How Ali helped mold the Harbaugh family
NFL.com has a video from Muhammad Ali's visit to the Ravens camp a few years back, and it includes a passionate speech from Jack Harbaugh relating the famous "What's My Name?" story of Ali's fight with Ernie Terrell. Never heard the elder Harbaugh speak before, but after listening to only this clip, almost everything about Jim makes sense. I'm not sure Jim or John could have fallen far from the tree.
http://sports.yahoo.com/video/muhammad-ali-molded-harbaughs-165100411.h…
An excerpt:
[Ali] said to the world this: "What's my name?" It became a battle cry in my family. We would talk to John and Jim and Joanie. RESPECT. That's what we're looking for in this world. So when I tell you this, I humbly say, this man [pointing to Ali], this man right here, is my hero. This man has molded not only myself and my family, but all the teams that I've coached. Every team I've coached has heard the Muhammad Ali story. I love this man.
From a different video of the Harbaugh family roundtable (including a cameo by Tom Crean, for you fans), here's Jim re: the What's My Name legend:
The cool thing is, this is the kind of story we've been hearing since we were kids. We didn't get Little Red Riding Hood or The Little Engine That Could stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v-akeLNyIo
Yep. That explains a lot.
Respect.
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Great catch! I missed it entirely.
This speech is awesome for motivation. The fight didn't quite go down the way it was described though.
Ali didn't really start to punish Terrell until the last few rounds although his jab work had caused Terrell's eyes to swell shut over the course of the fight. Terrell was still throwing (and landing) heavy shots all the way through the fight though he was clearly losing.
Ali was asking him "What's my name" but it wasn't throughout the course of the fight. At no point do I recall Ali hoisting Terrell up so he couldn't fall so that he could continue beating him. That just didn't happen. He did almost finish him in the 7th but he didn't carry him. Ali even admitted he couldn't finish him.
At the end of the day though, Ali carved the dude up and added him to a long list of victims who tried to impede on his greatness.
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For those wondering where some of the comments went, let me just say this - regardless of your opinion of Muhammad Ali's opposition to the Vietnam War, the man just died and we really don't need threads with sidebar discussions started by people whose purpose is to shit on the man's grave and debase him or his contributions to this culture in a most cowardly manner - that is, in the wake of his passing.
Don't do that, not on this blog. It will only end badly.
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No politics is no politics. In fairness, I doubt a mod has looked at this recently to see the rants and generalizations on entire groups of people who vote a certain way. They have lives and I don't think it's fair to expect them to see everything. Whole thread maybe should go away.
We'll see how long this comment stays up.
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My suggestion is that if you're looking for a vehicle to bleat about your historic oppression on this blog, start a diary or forum topic. If you have a comment about the Harbaughs' use of Ali's story as a motivational tactic, it would be good to hear.
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you didn't get to -69503 points by accident.
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Ray Robinson is GOAT! FTW!!
This might be apocryphal, but I heard it from a reliable source who said he witnessed the event.
Some years ago, the Detroit papers reported Muhammad Ali would be in town for some legal proceeding at the Federal Building. A young man came to the courthouse with a picture of Ali hoping to score an autograph. He actually did confront Ali in the hallway outside a courtroom and asked Ali to sign his photo.
Ali took the picture and said to the youing man, "What's your name?"
"James," the young man answered.
Ali took out a pen and scribbled on the photo, and returned it. "Here you go," he said, and walked away.
The young man looked at the photo, which now read, "To James, the only man who can whup my ass. Muhammad Ali."
"Every team I've coached has heard the Muhammad Ali story. I love this man."
That made my nose sweat.