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Let’s list off cultural differences from February 2025 versus 1964 and then consider celebrating our progress within these United States of America:
1964: There is a massive Civil Rights struggle a century after The Civil War; even Miami is a segregated city.
2025: Miami is the best beacon for freedom and diversity for our country and Latin America.
1964: A new president is installed after an assassination of the war hero who created the Peace Corps
2025: A new president is reinstalled after 2 assassination attempts but still promises peace and prosperity for American citizens. Can this politician keep his promises?
1964: NASA’s space program preparing to put the first man on the moon.
2025: Florida has its own space force + has multiple private launches a week from SpaceX.
1964: Cassius Clay fought 1 man in the ring uniting people across the planet.
2025: The Miami Athletic Association celebrates Muhammad’s legacy for leadership on the anniversary weekend of his 1964 title won right here in Miami Beach.
Just as the Sixties were a tumultuous time for young boomers to stamp their contributions on society, likewise Clay came of age that decade. First as an 18-year-old Olympic gold medalist, he quickly grew from American hero to disillusioned champion, in part when he couldn’t even get a seat in his beloved hometown Louisville’s segregated diners. In fact, after one such snub, the teenager infamously threw away his beloved gold medal into his hometown Louisville’s Ohio River. The Olympic Committee rightfully returned a replica to The People’s Champion at the 1996 Olympics, when he once again shook up the world lighting that Games’ famous flame while sadly shaking uncontrollably from Parkinson’s during his first public appearance in years. Ovations that night extended from within Centennial Olympic Stadium simultaneously across the globe, cementing proof that Ali was the 20th century’s most celebrated athlete on the planet.
However, back in the early 60s, young Clay learned how to sell his professional fights by borrowing the braggadocio from wrestling’s Gorgeous George, a “heel” or villain fans paid to jeer in hopes he might lose. For years, many Americans considered Ali to be an anti-hero, particularly outside the ring with his conversion to Islam and subsequent refusal to enlist for military battle in Vietnam. Hindsight convinced many of Ali’s righteousness. Additionally, his charismatic aura paved a path to personal branding for athletes to earn astronomical incomes.
When Cassius Clay won his first professional title here at the Miami Beach Convention Center on February 25th, 1964, despite 7-to-1 odds against intimidating heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, he understood the gravity of his achievement, stating, “I’m the greatest—I shook up the world!” In that moment he most certainly did. Since all eyes and ears were on the new champ, the 22-year-old recognized his role atop the ranks as respected as the best athlete on the planet and tapped sports journalists’ global reach in reporting his conversion to Islam while dropping his surname—derived from a bygone slave era. Known as Cassius X for over a week when the Nation of Islam’s leading cleric, Elijah Muhammad, bestowed the champ’s new name, Muhammad Ali, in honor of his future wife Khalilah’s father, a leader at the Chicago headquarters.
The greatest boxer of all time certainly wasn’t perfect (infidelity in his marriage was his biggest transgression), but review each decade of Ali’s life to see how much growth he made as a human and global leader.
But did you know that Ali truly became ‘The Man’ that decade, living right here in Miami’s Brownsville neighborhood and training for years at Miami Beach’s 5th Street Gym? In fact, his famous boxing coach, Angelo Dundee, trained 15 world champions just a block from the world-famous Ocean Drive. Although Dundee has long since died and his gym was replaced by a CVS, just 2 blocks north in 1998, Jolie Glassman founded South Beach Boxing Gym and still carries Dundee’s torch, while Dino Spencer’s team revitalized the 5th Street Gym brand years later with a gritty spot now a block east of MacArthur Causeway.
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In fact, as part of his training, Clay ran to the 5th Street Gym nearly 9 miles from his tree-lined neighborhood across the scenic MacArthur Causeway that our island residents reading this article commute by car. However, as the photo shows, Clay decided to wear steel-toed construction boots, building his strength to dodge and dance or float on fight night.
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And here’s where this particular story begins to involve your community today: for the past 5 years, hundreds of locals have extended Ali’s Miami legacy by replicating his training path, but uniquely as a casual Walk & Roll Fun Run. That is, wheelchairs, bicycles, rollerblades, and skateboards welcome any pedestrian who wants to honor ‘The People’s Champ’ and experience the beauty he saw 6 decades ago when his Miami Beach was a in many ways a completely different place. Jim Crow laws of that era accepted Black hospitality workers in Miami Beach but required employee identification cards while disallowing overnight stays. Therefore, even Team USA’s Olympic gold medalist celebrated his victory at Brownsville’s Hampton House Inn, a “Green Book” hotel known to accept all ethnicities. Though after the 1968 Civil Rights Act passed, such hotels fell into disrepair, a decade back in 2015, Miami-Dade County invested $6 million to restore the property as a rare museum that’s a living document of our country’s complicated social and economic history.
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Furthering that story, the Miami Athletic Association’s signature 6th annual American X History Tour of Miami leads up to 200 participants to experience our cities’ development by following Cassius Clay’s training path and metamorphosis to becoming The Greatest, right here in Miami Beach. Your family and friends are welcome Sunday, February 23rd, at sunrise to tour The Hampton House, then walk, roll, or run a ~4- or 9-mile option that stops at Ali’s Brownsville home, crosses through colorful Wynwood, and traverses a safe and scenic Venetian Causeway to the finish line “Muhammad Ali Way” at the Convention Center. Zero-mile options exist too by volunteering at water stations and/or cheerleading the finish, followed by coffees and conversation with participants. Sponsorship is encouraged to produce this unique community experience so that participants of any financial means may feel like world champions, learn some rich history, and explore our beautiful city, once divided by outdated laws, now united with freedom for all. The event is hosted by Kevin Krueger, the founder of the Miami Athletic Association. The Miami Athletic Association is a membership-driven organization that unites marketing executives from the sports & hospitality industries to produce or promote South Florida's unique brand of year-round tourism.
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