Born: January 17, 1942, Louisville, KY

Education: Louisville Central High School, graduated 1960

A three-time heavyweight champion, Ali successfully defended that title nineteen times. Many observers called him “the greatest” boxer of the twentieth century.

Ali's emergence paralleled the Civil Rights Revolution and Vietnam War. Popular in Black America, especially among inner-city youth, his flamboyance and trash-talking influenced black culture and race relations. His membership in the Nation of Islam and link to Malcolm X, who preached armed self-defense and liberation “by any means necessary,” however, angered many. It fueled a backlash from the boxing and political establishments. But he was defiant: “I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want” (www.theinnerseed.com/s=Muhammad+Ali). He became a conscientious objector and antiwar advocate. Boxing revoked his championship in 1967, but the Supreme Court restored it in 1971. He retired in 1981.

Ali's cultural image is different today, partly reflecting public response to his struggles with Parkinson's disease. His calls for racial-ethnic tolerance and peace also are respected. He traveled to Iraq in 1990, hoping to prevent the Persian Gulf War by lobbying American and Iraqi leaders. Honored by the International Olympic Committee, Ali lit the torch to open its 1996 Atlanta Games. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.