Word: agee
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...famous snakelike jab, laced together combinations and shot rights to Spinks' head. It was exquisitely conceived boxing from Ali, the aesthetician of ring art. But what the canny mind desired, the 36-year-old body?measuring itself now in the milliseconds between impulse and action?could not deliver. Age had slowed the timing: too many punches landed without sting, grazed past Spinks' youth-quick dodges or missed altogether...
...with hopes and dreams, but much seemed within the reach of American aspirations in those freshening days. Cassius signed with a syndicate of wealthy Louisville businessmen, who underwrote his early training as a professional fighter against a 50% belief in purses to come. He had been boxing since the age of twelve with the heavyweight title as his unwavering goal, and he was willing to pay any price, bear any burden to fulfill his vision...
Cassius moved up in the rankings, and with each step he minted new doggerel predicting the round of his opponent's defeat. The talking, talking, talking had begun in earnest now; the young, barely literate Louisville Lip displayed the stirrings of a genius more valuable in a media age: a flair for public relations, for hype and self-aggrandizement...
...upstate New York, enjoyed a vaguely Kennedyesque upbringing that taught them sailing on Lake Ontario, the endurance of cold morning showers and furiously intense sibling competition. Foster, the eldest of the five children, was the foremost of the group, grave and sententious; he quoted William James at the age of ten. Allen, four years younger, was Byronically romantic and found a place for his temperament in intelligence work...
Such a ritual transfer of the championship can touch deep, unarticulated feelings. If men dread death, they also look nervously behind them as they age to see what younger people are hurrying up to replace them, not only on the job but on the planet. The passing of champions can be cathartic; it is part of the large, primitive theatrics that sports perform...