The fame, along with that wide, bright-eyed smile, has not come easy. There was a time when smiling was something he did not do.
He arrived in the world in Marshall, Texas, on Jan. 10, 1949, the proud son of Nancy and a fellow who went by the initials "J.D." Just another black kid in another poor family in another Texas town.
He grew up in the dangerous Fifth Ward of Houston and to put it bluntly, he was downright mean. A street punk with a chip on his shoulder and a pair of bulging arms that could dismantle anyone unlucky enough to meet up with him at the wrong time.
WHY WAS HE SO MEAN? Well, perhaps it was surviving on the streets themselves. Perhaps it was the fact that he found out later in life J.D. was not his real father -- a fact his siblings used to repeatedly taunt him. Perhaps it was his looks, which he will readily tell you were something between monster and madman. Perhaps it was the beatings he took for the way he angered his parents so with his fighting. Or perhaps it was alcohol, his drug of choice to escape a cruel world.
Whatever it was, he still remembers how he saw himself: "A miracle. A mystery to myself. Who am I? The mirror (now) says back, 'The (man) you was always meant to be.' Wasn't always like that. Used to look in the mirror and cried a river."
Yeah, and after he was done crying that river, he would go out onto those mean streets and proceed to whip everyone and anyone in his way. Nobody could beat him in a fair fight, or an unfair one for that matter.
When he was feeling angry at the world, he would bloody his knuckles on a another kid's head. This tormented soul turned to tormenting others. He says he was transformed "into a monster without a conscience" because of alcohol back in those days. He was not lying.
IT DROVE HIS MOTHER, who had to work day and night to help support the family, to the end of her limits. She likely thought many a night she either would be burying her son at a young age or visiting him in prison one day. And somehow, she just could not buy his promises that someday he would make her proud.
But luckily, in 1965 along came the Job Corps that would change his life at the age of 17. During his work with this group, a counselor saw that he liked to fight at the drop of a hat and urged him to consider boxing as a profession.
It was a natural fit. "I was born to fight," he now says, "For the first time since I was 6 years old, my need to harm others softened; in fact, it ceased.''
So he started harming others legally -- in the ring.
Three years later, he won a gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics and then turned pro. Within two years, he polished off George Chuvalo, one of the toughest guys in the game at the time. In 1973, he caught Smokin' Joe Frazier on the right night and proceeded to pound him like a cheap cut of meat. It was Jan. 22. He was 24 years old and the heavyweight champ of the world.
Muhammed Ali cleaned his clock the following year, and in 1977 he lost again -- this time to Jimmy Young. But in that loss, he found something -- a deep sense of religion.
Today, when he isn't on that Texas ranch, you might find him boxing somewhere in a ring. Or you might find him preaching to a congregation on a Sunday afternoon.
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Thanks for helping me out, Irishman. I won a free lunch because you gave me the right answer on that sports trivia question.
-- From Al Z. at some MCI land.
No problem, Al. But where's my fries?
Can you please tell me who was the first to win four gold medals in the same event but in different Olympics? I think it's a swimmer, but I am not sure.
-- From Tommy at an AOL joint.
Sure can, Tom. It was not a swimmer. It was Al Oerter, who won the discus gold medal in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968.
Got you on this one, old friend. Who pitched the most innings in a World Series game?
-- From Mark M. at an .edu in the great state of Ohio.
Sorry, Mark. It was Babe Ruth. He pitched 14 innings for Boston in the 1916 Series against Brooklyn.
What am I supposed to do now for the rest of this month?
-- From Roy Williams, now twirling his thumbs at a Kansas .edu.
I don't know, Roy. I really thought you'd be up to your neck getting ready for the Final Four. Boy, the 'Zona folks sure put the hurt on your Jayhawks. Maybe you can head down to Phoenix and catch some baseball. Whoops, sorry. Make that Florida. I don't think it's a good idea to spend any time in Arizona right now.
1) Who was his first pro opponent and what was the end result? Give up?
2) When he lost to Ali in 1974, how did the bout end? Give up?
3) Besides Ali and Young, who are the only two other men he has lost a boxing match to? Give up?
4) What title did he win when he beat Moorer. Give up?
5) Where did his famous "Rumble in the Jungle" fight with Ali take place. Give up?
BONUS QUESTION: What was his TV series called? Give up?
Mike Emmett has been kicking around sports departments in newspapers and online operations around the U.S. for years. Got something to say to the Irishman? Email him with a click here.
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