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The article celebrates the life and career of the late African American heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.) who died in 2016, and it mentions how Ali referred to himself as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT). Photographs of Ali and various boxing matches are provided, along with images of the "Sports Illustrated" Magazine covers that featured Ali over the years. Ali's gold medal win at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, Italy is also assessed.

The article examines the sports bookmaking operations of casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada during the first week of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament. The popularity of watching and betting on the games in those casinos among groups of young men from throughout the U.S. is discussed. Betting at casinos on games of the 2013 tournament is examined as part of a trend in which sports gamblers have become more successful, lowering casino bookmaking profits.

A eulogy is offered for the late baseball player Stan Musial.

The article considers the decision of University of Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant to make sophomore Joe Namath the team's starting quarterback for the 1962 season. The recruiting of Namath by assistant coach Howard Schnellenberger is discussed. The relationship between Bryant and Namath is examined.

The article discusses professional football game played on November 16, 1906 between the Canton Bulldogs team of Canton, Ohio and the Massillon Tigers team of Massillon, Ohio. The 10-5 victory of Canton in the game and two subsequent rematches later in the year due to accusations players on both teams had been bribed by gamblers are examined in terms of the social role of sports in the early 20th century and the popularity of football as a spectator sport.

An obituary is presented for Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders football team.

A reprint is presented of an article published in the November 6, 2000 issue which focuses on Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Cuban's status as an Internet industry financier is considered, as is his aggressive management style as the Mavericks' owner, in which he communicates directly with fans of the team and spends freely on improvements to the franchise. Cuban states that losing is more expensive than spending to win.

An excerpt from the book "Something in the Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics," by Richard Hoffer is presented.

The article reports on the career of 25-year-old middleweight boxer Kelly Pavlik of Youngstown, Ohio who draws inspiration from the area called Steel Valley. In a town altered by the closing of the Sheet and Tube steel mill which used to employ most local men, Pavlik's success is an optimistic sign. Pavlik will defend his middleweight title against Jermain Taylor, who beat him in the 2000 Olympic Games, in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 16.

The article provides a description of baseball player Tony Gwynn's 20-year career as a consistent contact hitter for the San Diego Padres. Although he was not a player with a leading number of home runs each season, he always maintained high batting averages. His consistency is what won him several batting titles and a career batting average of .338.

The article describes the parallel careers of baseball players Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn. Ripken spent his years as third baseman and shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles while Gwynn made a name for himself as a consistent contact hitter for the San Diego Padres. The two men maintained similar statistics and their 20-year-long careers began and ended almost at the exact same times. They were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame together.

The article describes Jerry Jones, the owner of the National Football League Dallas Cowboys, and his unorthodox way of doing business. The article states that Jones has a hands-on attitude towards the Cowboys and explains the steps he took to turn the team into a revenue generator and worldwide brand. The article details his success in the oil industry and chronicles a visit that the author took with Jones to the new stadium that he is having built for the team.

This article reports on the May 5, 2007 boxing match between boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Mayweather won the much-hyped fight in a 12-round decision at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event earned a record $19 million in ticket receipts, though the author notes that the fight itself failed to live up to its extensive hype.

This article previews a boxing match between boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya, taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 4, 2007. The article describes Mayweather as a flamboyant fighter as compared to the family-oriented De La Hoya. Mayweather enters the fight with an undefeated 37-0 record while De La Hoya boasts a record of 38-4.

This article discusses the popularity of the sport of wrestling in the state of Iowa. Wrestling programs at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have become two of the most successful in the U.S., due in part to Iowa coach Dan Gable and Iowa State coach Cael Sanderson. The article notes that wrestling has been especially embraced in Iowa's small towns, where children are taught wrestling at a young age.

The article reflects on an illegal headbutt which gained international attention at the finals of the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament which was held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. France's Zinédine Zidane rammed his head illegally into the chest of Italy's Marco Materazzi, and knocked the defender to the ground. The ramifications of the event are discussed. INSETS: PREDICTIONS 2007;THE BEST….

