It was 55 years ago that I was pacing back and forth in my parents’ suburban Minneapolis kitchen listening to what was coming out of a large, plastic-cased radio sitting on top of our refrigerator. I was hanging on every syllable of Les Keiter’s description of the February 1964 heavyweight championship fight between the champion, Sonny Liston, and a brash young underdog contender named Cassius Clay.
A few rounds into the bout a question popped into my 14-year-old brain: “How would it feel to have someone listening as intently to me as I am right now to Mr.