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Howard Cosell guest hosts for Mike Douglas in 1972, welcoming (and baiting) his old sparring partner Muhammad Ali. The year prior, the boxer had lost for the first time in his career, to Joe Frazier in the so-called “Fight of the Century,” which is considered by some to be the greatest night in NYC history.
Tags: Howard Cosell, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali
I’m firmly in the camp that believes Muhammad Ali legitimately beat Sonny Liston twice. The second fight, in 1965, caused so much consternation because Ali scored his knockout on a so-called “phantom punch” (which was actually an anchor punch). Howard Cosell corralled Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, and journalists Jimmy Cannon and W.C. Heinz to discuss the controversy.
Postscript: Marciano “fought” Ali four years later via computer, right before perishing in a plane crash. In 1968, Heinz co-wrote the novel M*A*S*H under the pseudonym “Richard Hooker.”
Tags: Howard Cosell, Jack Dempsey, Jimmy Cannon, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, W.C. Heinz
Wilt Chamberlain was a remarkable athlete (basketball, volleyball, track and field), but it’s probably a good thing he never realized his dream to fight Muhammad Ali. Howard Cosell presides over the ridiculousness, as he often did.
From East Side Boxing: “Springtime, 1971. Inside an office within the Houston Astrodome, a most unusual negotiation is about to take place. Seated at one end of the table is Muhammad Ali, former Heavyweight Champion of the World and self-proclaimed greatest fighter of all time. Next to him: Bob Arum, the former Justice Department attorney turned boxing promoter who had worked with Ali since his 1966 fight with George Chuvalo.
A few minutes later, they are joined by one of the most imposing figures in all of sport, the towering titan of professional basketball Wilt Chamberlain. Ali and Chamberlain knew each other well and had appeared together on numerous occasions in the past, from television talk shows to press conferences addressing civil rights issues. The purpose of this meeting, however, was far different from their previous encounters.
Today no media cameras are present, no reporters scramble for sound bites. The two most famous athletes in the world isolated themselves within the cavernous empty stadium to quietly discuss an event without precedent in the annals of sport. For on this day, Muhammad Ali and Wilt Chamberlain will agree to face each other in a 15-round boxing match, to be held in the Astrodome on July 26, 1971.
For Chamberlain, fighting Ali represented the pinnacle in his quest to conquer not only his own sport, but the entire sporting world.”
I read in one of the books about Saturday Night Live that a rival show on ABC had been called Saturday Night Live when Lorne Michael’s creation debuted. It was a short-lived comedy-variety program hosted by Howard Cosell and featuring guests like Evel Knievel and Muhammad Ali and a cast member named Bill Murray. It aired live from the Ed Sullivan Theater. The Saturday Night Live on NBC that we all know was originally called Saturday Night to avoid conflict over the title. This is a promo that ran for the Cosell show.
Tags: Howard Cosell
John Lennon offers his take on American football to Howard Cosell during halftime of the December 9, 1974 Monday Night Football game, as the Washington Redskins were on their way to defeating the Los Angeles Rams. If I recall the story correctly, California Governor Ronald Reagan, who was also at the game, tried to explain NFL rules to the baffled former Beatle.
Six years later, Cosell would report Lennon’s murder live on another Monday Night Football telecast: “Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City–John Lennon outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash.”
A little more than a year later, Ronald Regan would, of course, survive an assassination attempt.
Tags: Howard Cosell, John Lennon, Ronald Reagan