Page Six

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Thursday, January 7, 1971



U

BOWLING

40c
9 a.m.-noon
Mon.-Sat.
FREE BOWLING
WED., JAN. 20

Mixed League
Forming
Sign-up NOW
EXHIBITION-BUZZ FAZID
1-3 p.m. & 6-8 p.m. Union

--
F INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
FOLK SINGER
RON McDONALD
AT RIVE GAUCHE
corner-Hill and E. University
9 P.M. Fri. & Sat. 50c
i-

Sonny
LAS VEGAS, Nev. UP1 - A min-
ute study of Sonny Liston's body
was ordered yesterday after the
former heavyweight boxing cham-
pion was found dead and sub-
stances police said might be drugs
were found in his trousers pocket
and in his kitchen.
Liston's widow, Geraldine, found
the fighter dead, perhaps as long
Sas 10 days, in the master bedroom
of their $60,000 split level home
Tuesday night, but authorities
ruled out any possibility that the
38-year-old Liston was slain.
However, Capt. Gene Clark,
chief of detectives for the sheriff's
department, said that "what may
possibly be" a quarter-ounce of
heroin was found in a balloon in
the kitchen. A half-ounce of what
appeared to be marijuana w a s
found in Liston's trousers pocket,
Clark said. Clark also noted that
a capsule containing a black pow-
der was found on a dresser. All
- substances were to be analyzed.
A pathologist, Dr. James Clarke,
said after an autopsy t h a t he
could make no conclusive findings
on the cause of death. He called
for toxicological and microscopic
studies of body fluids and -tissues.,
I The coroner's office said re-
suits may not be known until to-
morrow or Saturday.
Authorities said Liston appar-
ently was undressing for bed when
he fell over backward with such
force he broke the rail of a bench.
He was wearing shorts and a T-
shirt.
Mrs. Liston said she flew home
from a visit to St. Louis because
she received no answer to tele-
phone calls.
Liston, one of 25 kids of a ten-
ant farmer at Forrest City, Ark,
won the heavyweight crown Sept.
25, 1962, w i t h an astonishing

0

Liston

dead

at

DeLong's Pit Barbecue
FEATURES THESE DINNERS:


Bar-B-Q Ribs
Bar-B-Q Chicken
Bar-B-Q Beef
Bar-B-Q Pork

38

yL } . VYy 'i"'1y' } ,",Mh' '' '+n L ' ".'4 i1 {^ " 4L.\.ti'JhL } 5\i5."1 14ti {ti*:1.". . . * ' : i144 {w''wt58{

Shrimp
Scallops
Fried Chicken
Fried Fish

"::

Sonny Liston
first-round knockout of FloydI
Patterson in Chicago. He repeat-
ed the feat in a return match with
Patterson, then lost the title to
Cassius Clay, now Muhammad Ali,
Feb. 25, 1964. His left arm injured,
Liston sat scowling on his stool,
refusing to come out for the sev-
enth round.
T h e 6-foot-1, 215-pounder's
most recent fight was last June
29 when he knocked out Chuck
Wepner in nine rounds in Jersey
City, N.J. His record dating to
1953 was 48 wins, 37 of them by
knockouts, and four losses.
"I have been in the limelight
two ways - good and bad," he
once said. The "bad" was a ref-
erence to frequent brushes with
the law. He admitted to being in-
volved in a holdup and o t h e r
crimes and served prison terms
before winning the title.
"Ever since I was born I've been
fighting to stay alive," he liked to
say.
Liston had lived in recent years

in the plush suburb of Paradise
Valley, fighting only occasionally.
The home two miles east of the
famed "Strip" has a swimming
pool and borders a golf course.
Sheriff's Lt. Bud Gregg said the
television set was on in the master;
bedroom. Liston's socks were un-i
der the bed bench and his trousers
were thrown over a chair. A fin-
ger file was on the floor under
the body. On the dresser was an
unfired pistol in a holster,
Mrs. Liston, who had been vis-
iting her mother, arrived home:
about 8:30 p.m., Gregg said, and
advised friends of the death be-
fore calling authorities.
Gregg said Liston was hospi-
talized for chest injuries and fa-
cial cuts after an automobile ac-
cident here Thanksgiving Day. He
was released, but later readmitted
for a time after complaining of
chest problems, Gregg said.
Liston, regarded as one of the'
most powerful of heavyweight
champions, was thought finished
as a fighter after Clay blasted him
to the d e c k with a mysterious
"phantom" punch - many spec-
tators said they didn't see it - in
their title rematch at Lewiston,
Maine, May 25, 1965. It was a
first-round knockout.
But he came back to the ring
in 1966, hoping for another title
shot. On Dec. 9, 1969, however,
he lost the bout that might have
earned him one when Leotis Mar-
tin knocked him out in the ninth
round.
When Liston first won the title,
some predicted he would hold it
for years. He was a good journey-
man boxer, seemingly tough and
durable. Then along came Clay, a
dancing, taunting boxing stylist
who also had a mighty punch.
Liston was scorned and ridiculed
after the Clay bouts by some who
said he wasn't hurt badly enough