This article profiles boxer Oscar De La Hoya. De La Hoya will face welterweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a July 2007 boxing match, a match that may earn upwards of $25 million for De Lay Hoya. The article also examines De La Hoya's boxing promotion company, Golden Boy Promotions, and notes that Golden Boy has attracted some of the most notable boxers in the sport.

The article profiles Jeff and Jered Weaver, siblings who are both major league baseball players. Jered Weaver is performing extremely well for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 2006 season while older brother Jeff Weaver is struggling with the St. Louis Cardinals. The article examines the role of competition among children.

This article profiles athletes who earn the average annual salary for their respective sports. Among the athletes profiled are football player Jeff Posey, who makes $1.75 million per year, baseball player Kevin Mench, who makes $2.8 million per year, and basketball player Antonio Daniels, who makes $5 million per year.

This article profiles football player Joe Jurevicius. Jurevicius, a key part of three Super Bowl football teams, signed with the Cleveland Browns in 2006. Jurevicius is highlighted as a blue-collar athlete, and his childhood as a Cleveland Browns football fan in Ohio is described, and cited as a reason for Jurevicius's signing with the Browns.

The article discusses the possibility of the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers playing a second-round Western Conference series in the 2006 National Basketball Association playoffs. If it happens, it will be called a Hallway Series because the teams share the Staples Center. A comparison of the Lakers and Clippers in terms of basketball, fans, prestige and other topics is presented.

The article profiles James Toney, who is making a bid for boxing's heavyweight championship title at the age of 37. Toney, once seen as boxing's best middleweight, is challenging Hasim Rahman for the WBC heavyweight title in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Toney, once suspended and fined for taking steroids, is given a second chance at the title in 2006.

This article reports on Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt, a native of Weir, Mississippi. Oswalt has won 83 games during the first five seasons of his major league career. In his last seven starts of the regular season in 2005, Oswalt helped the Astros capture the wild card playoff spot by going 5-1.

This article focuses on the concept of left-handedness among notable athletes in sports. In the human anatomy, which is otherwise dominated by duplication, there is the curious anomaly of handedness. In almost every case one hand works much better than the other. Nobody really knows why. Handedness is probably a matter of genetics, although some researchers say birth trauma could be a factor. But, for whatever reason, 90% of almost every population, through almost every era, has been right-handed. Because it is man's instinct to punish the minority--to extinction, if possible--it is an evolutionary miracle that left-handed have held steady at 10%, surviving insults of language and industrial design to lead somewhat normal, although shortened, lives. Despite the relentless bias, left-handed people have become great artists, statesmen, magazine writers and, most of all, athletes. Babe Ruth, Warren Spahn, Martina Navratilova, Dorothy Hamil and Barry Bonds are all included on the list of history's great left-handed athletes. As to why left-handers should thrive in this last, peculiar arena of life, again, it is a mystery. Through the ages, all activity has been organized according to the survival of the dextral (right-handed) as opposed to the sinistral (left-handed). It's the same in sports: When there's a choice in the matter, games are designed with the right-hander in mind. If you believe Stanley Coren, a University of British Columbia psychology professor and author of The Left-Hander Syndrome, our minority subject is so poorly adapted to life on this earth that it really is a marvel he has so stubbornly persisted. To Coren, left-handedness is basically a "marker" for a festive smorgasbord of pathologies. Oddly, the left-hander has found a way to prosper, or seem to, against these odds.

