing and home construction. Indeed the entire look of housing changed.

There was a large-scale expansion of the middle class as families purchased cars and moved to the suburbs. The interstate highway system, championed by President Eisenhower, was underway. Partially attributable to the sacrifices made for the war effort, the American people were socially conservative and highly materialistic.

The need to have more and better things caused people to buy big houses and all the new timesaving appliances that were introduced. Easy credit gave them the immediacy they wanted, and now they had the time to entertain themselves attending movies, enjoying newly available fast foods, and vacationing at the new Disneyland. The popularity of television skyrocketed as 77% of the population purchased their first set during the decade, and rearranged their living rooms for the best view.

Television programming in the early days began with a lot of popular sporting events like the World Series, college football games, and later NFL games and golf. But what I remember the most is boxing. Networks began to feature live fights on the weekends. The Gillette Friday Night Fights proved to be one of the most popular boxing television series in America.

As a young teenage girl, my first love in boxing was Ingemar Johansson, the Cary Grant of boxing. He was so good looking, and was always seen with a beautiful young lady on his arm. He was challenging the Heavyweight Champion, Floyd Patterson. Their first fight was on June 29, 1959, and Patterson lost the heavyweight title after being knocked down seven times in round three. The two fighters met two more times in the ring with Patterson the winner in both.

To train for the third fight with Patterson, Ingemar Johansson used a young sparring partner from Louisville who had won 108 amateur bouts, six Kentucky Golden Gloves championships, two National Golden Gloves championships, and two AAU titles before he was 18 years old. Soon after turning 18, Cassius Clay won the 1960 Olympic Gold Medal in the light-heavyweight division.

Clay was paired with Angelo Dundee, a veteran trainer. Dundee believed, "You got to be a great listener in boxing.," and listen he did … to a young fighter who came to be known as The Louisville Lip. Clay didn’t fight like all the others either. For one, he never threw body shots, a trait he had learned in his youth because he had such a long reach and didn’t want to get close enough to get hit. Also Clay just leaned backwards to avoid his opponent’s punches. He danced too using his strong legs in what later was called the Ali Shuffle.

Clay never shut up either. He became a braggart and a banterer, taunting his opponents even before his matches with statements like, "I am the greatest of all time," and writing poetry to predict in which round he would defeat his opponent. His theatrics worked, often convincing Americans to buy tickets to his fights just to see him lose, but he rarely did.

In 1962 Sonny Liston, known for his toughness, punching power and intimidating appearance, became World Heavyweight champion by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round of their fight. Liston was the most intimidating fighter of his day, and was considered by some to be among the best heavyweights of all-time. Several boxing writers actually thought Liston could be damaging to the sport because he couldn't be beaten. Clay was scheduled to meet the fearsome champion on February 25, 1964. It seemed clear to many that Clay would be no match against the daunting Liston.

Liston had learned to box in the Missouri State Penitentiary while serving time for armed robbery and later for assaulting a police officer. Boxing writers often depicted him as little more than an ignorant thug and a bully.

Reporters equally disliked the brash and mouthy Clay, and his chances were widely dismissed as evidenced by the odds of 7-1 against him. Although a few sportswriters refused to attend the match because of their dislike for Cassius, of the 46 at ringside, 43 picked Liston to win by a knockout. There were rumors, however, that Liston’s declared age of 32 might be erroneous, that he might be closer to 40. But Clay’s constant movement and reluctance to stand still were viewed as fundamental technical flaws that would be quickly exploited by an experienced, hard-hitting heavyweight like Liston.

Between March 1961 and the Clay fight, Liston had fought three times and had won each bout in the first round with a knockout — meaning that he had fought a total of just over six minutes during a 35-month period. In addition he was secretly nursing bursitis in both his shoulders with cortisone. Hearing all the favorable publicity, Liston trained minimally for the bout, convinced that he would dispose of Clay within the first two rounds. In contrast, Clay prepared hard for the fight, studying films of Liston's prior bouts and even detecting that Liston telegraphed his punches with eye movement.

Clay began taunting and provoking Liston almost immediately after the two agreed to fight, calling him a big, ugly bear, and even driving a bus to Liston’s new home in a white neighborhood at 3am, shouting, "Come on out of there. I'm gonna whip you now." Clay’s prediction was that Liston "must go in eight." Liston was an angry man.

At the weigh-in Clay worked himself into such a frenzy that his heart rate registered 120 beats per minute. The chief physician of the Miami Boxing Commission determined that Clay was "emotionally unbalanced, scared to death, and liable to crack up before he entered the ring." The Commission also fined Clay $2500.00 for his extreme behavior.

Finally the ref allowed the fight to begin, and Clay, slipping most of Liston's lunging punches, made the champion look awkward. He also scored a combination of punches followed by a series of left jabs with 30 seconds left in the round.

In the second round Liston calmed down, and even cornered Clay landing one hard left hook. The third round Cassius started taking control of the fight, hitting Sonny with combinations, and causing a bruise under his right eye and a cut under his left. It was the first time Liston had ever been cut, and he eventually received 8 stitches to the injury. Angered, Sonny rallied at the end of the round, which seemed to tire the younger boxer.

