The Muhammad Ali Center

Hoyden on the Road

The Muhammad Ali Center
Louisville, KY

The Center, which bills itself as "a not for profit organization that serves as a place to celebrate the deeply rooted values and worldwide influence of Muhammad Ali. Essentially, it is a place that redeems and esteems the core values behind Ali himself-peace, social responsibility, respect and personal growth".

Yes, it was that but I wonder how many people notice, while visiting what they thought was a historical or sports museum, how intensely religious it is. In addition to its other charms, the Center is a terrific introduction to the Islamic religion. On the top floor where the tours begin, adjacent to what are billed as 'Journeylines' (the chronological historical material narrated by Diane Sawyer, the second most famous Louisvillian) there are 6 pavilions dedicated to "the core values in Ali's life" which, not coincidentally, are the 6 tenants of Islam-Dedication, Confidence, Giving, Respect, Spirituality and Conviction. This adjacentancy was one of the chief complaints among our group-if someone was listening to another Journeyline it was occasionally hard to hear your own. I enjoyed the history, bite sized as it was, and was sorry it didn't extend farther and deeper into his life.

A highlight of the Center was the introductory film, narrated by Maya Angelou, which tackled the formidable challenge of how to introduce someone everyone thinks they already know by setting it to Rudyard Kipling poem, "If", an Ali favorite. (The irony of a black man using Kipling of all poets for inspiration was not commented on.) As the poem was an inspiration to a personal hero of mine, the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton who carried a copy of it in his Bible, I was well familiar with it and had to restrain myself from elbowing my neighbors to tell them so.

Also good was the film "The Greatest", narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, that featured stories and highlights from Ali's greatest fights. It's projected down onto a boxing ring and visitors watch it from above, which sounds gimmicky but actually works very well.

Though it's very worthwhile overall (and sure to be a field trip favorite), I would say the Center suffers most from trying too hard. In its effort to be more than just a museum, to use one life to highlight much more, it undercuts itself and gets in it's own way. The religion, sports and politics don't blend so much as bounce off of one another and the almost total absence of anything negative about Ali doesn't really do him justice despite all attempts otherwise. An axe to grind, no matter how handsome or dressed up, is still a grinding axe. Far better, I think, to show the flaws fully to get even more inspiration from a life that has meant so much to so many.