Muhammad Ali’s refusal to sign his Vietnam-era military draft card upended the boxing champ’s life and added a powerful voice to the anti-war movement. Now that piece of history is coming up for sale.
There’s a blank line on the card where Ali was supposed to sign in 1967 but refused to do so — a polarizing act of defiance as the Vietnam War raged on. It triggered a chain of events that disrupted his storied boxing career but immortalized him outside the ring as a champion for peace and social justice.
“Being reminded of my father’s message of courage and conviction is more important now than ever, and the sale of his draft card at Christie’s is a powerful way to share that legacy with the world,” Rasheda Ali Walsh, a daughter of Ali, said Thursday in a statement issued by the auction house.
The auction house said it will hold the online sale Oct. 10-28, adding the card came to it via descendants of Ali. A public display of the card began Thursday at Rockefeller Center in New York and will continue until Oct. 21. The document could fetch $3 million to $5 million, Christie’s estimated.
“This is a singular object associated with an important historical event that looms large in our shared popular culture,” said Peter Klarnet, a Christie’s senior specialist.
Ali, the three-time heavyweight boxing champion, died in 2016 at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. An estimated 100,000 people chanting, “Ali! Ali!” lined the streets of his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, as a hearse carried his casket to a local cemetery. His memorial service was packed with celebrities, athletes and politicians.
The draft card, typewritten in parts, conjures memories from when Ali wasn’t universally beloved but instead stood as a polarizing figure, revered by millions worldwide and reviled by many.
For refusing induction into the US Army, Ali was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his boxing title and banned from boxing. Ali appealed the conviction on grounds he was a Muslim minister. He famously proclaimed: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”
During his banishment, Ali spoke at colleges and briefly appeared in a Broadway musical. He was allowed to resume boxing three years later.
He was still facing a possible prison sentence when in 1971 he fought Joe Frazier, his archrival, for the first time in what was labeled “The Fight of the Century.” A few months later the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction on an 8-0 vote.
The draft card was issued the day the draft board in Louisville ordered Ali to appear for induction, Christie’s said Thursday in a news release. The card was signed by the local draft board chairman but pointedly not by Ali.
The card identified him by his birth name — Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. — but misspelled his given middle name. Upon his conversion to Islam, he was given a name reflecting his faith, the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville says on its website. Meanwhile, the top of the draft card reads: “(AKA) Muhammad Ali.”
The Ali Center features exhibits paying tribute to Ali’s immense boxing skills. But its main mission, it says, is to preserve his humanitarian legacy and promote his six core principles: spirituality, giving, conviction, confidence, respect and dedication.
Now an artifact reflecting how Ali personified some of those principles will be up for auction.
“This is the first time collectors will be able to acquire a vital and intimate document connected to one of the most important figures of the last century,” Klarnet said Thursday.
Muhammad Ali’s unsigned draft card, a piece of Vietnam-era history, will be auctioned
https://arab.news/n257d
Muhammad Ali’s unsigned draft card, a piece of Vietnam-era history, will be auctioned
- There’s a blank line on the card where Ali was supposed to sign in 1967 but refused to do so
- The document could fetch $3 million to $5 million, the auction house estimated
KFC readies finger-licking Japanese Christmas
- The first KFC Christmas campaign was in 1974 and there are different theories about the origins
TOKYO: KFC in Japan is gearing up for the Christmas tradition of millions of families thronging the US fast-food chain for special festive buckets of deep-fried chicken and other treats.
“Reservations for KFC Christmas typically begin around the beginning of November,” Takuma Kawamura, a KFC marketing manager, told AFP at a new upmarket pop-up eatery in Tokyo.
“From that time, stores with the Col. statue will dress him in Christmas attire,” he said, referring to KFC’s late founder Col. Sanders, a widely recognized figure in Japan.
Japan has a tiny Christian majority and Christmas is a secular festival of full-bore consumerism complete with Santa, gifts and streetlights. Couples often go on dates on Christmas Eve.
For food, families often gorge themselves on special “Party Barrels” bursting with chicken, an array of side dishes and a dessert — such as ice cream or cheesecake — stored at the bottom in a separate compartment.
December 24 — Christmas Eve — is KFC Japan’s busiest day by far, with 10 times more customers than normal, the firm said in 2020. Reportedly 3.6 million families make orders.
The first KFC Christmas campaign was in 1974 and there are different theories about the origins.
These include that Takeshi Okawara, the manager of Japan’s first KFC outlet, overheard foreigners pining for turkey, which is often eaten at Christmas in Britain and the United States.
Col. Sanders, who died in 1980, has also entered into baseball folklore in Japan.
Hanshin Tigers supporters threw a plastic statue of the Col. from a KFC restaurant into a river in Osaka in 1985 on their way to winning Japan’s version of the World Series.
This was because fans — many of whom also jumped in the dirty Dotonbori waterway — thought the statue resembled Randy Bass, an American member of the team at the time.
But the dunking spawned the legend of the “Curse of the Colonel” that said the Tigers would never win another title until the effigy was recovered.
The sludge-covered statue was dredged out in 2009, cleaned up and put on display, but it took until 2023 for the Tigers finally to win the championship again.
The plastic Col. was finally disposed of last year following a ritual at a temple attended by KFC’s Japan president, who offered sake and fried chicken.