Clay coasted during the fourth round, but began complaining about his eyes burning. Dundee tried flushing out both eyes, but when the referee threatened to disqualify the challenger, he returned to the fourth round only able to see a faint shadow of Liston during most of the round. Joe Pollino, Liston’s cut man, allegedly confessed to reporter Jack McKinney years later that Liston had ordered him to rub an astringent compound on his gloves before the fourth round. But by circling away from the shadow of his opponent Clay managed to make it through to the next round.

By the sixth round, Clay's sight had cleared, and he began rather easily landing combinations of punches. As the bell sounded for the seventh round, Clay was the first to notice that Liston had spat out his mouth guard. There are conflicting assessments of why he did so. One is that he was demonstrating that he was through fighting; the other is that his corner made the decision to end the fight, and Liston was showing his disgust by spitting out his mouthpiece.

Nevertheless, Clay danced to the middle of the ring with his hands up in the air. The infamous Howard Cossell declared, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston is not coming out!" Clay was declared the Heavyweight Champion by a technical knockout. When Cassius Clay realized that he had made history, he ran to the ropes and shouted at sportswriters, "Eat your words!" later followed by "I am the greatest," and "I shook up the world." At the post-fight press conference Clay declared, "Look at me. Not a mark on me. I could never be an underdog. I am too great. Hail the champion!"

While training for his title bout with Liston, Clay had met Cap’n Sam, a Nation of Islam minister of a Miami mosque. Sam introduced him to Nation of Islam spokesman, Malcolm X with whom Clay established a deep bond. Malcolm brought Clay into the Nation of Islam, proclaiming his name was Cassius X … the X representing the unknown name that had been taken from him by slave owners centuries before.

The fight between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston for boxing's World Heavyweight Championship was one of the most anticipated, watched and controversial fights in the sport's history. Sports Illustrated magazine has named it as the fourth greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.

Two days after defeating Liston, Clay announced his membership in the Nation of Islam. Soon Cassius X was given the name Muhammad Ali by the NOI founder, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and Herbert Muhammad, Elijah’s eldest son, became Ali’s new manager.

The nation’s response was negative and intense. The NOI was widely viewed as highly dangerous. The boxing commission was furious, and from a hero Ali quickly became the object of suspicion. Ali’s conversion cost him millions in endorsements. Many even refused to use his new name. The government surveilled him as a member of the Nation of Islam, as he preached racial pride and became a hero of Black Americans. Sounding a bit like Martin Luther King, Ali proclaimed, "It’s not the color that make you a devil, just the deeds that you do."

In the three years after the Liston fight, Ali won every bout. But when he was drafted into the military, he refused to be inducted on the grounds that he was a minister in the religion of Islam and famously stated, "I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong…" He was tried for draft evasion, stripped of his WBA title and his passport, fined $10,000, and sentenced to five years in prison. Remaining free pending numerous appeals, Ali was still barred from fighting by virtually every state and local entity in America.

By 1970, the American public was tired of the war, and their anger against Ali had softened. And because the State of Georgia had no boxing commission, a loophole led to Ali an exhibition match with Jerry Quarry in Atlanta. Quarry threw in the towel before the fourth round.

Then there was Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden by TKO in 15, and it was on to the championship and "The Fight of the Century," Ali’s first match against the undefeated heavyweight champion, Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971. His time off had cost him his legs; he could no longer dance, and Ali uncharacteristically lost by unanimous decision.

The Supreme Court finally reversed Ali’s conviction and upheld his conscientious objector status three months after his defeat by Frazier. This meant he could travel and fight anywhere in the world now. He fought several bouts, a loss to Ken Norton, then a win in their second fight. Then there was a second fight with Frazier, which, although his performance was lackluster, Ali won by unanimous decision.

Joe Frazier had been the first to beat Ali, and was still undefeated and considered among the very best of all time in this heavyweight era. In 1973 Frazier lost his title when George Foreman knocked him out.

Enter Promoter Don King, as if Ali needed any more controversy in his life. An ex-con (originally charged with two murders 13 years apart, charges were lessened to justifiable homicide and non-negligent manslaughter for which he served four years). King arranged for a match with a huge purse between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire. The fight was famously promoted as "The Rumble in the Jungle."

Ali was a 3-1 underdog. His fight doctor even had a jet ready to whisk Ali away to a neurological hospital in Spain just in case. Ali realized that because of the heat and humidity he would be unable to dance away from Foreman for the entire fight. In came Ali’s strategy, the "Rope-a-Dope," to cover-up until Foreman punched himself out. Ali’s corner men yelled at him to get off the ropes, but Ali persisted for seven rounds. Then in the eighth, when Foreman was spent, Ali attacked. He came off the ropes and scored a knockout! After all … he was the greatest.

It seems like all Ali’s fights were exciting. His third bout against Joe Frazier in 1975, called the "Thrilla in Manila" was no exception. A gruelling battle between two heavyweights in the tropical heat for fourteen rounds, some have deemed it the greatest boxing match ever. In the end Frazier couldn’t come out of his corner for the fifteenth round. Ali stated later, it was the closest thing to death he had ever felt.

However people felt about Muhammad Ali, no one can deny that his persona brought attention and interest to boxing. His boyish grin and twinkling eyes, his dancing and rope-a-dope, his ever-active mouth spewing rhymes and predictions was added entertainment before, during and after each fight. Not only that, but he is the only man in heavyweight history to have won the crown three times.

It was both sad and touching to watch Muhammad Ali light the torch at the 1996 opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. We all appreciate his courage and inspiration, and we thank him for making history … and for the memories.