Ralph Boston and Muhammad Ali

The fraternity of great athletes from the 1960s who shared a stage with Muhammad Ali keeps getting smaller. Ralph Boston, who died on April 30 at age 83, is the latest loss.

Boston won a gold medal in the long jump at the 1960 Rome Olympics – the games at which Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr burst upon the international scene. During the course of his remarkable career, he won two more Olympic medals (silver in Tokyo in 1964 and bronze in Mexico City in 1968). Along the way, he bettered Jesse Owens’s world record in the long jump – a mark that had stood for 25 years.

I had the privilege of talking with Boston on several occasions and meeting him once. In one conversation, he confided in me that it bothered him that Ali hadn’t attended funeral services for Wilma Rudolph (who won three gold medals at the 1960 Olympics and died of brain cancer in 1994). Rudolph, like Boston, had attended Tennessee State University. In Rome, she won the hearts of more than a few United States Olympians (Cassius Clay’s included).

Boston’s memories of Ali spanned decades. Recalling the brash young man he met in New York in 1960, he reminisced, “I’d never heard of this guy. And at age twenty-one, I really wasn’t into other sports. I was a track-and-field man, getting ready to go to Rome. I flew into New York, took a bus to the Biltmore Hotel where the Olympic team was staying. And this young guy came up to me, put his hand on my chest, and said, ‘Ralph Boston!  Hold on; I want to take your picture.’ Then he told me, ‘You don’t know me now, but my name is Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.‘ He had this old Brownie Hawkeye camera, where you had to look down to see what you were photographing. And he proceeded to take my picture along with pictures of just about everyone else he came in contact with during the Olympics. And there’s a question I’ve been asking Ali all my life. ‘Where is my picture?'”

The years passed. Ali’s physical condition declined.

“I’m not sure I’m good enough with words to express what I feel when I see Ali today,” Boston told me. “Maybe what I should say is, I remember all the chance meetings he and I had, passing each other in airports, heading in different directions. I’d see him through the crowd and wave, and he’d wave back, and maybe we’d talk for ten seconds. At the beginning, he was always so incredibly vocal and alive. But then I began to see that he was getting a step slower and talking a little softer. And seeing him now – he’s still alive, he’s still sharp mentally; but it bothers me.”

And there was a coda.

“There are lots of good athletes and a few great athletes,” Boston said. “But there’s only one Ali. If a young boy were to ask me today, ‘Why should I care about Muhammad Ali?’ I’d tell him, ‘Because Ali cares about you.’ That might be hard for some people to understand, but that’s the way Ali is. He cares about every single person on this planet.”

Ralph Boston was a kind gracious man with exceptional talent and a commitment to social justice. During the course of his life, he mentored countless young men and women on and off the playing field. He’ll be missed.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – In The Inner Sanctum: Behind the Scenes at Big Fights – was published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, he was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Photo: Ralph Boston, Cassius Clay, and Wilma Rudolph pictured in 1961

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