Favorite Athlete: Muhammad Ali

I am asked to keep it short. Fewer than 100 words. On Muhammad Ali? I wrote a book on him, 128,000 words. I can do this. Best athlete I ever saw, ever will see. Smartest man in every room, couldn’t spell. Cruel when his game demanded he be cruel, kind every day of his life. Anyway, my cardiologist knows I love Ali. I do a stress test. Doc’s report: "You float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Ali, too, could keep it short. At Harvard graduation ceremony, 1975, someone asked for a poem. Ali answered, "Me, whee!"

-- Dave Kindred is one of the greatest ever American sportswriters, as his induction into the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame suggests. He has written nine books including this fantastic one on Ali and Howard Cosell. Thanks to the most excellent Sports on Earth we can still read him regularly.