This article discusses the life of former boxer George Foreman. In his heyday, the first one anyway, George Foreman was little more than a complicated delivery system for pain, a surly man whose windup malevolence found a peculiar commercial and barely legal application in boxing. It was about then that Leon Dreimann heard from a Los Angeles attorney named Sam Perlmutter, whose big idea was to put a notorious consumer of cheeseburgers, say George Foreman, in an infomercial with a cheeseburger cooker. And Foreman was quick to seize on all the possibilities, even those ancillary to boxing--picking up endorsements with KFC and Doritos, joining the broadcast booth at HBO Boxing. He had what he needed to live, to cruise fast-food joints, to support his 300-acre ranch (and keep the dog in kibble) but not enough to renovate or air-condition his sheet-metal church or expand his youth center down the street. Baptism by effluence advanced him from the criminal ranks but did not make him that nice a guy. "Oh, I was a dangerous fella, all right," Foreman says. "It wasn't no act. If some wealthy guy drove by in a limo and gave me a finger, I'd find him.".

Televised poker tournaments are making stars in the world of poker. T.J. Cloutier, one of the last real road gamblers, stands up suddenly and reaches across the felt to shake hands. He is done in again, another bad beat in a never-ending series. This time, with only three players left at the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker tournament in Los Angeles, he had pocket jacks to the Dot Com Kid's 7s, and all-in -- his chips pushed into one confident pile -- he watches as the young millionaire, a 10-to-1 underdog, nailed a third seven on the turn. The Dot Com Kid, the impeccably dressed Paul Phillips, now has only tournament veteran Mel Judah to contend with for a first-place prize of $579,375. Phillips didn't mean to retire strictly to a life of cards, but these deep-money tournaments, swelled by an explosion of "stationary targets," as Phillips politely calls the amateurs, has made it unlikely he will ever take up golf, as he keeps promising. As he stares down Judah, it occurs to Phillips that the difference between first and second, $285,825, is a lot of money to be playing heads-up for. Poker seems to be nothing more than a form of God's mischief, everybody's belief in math or telepathy or game theory just an invitation to disaster. The treachery of these probabilities, which allow an Internet player like Chris Moneymaker, an accountant from Spring Hill, Tenn., who never sat at a live table in his life, to win the last World Series and $2.5 million, is daunting. But then it sinks in, and you can see it in the crimson flushing cheeks of the Dot Com Kid. Judah's 7-high straight, as improbable as it is, breaks his 6-high. Phillips stares at the table just for a second, both amazed and amused by God's idea of mischief, then reaches across the felt to shake Judah's hand.

Celebrates the year in sports of 1954, which also marked the debut of 'Sports Illustrated.' It is man's conceit, no matter what dot he occupies on the cosmological time line, that his particular history is special. Our premise: 1954 marked the beginning of an intriguing confluence of people and circumstance, talent and ambition, that fundamentally changed sports, and this country. Still in play were the residual, beguiling celebrities of the previous Golden Age of Sports--Jack Dempsey, Sam Snead (who had enough left to win the Masters--and beat Hogan along the way!) and, you might say, Joe DiMaggio, who was marrying, and rapidly un-marrying, Marilyn Monroe. And if the magazine pursued the heretofore ignored spectator sports (the only sports magazines of the time were outdoors-oriented), what exactly would the magazine end up with, besides drunken Indians? The dummy issue of Henry Luce's proposed sports magazine, 140 pages of practice journalism, was completed in January 1954, and copies were distributed to a select list of people within and outside the company. It resembled 'The New Yorker,' the editorial embodiment of class, yet it was unlike anything else. Unlike, some critics quickly decided, a magazine at all.

