WFPL’s Kyeland Jackson took on the challenge. Favorite us! By the Centennial Games, it was believed the medal had simply been lost. I went to retrieve it and I realized it was a medallion of some kind,” Bradbury said. Get the latest odds, analysis, and insights at Yahoo Sportsbook. “As a joke, I walked over to my wife Pattie and told her ‘Hey I found Ali’s gold medal that he threw off the Second Street bridge in 1960!’ We both laughed as I tried to get it clean enough to make out what the design was on the thing.”. He went to the cafeteria with it. “It is such an amazing thing to be actually now be a part of this amazing human-being’s story. one will appear before you! Support for all these theories are just as strong as the other. Go Ask Allison: I Think I Made A Mistake – Is He Really “The One? In 1998 Ali was honoured with the United Nations Messenger of Peace award. Always Treasure the Adventure! Go Ask Allison: I Think My Boyfriend’s Cheating. Please Help! In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, a young Muhammad Ali — then called Cassius Clay — defeated three-time European boxing champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski. The handover came during an interval at a basketball game, and it was one of the most poignant moments of the Atlanta Olympics, whose Olympic Flame had been lit by Ali himself. Design & Developed By Open Source Technologies. Your email address will not be published. There is a mystery surrounding his 1960 Gold Medal though. Ali, then 54 and barely able to speak due to Parkinson’s, was given the medal by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch at halftime of the men’s basketball final between the U.S. and Yugoslavia. first place. In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a disease that sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. “I saw something round and fairly large – well, bigger than any coin I know of, sticking out of the mud. Ali, then named Cassius Clay, cherished his gold medal from the 1960 Olympics so much that he wore it all the time, even while sleeping. Nonetheless, it has gone missing. UFC Partners With Richard Branson and Virgin Group For First UFC Bout in Space. Everybody wanted to talk to him. In one of the last medal ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Muhammad Ali received a gold to replace the one that had been lost decades earlier. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I. He has devoted much of his life to humanitarian affairs. Official profile of Olympic athlete Muhammad ALI (born 20 Jun 1996), including games, medals, results, photos, videos and news. OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Other suggestions for what may have happened to the lost treasure is that it was stolen, given away by Muhammad to someone special, or just plain misplaced. WFPL’s Kyeland Jackson and our question-asker Ray Watkins at the Muhammad Ali Museum. Either of these is possible. his achievement, and even slept with the medal. Somerville used a special cleaning solution designed specifically for fragile, valuable precious metals. It has been suggested that the story of it being thrown in the Ohio River, first appearing in the Autobiography, which was mainly written by a ghost writer, was created to not only offer an explanation for his missing Gold Medal, but to also build awareness of the discriminatory times Muhammad grew up in for the book. Italy dominated boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics, winning three gold medals and seven … Save my name, email, and site URL in my browser for next time I post a comment. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). to many who knew Muhammad and the story. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy. June 21, 2014, Robert Bradbury pulls an authentic 1960 Olympic Gold Medal from the muddy banks of the Ohio River. In his autobiography, “The Greatest,” first published in 1975, Ali wrote that he threw his gold medal over the Jefferson County Bridge in his native Louisville and into the Ohio River in disgust. Fast-forward fifty-four years. “I finally rubbed the thing off enough so that I could see an image on the medallion, it almost looked to me like some ancient Roman God or something, then it clicked, I looked at my wife and said, ‘Oh dear Lord, the 1960 Olympics were in Rome!’ The thing totally looked Roman to me so I started to get excited. googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); Everything you need to know about sports betting starts here. He would later turn professional and win countless other championships during his lifetime as a boxer. Ali, then named Cassius Clay, cherished his gold medal from the 1960 Olympics so much that he wore it all the time, even while sleeping. All Rights Reserved. A check, written by the Ali family for the sum of $200,000. Organizers said when the River Sweep started 25 years ago, finding items like washing machines, cars, and sunken fishing vessels was common. Time will tell. They say he wore it all the time, was extremely proud of Sign up for a daily dose of WFPL news curated for you each morning. googletag.cmd.push(function() { It turns out that his wife was wrong, and there was a definite reason to get excited. A tragedy, given how much it clearly meant to him. I always hung in the background, not knowing what he was going to say.”, MORE: Kurt Angle reflects on Olympic wrestling gold medal. “Thank you very, very much for this,” Ali reportedly told Samaranch before posing for photos with each basketball team, whispering something to Charles Barkley. “We decided the only right thing to do was somehow contact the Ali family, so we