Muhammad Ali that year, before converting to Islam after 1961. At age 22, in 1964, he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset. He then changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name", to Muhammad Ali. He set an example of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white establishment by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
What It Was, Was Football from the "Totally MAD" CD-ROM collection of the magazine's run. In 1987, Andy Griffith made an appearance on "The Tonight Show" promoting his series, "Matlock," in which he acted out the attorney Benjamin Layton Matlock, one of whose heroes was, presumably, Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason. During the interview, guest host Bill Cosby told Griffith that he had purchased Griffith's recording of "What It Was, Was Football." Cosby then told Griffith that he had performed it at school and received an A for his grade, much to Griffith's surprise and delight. In 1997, the monologue was made into a short