/ SPORTS / WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2011 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I don't like my hockey sticks touching other sticks, and I don't like them crossing one another, and I kind of have them hidden in the corner. I put baby powder on the ends. I think it's essentially a matter of taking care of what takes care of you."
Wayne Gretzky
The first instance of global electronic communications took place in 1871 when news of the Derby winner was telegraphed from London to Calcutta in less than five minutes.
FACT OF THE DAY
-didyouknow.org
Q: Who led the Kansas basketball team with 53 blocks and recording three triple-doubles during the 2007-2008 season?
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
A: Darrel Arthur
kuathletics.com
MORNING BREW
Art recalls Muhammad Ali's glory
He was the heavyweight champion of, as he would call it in his Kentucky drawl, "the whole big world." He danced around boxing rings like he was Gene Kelly "Singin' in the Rain." He held his gloves unconventionally low, toyed foes with left jabs and then smashed 'em with long right hooks. And he rarely stopped talking while he did it.
When he was young, no fighter was faster or more dominant than Muhammad Ali. These days, Ali suffers from Parkinson's disease. The boxer who used to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee now struggles to speak and walk. The hands that shattered Sonny Listen, George Foreman and the rest now tremble.
But a new installation in Los Angeles jumps back to his prime and helps us remember the younger face of Ali—perhaps the most recognizable face in sports history.
Artist Michael Kalish's piece "REALIZE" is a colossal structure formed from five miles of stainless steel, two miles of aluminum tubing
BY MAX ROTHMAN mrothman@kansan.com
and 1,300 black and white boxing speed bags according to realizeali.com. When walking around the memorial, it is difficult to tell what exactly is going on, other than some mathematical abstraction. However, if you walk in front of the piece and look at it from a distance, the once disarrayed collection forms into the face of Ali.
The multi-faceted memorial pays homage not just to that face, but to the several dimen sions of a man who was much more than a fighter.
After defeating Sonny Liston in 1964, the man once known as Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali and became a member of the Nation of Islam. At a time when Martin Luther King was dreaming "that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls," Ali, for some time, was preaching the contrary. The Nation of Islam advocated separation of races until whites and blacks were viewed as equals. Until his departure from the sect in 1975, Ali was the Nation's poster boy.
Mike Marqusee/Contributed Photo
And at the height of the civil rights movement, Ali refused to participate in the Vietnam War.
"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali asked, according to Mike Marqueese's book "Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties."
In 1967, he was subsequently stripped of his heavyweight crown and boxing license. The greatest fighter of all time couldn't fight. But he stood by his beliefs, never fought in Vietnam and was permitted to re-enter the ring by a Supreme Court ruling in 1971.
No matter what you think about Ali's political and religious ideals, his greatness in the ring cannot be denied. Kalish's installation helps us remember the face of the man who said, "If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."
Edited by Amanda Sorell
If you didn't, hed make you.
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Softball
vs. Wichita State
5 p.m.
Wichita
vs. Wichita State
7 p.m.
Wichita
Men's Golf
Big 12 Championship
All Day
Hutchinson
THURSDAY
Tennis
Big 12 Championships
All Day
Waco, Texas
FRIDAY
Baseball
vs. Texas Tech
6:30 p.m.
Lubbock, Texas
Tennis
Big 12 Championships
All Day
Waco, Texas
SATURDAY
Rowing
Big 12 Championships
9:45 a.m.
Kansas City, Kan.
Softball vs. Texas A&M 4 p.m. Lawrence
Baseball
vs. Texas Tech
5 p.m.
Lubbock, Texas
Quidditch for muggles
Zack Castilleja, a sophomore from Olathe. practicies Quidditch with the KU Club Quidditch team Tuesday afternoon outside of the Ambler Student Recreation Fitness Center. Castilleja recorded during practice with the guffle.
Travis Young/KANSAN
IN-STORE (SECOND LEVEL) KU BOOKSTORE UNTIL 6PM
SIDEWAL SALE
EXTENDED STORE HOURS // APRIL 28TH - MAY 1ST
CREWNECK TEES
SUNGLASSES
JEWLERY
FLIP FLOPS
SWEATERS
REDUCED PRICES ALSO INCLUDE
HATS / SWEATPANTS / LONGSLEEVE TEES / FRONT ZIP / WOMEN'S POLOS
TODDLER COATS & TEES / JUDO ROBES & SCRUBS / WOMEN'S ACCESSORIES