went to the Muhammad Ali Center and swiftly handed it over to the curator. Then one day, sickened by a horrific bout of racism he encountered that evening, the 18-year-old light- heavyweight boxing champion stood on the Second Street Bridge and threw the medal into the Ohio River. After about a week of searching for an appraiser, they located an Olympic Medal collector and expert living in Indianapolis, Indiana. He also received numerous awards and other types of recognition all through his life. And so besides writing about Mystery, Adventure, and the Search for Treasure on this site, she shares her Collection of Games, many from the 1800's, on her website: Your email address will not be published. For various reasons, however, people seemed to want to believe he was making the story up to get a rise out of his fans and the Olympic committee, just being dramatic as he always was. They were extremely excited as you could imagine and treated us like royalty.”. Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., is considered to be one of the best boxers of all time. She told me to calm down because most medallions have that kind of design on them.”. Once a year, volunteers who live near and along the great Ohio River participate in an event dubbed “The Annual Ohio River Sweep,” which extends the entire length of the massive waterway, from Pittsburgh, PA to Cairo, Illinois. “Only relief, and a new strength.”. As so many things are found or resurface over time, it’s possible the missing Gold Medal of Muhammad Ali might become a found treasure some day. In one of the last medal ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Muhammad Ali received a gold to replace the one that had been lost decades earlier. An Ali fan named Ray Watkins asked Curious Louisville to help him find out, once and for all. There were conflicting accounts of how Muhammad Ali’s Gold Medal was Ali travelled to Rome 1960 to represent the United … '” Bradbury revealed. “Not five minutes went by before he lit up like a Christmas tree, turned and said to us ‘What you have here, is an authentic 1960 Olympic Gold Medal. No one else cherished it the way he did. At the 1960 Rome Games, Ali, then Cassius Clay, earned light heavyweight gold at age 18. Some closest to him feel he wouldn’t have ever cast his treasured googletag.enableServices(); This year the great sweep fell on June 21. Muhammad Ali passed away on June 3, 2016. In the 1960 Summer Olympics, held in Rome, he won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division of boxing at the age of 18. He was also known to give away many of his prized winning memorabilia to girls he fancied. Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), born as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., is considered to be one of the best boxers of all time. She manages a few websites dedicated to these varied interests and enjoys sharing adventures in each! But in interviews, Ali never gave a definitive answer regarding the medal’s location. And in 2016, the Smithsonian Channel’s Always keep your eyes out for all treasure! They all knew the old story. Whatever the truth is, or wherever it lies, the International Olympic Committee’s President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, presented Ali with a replacement Gold Medal in Atlanta in 1996. That specific story came to be apocryphal, though Ali no doubt faced racism. '” The three of them were speechless. In 1996, Ali was chosen to light the flame during the Opening Ceremony of the Atlanta Olympic Games. The entire bout can be seen here. Official profile of Olympic athlete Muhammad ALI (born 20 Jun 1996), including games, medals, results, photos, videos and news. His peers loved him. So they made the two-and-a-half hour drive to meet Wade Somerville, who has been collecting Olympic Medals for fifteen years. And he talked all the time. “There is no doubt in my mind that this is the very gold medal Cassius Clay threw off that bridge. In his 1975 autobiography, The Greatest: My Own Story, it is written that soon after returning home from the Olympics he was refused service at a restaurant for being colored, and being upset that not even his ‘stardom’ could deter this mistreatment, he threw his Olympic Gold Medal into the Ohio River over the Second Street Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky, near where he lived. In one of the last medal ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Muhammad Ali received a gold to replace the one that had been lost decades earlier. lost, and not everyone was convinced it was thrown into the Ohio River in the So where might this lost treasure be today? He never revealed the story until a documentary was made about him in 1975, and he explained what happened. It is the most amazing thing I could possibly see with my own eyes!” said Somerville. 89.3 WFPL News Louisville. In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, a young Muhammad Ali — then called Cassius Clay — defeated three-time European boxing champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski. Then one day, sickened by a horrific bout of racism he encountered that evening, the 18-year-old light- heavyweight boxing champion stood on the Second Street Bridge and threw the medal into the Ohio River. prize into the river. Italy dominated boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics, winning three gold medals and seven medals overall.Two of the gold medalists would later become Hall of Fame world champions in professional boxing: American Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) and Italian Nino Benvenuti.
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