Mark Kram

Up from the gutter and reaching for stars comes ex-convict Don King, cast in the flamboyant mold of P. T. Barnum and Tex Rickard.

"Lawdy, lawdy he's great." Joe Frazier said that of Muhammad Ali, but so fierce and unsparing was their confrontation that the phrase could have applied to them both.

Jamming the stadium, they came not to see the ludicrous show but the star. And with good reason, for Ali, embarking upon an unparalleled year, has far transcended his sport.

Hack Wilson had long since passed away when Sports Illustrated's Mark Kram took up the former Cubs slugger's cause for inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the next installment of the SI 60 series we present Mark Kram's epic account of the Thrilla in Manila, when Muhammad Ali outlasted Joe Frazier in the third, and final, bout of their classic trilogy.