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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Fun story for a Saturday morning.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We read that a former heavyweight champion Ali (Cassius Clay in the old days) perished yesterday. In 1970 when I was the age my son is now, they were having a big match for the heavyweight boxing championship between Clay and Joe Frazier. In those days, boxing was a big deal. So they tried to get a former heavyweight boxing champion to contribute to the commentary. Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson had both perished (one was a doper we heard, the other was in a plane crash as I think I recall.) They couldn’t find Ingemar Johansson but they found Floyd Patterson, who was only about mid-30s at that time.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>How-ahd Co-sell had an interview with Patterson on the phone. He sounded drunk to me, but afterwards plenty of people had to wonder if the sport had perhaps contributed to his condition. They had a hard time finding a former heavyweight boxing champion who could hold a sustained intelligent conversation. Now we know more about the cumulative effects of multiple concussions.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The popularity of boxing faded, to the point where in the late 1970s, you couldn’t do varsity high school boxing (my school didn’t even have a team.) Golden Gloves league was gone from campus. The high school no longer had a boxing ring, no boxing coach, only a few mats and a locker of mostly unused gloves and headgear.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It feels to me like football is now where boxing was in about 1970.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike <o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>