Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali stands over fallen challenger Sonny Liston, shouting and gesturing shortly after dropping Liston with a short hard right to the jaw on May 25, 1965, in Lewiston, Maine. The bout lasted only one minute into the first round. Ali is the only man ever to win the world heavyweight boxing championship three times. He also won a gold medal in the light-heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome as a member of the U.S. Olympic boxing team. In 1964 he dropped the name Cassius Clay and adopted the Muslim name Muhammad Ali. (AP Photo/John Rooney)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Boxing great Cassius Clay’s hometown newspaper refused to call him Muhammad Ali for years after he adopted the Muslim faith and changed his name.
The Courier-Journal, Louisville’s daily paper, has apologized 50 years later for continuing to refer to him as Cassius Clay for years after he converted in 1964. It did not consistently refer to him as Muhammad Ali until 1970.
Ali died June 3 and an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Louisville to say goodbye to the city’s favorite son during his funeral Friday.
Executive Editor Neil Budde wrote Monday’s editorial that chronicled how the paper for years either ignored Ali’s preferred name or outright mocked it. He apologized that the newspaper’s “oddly hostile” unwillingness to use Ali’s name “did little to help race relations in a turbulent time.”
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