Six word legacy on HBO’s Sport in America: Our Defining Stories
Doc on HBO’s Sport in America
“We wish we were forever young” – part of a closing montage of 25 fans in the final minute of HBO/Sports Illustrated documentary Sport in America: Our Defining Stories, speaking about the meaning of the great sporting events that we’d witnessed.
My telling the tale my experience attending the Muhammad Ali – Ken Norton fight in San Diego, March 30, 1973 after almost an hour of taping at End Game Productions/HBO over a year ago didn’t make the final cut, but I was still nonetheless honored to be a small part of the first documentary of its kind on Sport in America. The thought came spontaneously to mind from the classic 1974 Bob Dylan song and the beauty and poignance of great sport memories.
Here’s a link to the story which I published in the Eureka Times Standard Sept. 20, 2013 in memory of Ken Norton.
http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_24138127/day-ken-norton-broke-muhammad-alis-jaw
Here’s the cover of Ring Magazine that I bought in Mac’s Smoke Shop in Palo Alto in 1964 with my dad when I became an Ali fan for life:
This picture was taken before the Ali Norton Fight II in my apartment in Burbank, CA, where Ali won a narrow split decision at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, CA in September of 1973 after I’d witnessed Norton breaking Ali’s jaw earlier that March in the San Diego Sports Arena -the basis for my story about the amazing resilience of Ali.
Doc Stull, November 29, 2013
Congrats they included you in the HBO special. I’d love to see it — is there a link? Not much of a chance to get HBO here.
Nice to see a shot of you from 1973! I don’t remember much about your apartment in Burbank, except being there with Marshall T and Elliott R for the Ali Norton fight. I think I stayed just one night, after the fight. I remember us watching George Putnam (remember him?) on TV, and on one of the late night shows, maybe Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis I think it was singing Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Oak Tree. And Rodney Allen Rippy doing ads for Jack in the Box. Sept 1973.
This was taken on the 15th, graduation for my students. Laura and me.
Phil
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Congrats Doc! And thanks for taking us down memory lane. THe picture is an amazing addition to the story!
Jeanie