A decade after their epic ring trilogy, Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe are still bound together, hostages to their dreams and delusions. Each is sentenced in his own way now, though the terms are roughly the same. Riddick Bowe must do his time, 18 months, at a minimum-security facility in Cumberland, Maryland. Evander Holyfield, who figures he's looking at the same stretch, is held on a hill outside Atlanta, at his $20 million estate, the one with lakes and horses and a bowling alley. The contrast in their conditions of confinement aside, one is no freer than the other, not really; both are in lockup, their sentences handed down (little did they know) more than a decade ago when they began one of boxing's most thrilling trilogies. It is not so strange, given the depth of their partnership, that they be conjoined in comparable miseries. Bowe, long ago battered into retirement, is finally going to jail on a five-year-old charge of interstate domestic violence, filed after he gathered up his estranged wife and five children and, without any more of a plan than that, drove them to a McDonald's, where his wife used a cellphone and called police from the rest room. Holyfield, though righteous and law-abiding and a lot more comfortable financially than Bowe, is manacled just as securely by competitive zeal, an ambition that grows ever more foolish--even alarming--now that he's turned 40. Neither man is allowed contentment. Each is doomed by ambitions that grow evermore unattainable. Their mostly heroic 32 rounds--a seesaw story of brutal bravery--offer them no parole at this remove, no time off for so violent an exposition of character, in which each fighter was tested (and proved). The reward they might expect for their courage, amply displayed in all three fights, is instead a penalty. Both men are frustrated in the long aftermath, their rightful glory held in abeyance. Maybe in 18 months is what they're thinking, hoping.

It's pointless to predict boxing's demise--it's the cockroach of sport and will outlast even this nuclear winter--but it is fair to say the game is toying uncomfortably with its own extinction. We'd like to believe that boxing offers more than just guilty pleasure, that the nobility of such regulated fury somehow demonstrates our competitive potential (well, theirs, anyway). At the lighter weights the stars are largely Hispanic, and although their fights are consistently the best value in boxing, their proliferation leads some to fear that boxing is becoming a niche sport. That's an understatement, and here's the reason: What 250-pound athlete would choose boxing when surer and safer money beckons in more mainstream sports? Meanwhile, NBC announced it was returning to boxing coverage--with each show preceded by an hour of the undercard on NBC's Spanish-language network, Telemundo, to steer viewers its way. INSET: LET'S GET IT ON--PLEASE!.

The America's Cup, held in New Zealand, is home to a wealthy rabble of rampant egos who enjoy an attention-grabbing tussle. Six of the original nine syndicates were vying for the chance to challenge New Zealand, the reigning Cup holder and eventually, that total was down to four. Paul Allen shows up in his 301-foot Tatoosh, and soon enough, rumors circulate that Larry Ellison has commissioned plans for a larger yacht. Compared with Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing team and Craig McCaw and Allen's OneWorld syndicate, Dennis Conner's is indeed a bargain-basement entry.Bruno Trouble, a Louis Vuitton spokesperson, who skippered for Baron Bich in 1980, thinks it's all about a last stab at immortality for these billionaires to compete. When Prada went to court, Ellison requested a forfeit. And, until he left New Zealand following Oracle BMW's survival of the quarterfinals, he was almost always a source of some bombshell, whether it was icing one skipper, Paul Cayard, in favor of Kiwi Chris Dickson, replacing Dickson with Peter Holmberg after crew protests and then, after a troubled beginning in the round-robin, replacing Holmberg again with Dickson (after which the boat won 11 straight races). It was even news when Dickson, enjoying his maritime authority, kicked a surprisingly agreeable Ellison off the boat altogether. Suddenly America's Cup boating began to seem like an extravagance. OneWorld did rankle Conner when it got to pick its opponent--by virtue of its record in the quarterfinals--and chose his boat over the Italian or Swedish entries, thus ensuring that one American team would be sent home.They would probably be more lovable, for all that, if Allen weren't tootling about the gulf in Tatoosh (bought from McCaw), one of the world's 10 largest motor yachts, a full 57 feet longer than Ellison's, one-upping the Oracle man's onboard basketball court with his own afterdeck helipad.

Focuses on the intense rivalry between boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas. Comparison to the rivalry between Art Aragon and Lauro Salas; Reasons for these boxers' grudges, including racial distinctions; Outlook toward their September 14, 2002 showdown in Los Angeles, California.

Focuses on the heavyweight boxing match between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson. Controversy surrounding the match, which was moved several times before being fought in Memphis, Tennessee; Unique manner in which the fight began, to keep the two boxers separated; How Lewis knocked-out Tyson in the eighth round to score the victory.