to quit in the first engagement,

and that the knockout blow in the
second one didn't appear all that
powerful.
He looked and acted menacing
during his championship years.
Later he appeared to mellow.
"I try to look tough," he once
said, "because I'm trying to get
the scare on the other guy. And
the way some of those suckers
fight I guess they are scared."
Floyd Patterson, in Miami Beach
preparing for a Jan. 15 bout, the
man SonnyListon defeated to be-
come world heavyweight boxing
champion, said upon hearing of
Liston's death, "He was a great
fighter."
"I was shocked. I couldn't be-
lieve it. Sonny Liston, to me, was
a great-fighter. I got to know him
personally after our two fights
and I rather liked him. I just
can't believe now he's gone."
Patterson said that " in the very
beginning, Sonny Liston gave the
impression of being a mean, tough
guy, simply because this is the way
I believe he was. No one ever gave
him a chance.
"Finally, after he beat me twice
I think people began reaching out
and giving him a chance and ac-
cepting him as champion. And
with that burden off his back, the
real Sonny Liston came out por-
trayed through his kindness," he
said.
Liston once remarked, "I had
nothing when I was a kid but a lot
of brothers and sisters, a helpless
mother, and a father who didn't
care about any of us. We grew up
with few clothes, no shoes, little
to eat. My father worked me hard
and whipped me hard. If he miss-
ed a day I'd feel like saying, 'How
come you didn't whip me today?"
Liston smashed his way into
heavyweight prominence in 1959,
knocking out all four of his op-
ponents-Mike DeJohn, Cleveland
Williams, Nino Valdes and Willie
Besmanoff.
The following year, he stopped
Howard King, Williams again, Roy
Harris and Zora Folley before be-
ing forced a full 12 rounds to out-
point Eddie Machen. He stopped
King again and Albert Westphal
in 1961 before gaining the 1962
championship shot against Pat-
terson. He was a solid favorite in
the Miami Beach fight with Clay
on Feb. 25, 1964, but the challen-
ger's speed brought the upset.
In his comeback attempt, Liston
won 14 fights, 13 by knockout, and
was rated among the top four
heavyweight contenders before be-
ing stopped by Martin.

Fried Oysters
All Dinners Include Fries, Slaw, and Bread

CARRY OUT

FREE DELIVERY

the
upper deck
Boxing's villa in-hero
*. ..ca cannon and a scowl
By RICHARD CORNFELD
"A BOXING match is like a cowboy movie," Sonny Liston
once said. "There's got to be good guys and there's got to
be bad guys. That's what people pay for: to see the bad guys
get beat. So I'm a bad guy. But I change things. I don't get
beat."
In recent years, people have lost sight of how hated Sonny
Liston once was. When Liston became champion, he was pro-
bably the most unpopular heavyweight title-holder since the
great white hope days of Jack Johnson.
Famed for his menacing scowl, which was credited
with terrorizing his opponents into meek submission, and
armed with a devastating jab dubbed "The Cannon",
Liston had a history of arrests and underworld associa-
tions which many ring officials thought would sully the
pristine world of boxing.
One of an estimated 25 children of an Arkansas tenant
farmer (it was Liston's own estimate), he never learned to read
or write more than his own name. He grew up poor, and he grew
up mean.
He never learned to box until he was sent to the Missouri
state penitentiary for holding up a St. Louis restaurant in 1950.
He began his ring career after leaving prison, but for Liston,
boxing was not a road away from crime.
His contract at one time was reportedly owned by un-
derworld characters, including Blinky Palermo and Frank
Carbo. During the 1950's, while not fighting in the ring,
police officials claimed Liston was being paid by St. Louis
mobsters to keep defiant black laborers in line.
But many of his arrests were the result of police harrass-
ment, and Liston was still the most powerful fighter around,
while champion Floyd Patterson was toying with a succession of
patsies.
The opposition to a proposed Liston-Patterson fight was
based not only on Patterson manager Cus D'Amato's fear of
Liston's 14-inch fists. A hoodlum, like Liston, people said,
should not be allowed to hold the gentlemanly heavyweight
championship. The fight even had to be postponed because the
boxing commission of New York, the proposed site of the
fight, decided to protect the state by not allowing the bout,
So Chicago got the multi-million dollar fight, and a
monstrous left hook less than two minutes into the match
got Patterson. Liston was champ, and boxing experts first
speculated on the possibility of a fix, and, when betting
patterns ruled that out, on the effect Liston would have
on the character of small boys.
Liston's promoters started a ridiculous campaign to present
him as everybody's favorite big brother. They shouldn't have.
Liston himself, the hulking, scowling, silent giant, was appealing
Liston defeated Patterson again, with more difficulty-it
took him four seconds longer this time-and then a brash young
fighter who called himself Muhammed Ali and had political
views that scared fight experts even more than Liston's criminal
record, turned Liston from villain to hero.
Now it was not of the criminal record, but of his
fondness for children which we heard about. We no longer
learned how mean and rude he was, but how his best
friends were priests.
Both sides of his personality were true.
Also true was that Liston underestimated challenger All
to the point of neglecting his training. Seventeen monhs to the
day after he gained the championship, Liston lost it sitting
on a stool with a dead shoulder, after having suffered through
six rounds of humiliating inability to deal with his younger
and quicker opponent.
But the most stunned of all was Liston himself. A seond
Liston-Ali fight was signed for, despite the World Boxing
Association's inaneopposition to return bouts. This time an
aging and sluggish Liston was stopped in under a minute by a
"phantom" punch many fans did not see, but which actually
was so quick and powerful that it lifted Liston off his feet.
Toward the end of ?his life, he reigned as an elder statesman
of boxing. But he could never outlive his legend. When he was
found dead yesterday, a middle aged ex-prize fighter, he was
still the eighth ranking heavyweight contender.

