Muhammad Ali died Friday after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease. He was 74 years old.
Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali is held back by referee Joe Walcott, left, after Ali knocked out challenger Sonny Liston in the first round of their title fight in Lewiston, Maine, in 1965. (AP Photo/File)
A wave of tributes poured in after the boxing champion passed, including from President Obama, who said Ali, “was The Greatest. Period”:
“Muhammad Ali was The Greatest. Period. If you just asked him, he’d tell you. He’d tell you he was the double greatest; that he’d “handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder into jail.”
“But what made The Champ the greatest – what truly separated him from everyone else – is that everyone else would tell you pretty much the same thing.
“Like everyone else on the planet, Michelle and I mourn his passing. But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time.
“In my private study, just off the Oval Office, I keep a pair of his gloves on display, just under that iconic photograph of him – the young champ, just 22 years old, roaring like a lion over a fallen Sonny Liston. I was too young when it was taken to understand who he was – still Cassius Clay, already an Olympic Gold Medal winner, yet to set out on a spiritual journey that would lead him to his Muslim faith, exile him at the peak of his power, and set the stage for his return to greatness with a name as familiar to the downtrodden in the slums of Southeast Asia and the villages of Africa as it was to cheering crowds in Madison Square Garden.
“‘I am America,’ he once declared. “I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me – black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own. Get used to me.’
“That’s the Ali I came to know as I came of age – not just as skilled a poet on the mic as he was a fighter in the ring, but a man who fought for what was right. A man who fought for us. He stood with King and Mandela; stood up when it was hard; spoke out when others wouldn’t. His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing. It would earn him enemies on the left and the right, make him reviled, and nearly send him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.
“He wasn’t perfect, of course. For all his magic in the ring, he could be careless with his words, and full of contradictions as his faith evolved. But his wonderful, infectious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than foes – maybe because in him, we hoped to see something of ourselves. Later, as his physical powers ebbed, he became an even more powerful force for peace and reconciliation around the world. We saw a man who said he was so mean he’d make medicine sick reveal a soft spot, visiting children with illness and disability around the world, telling them they, too, could become the greatest. We watched a hero light a torch, and fight his greatest fight of all on the world stage once again; a battle against the disease that ravaged his body, but couldn’t take the spark from his eyes.
“Muhammad Ali shook up the world. And the world is better for it. We are all better for it. Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to his family, and we pray that the greatest fighter of them all finally rests in peace.”
Then-Democratic Senate nominee Barack Obama, working near a photo of a victorious Muhammad Ali standing over his challenger, reads through his keynote address that he is to deliver to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2004. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)
Former President Bill Clinton, who met the boxer on several occasions, said in a statement Friday evening that he and Hillary were “saddened” by the passing of Ali.
Muhammad Ali hugs former President Bill Clinton in 2005. (AP Photo)
“Hillary and I are saddened by the passing of Muhammad Ali.
“From the day he claimed the Olympic gold medal in 1960, boxing fans across the world knew they were seeing a blend of beauty and grace, speed and strength that may never be matched again.
“We watched him grow from the brash self-confidence of youth and success into a manhood full of religious and political convictions that led him to make tough choices and live with the consequences.”
Muhammad Ali, first lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea clap for President Bill Clinton while he accepts his nomination for re-election in 1996. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Former President George W. Bush called Ali “an iconic and historic figure,” and reflected on the time he awarded the boxer the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Former President George W. Bush, left, sits with former world boxing champion Muhammad Ali during a book signing for the former president’s book “Decision Points” at a Barnes & Noble Booksellers store in Phoenix, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
“Laura and I are saddened by the death of Muhammad Ali, The Greatest of All Time. I gave Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 and wondered aloud how he stayed so pretty throughout so many fights. ‘It probably had to do with his beautiful soul. He was a fierce fighter and he’s a man of peace, just like Odessa and Cassius Clay, Sr., believed their son could be.’
“Muhammad Ali was an iconic and historic figure who thrilled, entertained, influenced, and inspired millions. Americans will always be proud to have been in his corner and called him one of our own.
“Laura and I send our heartfelt condolences to Muhammad Ali’s family and friends.”
President Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Ali in 2005. (AP Photo)
Muhammad Ali shakes hands with President Jimmy Carter in 1980. (AP Photo)
President Reagan “punching” Muhammad Ali in 1983. (Photo courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library, via Wikimedia Commons)
The Dalai Lama cuts the ribbon during the dedication ceremony of the new interfaith temple at the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, Ind., with Muhammad Ali in 2003. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Muhammad Ali embraces Prince in 1997. (AP Photo/Karin Cooper/Rogers & Cowan)
Muhammad Ali stares down wrestling’s Hulk Hogan in 1993. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Donald Trump accepts his Muhammad Ali award from Ali at Muhammad Ali’s Celebrity Fight Night XIII in Phoenix, Ariz., in 2007. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Muhammad Ali and actor Michael J. Fox joke around before the start of a Senate hearing on Parkinson’s Disease in 2002. (AP Photo/Kenneth Lambert)
Muhammad Ali prays in the mosque he built at his former training camp in Deer Lake, Pa., in 1991. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Muhammad Ali, with his wife, Lonnie, in 2012. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
Laila Ali poses with her father former boxing great Muhammad Ali after she beat Suzy Taylor to win the IBA Super Middleweight title in 2002. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta)
