Not sure if there was a thread on this.
RIP Ernie Terrell
- Thread starter TheNig
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Thatrogueassdiaz
We're on the blood path now
RIP
Muhammad Ali, right, yells at Ernie Terrell, "What's my name?" during their heavyweight championship fight in Houston on Feb. 6, 1967. (AP)
By Matt Schudel December 20 at 10:31 AM
Ernie Terrell, who held a share of the heavyweight boxing championship in the 1960s but was best known for a title bout he lost in 1967 to Muhammad Ali, who taunted him throughout the brutal fight, died Dec. 16 at a Chicago hospital. He was 75.
His death was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. He reportedly had dementia.
The tall, rangy Mr. Terrell was one of the leading heavyweights of the 1960s, but he was overshadowed throughout his career by the charismatic Ali.
In 1964, Ali — then fighting under his original name of Cassius Clay — won the heavyweight championship by defeating Sonny Liston. Soon after that fight, Ali publicly declared his allegiance to the Nation of Islam and asked to be recognized by his Muslim name.
Later that year, the World Boxing Association — one of several sanctioning bodies for boxing — deprived Ali of his heavyweight crown after a contract dispute regarding a rematch with Liston. Mr. Terrell claimed the vacant WBA title on March 5, 1965, by winning a unanimous decision over Eddie Machen.
Mr. Terrell went on to defeat two top contenders, George Chuvalo and Doug Jones, running his record to 39-4. Nevertheless, most observers considered Ali the true heavyweight champion.
Mr. Terrell and Ali agreed to meet to unify the title at the Houston Astrodome on Feb. 6, 1967. The fight came at a time when Ali was under fire from political figures and others for his refusal to be inducted into the Army.
The two fighters had known each other since they were amateur boxers in the 1950s and had once sparred together. Whether out of habit or provocation, Mr. Terrell repeatedly called his opponent “Clay” before their fight. (Most newspapers and magazines at the time also referred to Ali by his earlier name.)
“I wasn’t trying to insult him,” Mr. Terrell said in Thomas Hauser’s book, “Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times” (1991). “He’d been Cassius Clay all the time before when I knew him.”
In November 1965, after onetime champion Floyd Patterson refused to use Ali’s Muslim name, Ali delivered a fierce beating to Patterson in the ring. More than a year later, the sensitive issue of Ali’s name erupted again during a tense prefight interview conducted by broadcaster Howard Cosell.
“My name is Muhammad Ali, and you will announce it right there in the center of that ring after the fight, if you don’t do it now,” Ali told Mr. Terrell as Cosell stood between them.
“You are acting just like another old Uncle Tom, another Floyd Patterson,” Ali continued. “I’m going to punish you.”
With the cameras rolling, the two fighters began to remove their jackets and cock their fists before bystanders stepped between them.
Mr. Terrell thought Ali’s outrage was staged, part of a publicity stunt to promote their fight. But once the bell rang in Houston, it was clear that Ali was not joking. Over and over, he shouted, “What’s my name?” before delivering one damaging blow after another.
Mr. Terrell stayed on his feet throughout the 15-round fight, but in the third round he sustained an injury to his left eye that left him with double vision. He crouched over, with his hands in front of his face, unable to take advantage of his long reach and 6-foot-6-inch height.
“From the eighth round on, Terrell was virtually helpless,” Hauser wrote in his book. “And from that point on, Ali taunted him mercilessly. Time and again, he shouted, ‘What’s my name,’ and followed with a burst of blows to Terrell’s eyes. ‘Uncle Tom! What’s my name! Uncle Tom! What’s my name!’ ”
Mr. Terrell was bleeding heavily, with both eyes swollen almost shut. Many spectators among the crowd of more than 37,000 called for the fight to be stopped, but the referee, Harry Kessler, did not intervene.
Ali won a unanimous decision in the fight, which Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule summed up as “a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty.”
Mr. Terrell maintained that Ali illegally gouged his eye early in the fight, causing a blood vessel to burst. Afterward, Mr. Terrell underwent surgery to repair a broken bone under his left eye.
“I’m not apologizing for whipping him,” Ali said at the time. “I’m out to be cruel, that’s what the boxing game is about.”
Within months, Mr. Terrell had recovered enough to return to the ring, but he lost two fights in succession and temporarily retired.
Ali had one more fight in 1967, a knockout victory over Zora Folley, before his championship was taken away for his refusal to enter the Army. He was 27, and at the peak of his abilities, but the undisputed champion would not be allowed to box again for more than three years.
Ernest Terrell was born April 4, 1939, near Belzoni, Miss. He was one of 10 children in a sharecropping family that later moved to Chicago.
Mr. Terrell began boxing in his early teens, working as a hotel elevator operator to help pay his gym fees. He was a two-time Golden Gloves amateur champion in Chicago before beginning his professional career in 1957.
With a lifelong interest in music, Mr. Terrell taught himself to play guitar and wrote more than 50 songs. He started a band, Ernie Terrell and the Heavyweights, that appeared on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” and “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the 1960s. His sister, Jean Terrell, was part of the group before replacing Diana Ross as lead singer with the Supremes in 1970.
Mr. Terrell returned to the boxing ring in 1970 and fought until 1973, retiring with a record of 46-9. He never had another shot at the heavyweight title.
He worked as a music producer and boxing promoter and, for years, ran a successful janitorial business in Chicago, with hundreds of employees. He twice ran unsuccessfully for alderman in Chicago’s municipal government.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Maxine Sibley Terrell of Chicago; two stepchildren; three sisters; and four brothers.
Mr. Terrell was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. He never apologized for the dispute that led to the rancor underlying the 1967 fight.
“We were fighting,” he told USA Today in 1967. “What was I supposed to do, give him Christmas gifts?”
But the two fighters later reconciled and became friendly. In later years, Mr. Terrell always referred to his former opponent as “Ali.”
I wonder did that beating have any effect? 
“I’m not apologizing for whipping him,” Ali said at the time. “I’m out to be cruel, that’s what the boxing game is about.” 
He worked as a music producer and boxing promoter and, for years, ran a successful janitorial business in Chicago, with hundreds of employees. He twice ran unsuccessfully for alderman in Chicago’s municipal government.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Maxine Sibley Terrell of Chicago; two stepchildren; three sisters; and four brothers.
Successful professionally, and with his family. I always salute people that were able to make their marriage work for multiple decades. It's a beautiful thing.
He worked as a music producer and boxing promoter and, for years, ran a successful janitorial business in Chicago, with hundreds of employees. He twice ran unsuccessfully for alderman in Chicago’s municipal government.
Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Maxine Sibley Terrell of Chicago; two stepchildren; three sisters; and four brothers.
Successful professionally, and with his family. I always salute people that were able to make their marriage work for multiple decades. It's a beautiful thing.
Didn't know he was a big time promoter in the Chi area
Rip.
Jesus Is Lord
Give Thanks, Repent, and Forgive
RIP to a warrior.
I always take it to heart when a boxer dies. Any of you brehs feel the same way?
I always take it to heart when a boxer dies. Any of you brehs feel the same way?
one thing i was surprised about is they said he had dementia..dude sounded pretty lucid to me in all the interviews i saw him in in the last couple of years
That's pretty much what Randy Gordon was saying on his show y the day he announced it. He said he'd spoken to him a few months prior and the only thing he complained about was being in pain.