Profiles Mike Tyson and discusses the promotion of Tyson in boxing. Rage and anger of Tyson toward the public and the media; Promotion of a fight between Tyson and Lennox Lewis, whom Tyson bit in the leg; Prison sentence of Tyson for raping Desiree Washington; Characterization of Tyson as a bully; Work of Don King for Tyson.

Remembers a bare-fisted brawl between John L. Sullivan and Jake Kilrain in 1889. How the event made a star out of Sullivan, who knocked down Kilrain 24 times during their 75 round battle; Influence on modern-day boxing; Stories that have been written about the epic match.

Focuses on the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Outlook for the influence of the Olympics on peace in the world; Influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the games; Security issues at the games, and defense against terrorism; Description of the opening ceremonies of the games.

Focuses on comeback efforts in sports during 2001, in light of the response of the United States to terrorism. Return of Michael Jordan to professional basketball; Lance Armstrong's win in the Tour de France; How the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team beat the New York Yankees in the World Series; Topic of determination.

Reports on the heavyweight boxing match between Lennox Lewis and champion Hasim Rahman. Description of the bout, which was won by Lewis by way of a fourth round knockout; How the bout was a rematch from the April 2001 fifth round knockout by Rahman in South Africa to strip Lewis of the title; Thoughts on the match.

Addresses the decision by many sports venues to postpone events in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States. Reasons for the decision to delay the restart of the seasons; Thoughts of various athletes; How sports fits into American culture as a distraction.

Profiles jockey Laffit Pincay Jr., who continues to ride and win races at the age of 54. Challenges to Pincay concerning his diet; His dedication to the sport and ability to get decent racehorses to ride; Career highlights; Health problems of Pincay due to his starvation dieting.

Profiles Colorado Rockies baseball player Larry Walker. Attitude of Walker concerning his play during his Major League Baseball career; Belief that Walker will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Loan of money by Walker to the Rockies organization to buy two pitchers; Ability of Walker in baseball; Biographical information.

Focuses on professional boxer Felix 'Tito' Trinidad. Biographical information; Comments by promoter Don King on Trinidad; Success Trinidad has experienced throughout his career.

Reports on the 2001 National Basketball Association opening round playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers. Results from the games, which the Lakers swept to win the series 3-0; Amount of money spent by the Blazers on players to help them compete against the defending champion Lakers; Performance of Lakers' players Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.

Comments on the heavyweight championship boxing match between Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman. Rahman's knockout of the defending champion, Lewis, in the fifth round.

Reports on the performance of golfer Tiger Woods at the 2001 Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. How the victory by Woods was his fourth consecutive major championship, an unprecedented accomplishment in golf; Details of the four-round tournament; Struggle that Woods endured during the beginning of the season.

Presents a series of photographs featuring swimsuit model Heidi Klum and various National Football League players. Information on Klum's career; Players, including Jason Taylor, Terrell Owens, and Warrick Dunn.

Focuses on heavyweight boxer David Tua. Biographical information; Expectations for Tua's bout with Lennox Lewis for the heavyweight title; Lifestyle of Tua, who hails from the Samoan Islands; Relationship with his father, who encouraged Tua to begin boxing.

Focuses on the owner of the Dallas Mavericks franchise in the National Basketball Association, Mark Cuban. Biographical information; Reasons why Cuban, a billionaire in the Internet industry, wanted to purchase an NBA team; Thoughts on being an owner; View of fellow Dallas, Texas-based team owner Jerry Jones, of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League.

Focuses on the performance of female track and field athletes during the 2000 Olympic Games. Records made; Domination of women in various sports; Achievements of United States track and field athlete, Marion Jones.

Profiles boxer Laila Ali, daughter of boxing superstar Muhammad Ali. Differences in the boxing game for men and women; Training and preparations for turning professional; Other daughters of former boxing greats taking up the game.