v

OPEN: Mon., Wed., Thurs., Sun.-1 1 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Fri., Sat.--1 I a.m. to 3 a.m.

314 Detroit St.

665-2266


1

NEW

oUS

In
Political Action
Collee Cos 37

This Weekend in Sports
TODAY
SWIMMING - at Southern Illinois in Carbondale
TOMORROW
HOCKEY - at Michigan State in East Lansing, 8 p.m. (Radio -
WCBN;650 AM and WUOM, 91.5 FM)
GYMNASTICS - at Western Michigan in Kalamazoo
SATURDAY
HOCKEY - Michigan State at Michigan Coliseum, 8 p.m.
BASKETBALL - at Wisconsin in Madison, 3 p.m. (Radio -
WAAM, 1600 AM and WUOM, 91.5 FM
SWIMMING - Big Ten Relays at Iowa in Iowa City
WRESTLING - at Purdue in West Lafayette

0

I _


a

I

3 Credits

No Prerequisites

(COURSE MART)
The goal of this course is to develop an analysis of how social
change is and can be produced in American society. The
course is relevant to the political needs of students since it
recognizes political activity as a legitimate part of the learn-
ing process.
It will be made up of Study-Action Sections and weekly topical debates.
The Sections will examine appropriate theory, will demotrically deter-
mine political actions to test that theory, In the debates, reformist and
revolutionary actions will be considered as possible strategies for social

change.
PROPOSED. SECTIONS:
" RACISM
" SEXISM
" CORPORATIONS
* UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
" DISTRIBUTION OF
WEALTH AND POWER
" ANARCHISM VERSUS
MARXISM
" FOREIGN POLICY

" ECOLOGY
" LABOR
" REPRESSION
" RADICAL HISTORY
" YOUTH LIBERATION
" INDEPENDENT POLITICAL
ACTION
" POLITICAL VS. LIFE-STYLE
RADICALISM

CM CKMIATE
WINTER CLEARANCE
SPORT COATS
$28 to $38
Reg. to $70
CAR COATS
X38 to X48
Reg. to $75
FAMOUS BRANDS-PERMANENT PRESS1
SLACKS-$ 5.00
SWEATERS-S10
TIE S-1 off
Your Choice
ZIP LINED
ALL WEATHER COATS
$15
Reg. to $45

We don't care
what you do
with the
maney
you save on
USED
BOOKS
from
hOLET

wM

COME TO
TOWN and COUNTRY
RESTAU RANT
Fine Food
Chops, Steaks, & Shrimp
Soul Food Home Cooked
Open Fit Barbeque
-Open-
6 a.m. till 9 p.m.-Mon.-Thurs.
6 a.m., till 3 a.m.-Fri.-Sat.
8 a.m. till 7:30 p.m.-Sunday
730 NORTH MAIN
Delivery and Catering
769-2330
Dascola UM Barbers
Shops at:
MAPLE VILLAGE
& ARBORLAND
OPEN-
Mon. -Thurs.-Fri.-9 a.m.-8 pm.
Tues.-Wed.-Sat.-9 a.m.-6 pm
E LIBERTY &
E UNIVERSITY
OPEN
Mon. thru Sat.-8:30-5:30
New trends in hairstyling
for 1971

Other sections can be added, depending on student interest
Grades and Course Policy will be determined
jointly by Students and Teaching Fellows

Join The Daily

0

ri

-



EETING

The organizational meeting of the course will 'be Tuesday,
January 12, 7:30 p.m., Natural Science Auditorium
If you are interested in the course, please come to this
meeting even if you are not yet officially registered.
www M. % M 3 AW% & 'A % 1 10\t A Lm3 1C II C A 0"^11'T E flID A I

Do
You
NEED HELP WITH CAMPUS