Source : the age
Sport and alcohol are a potent mix – and both attract visitors to Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city. It’s home to the Kentucky Derby, the country’s longest-running sporting event. Also known as the “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sport”, the race has run every year since 1875 – including during World War II and the COVID pandemic.
Louisville is also nicknamed Bourbon City as it pumps out a third of the US’s output (one downtown block is called Whiskey Row and distilleries host more bourbon tours than you can poke a swizzle stick at). The city’s souvenir badges say things like “Talk derby to me”, “Be the mint to my julep” and “Call me old-fashioned”.
A huge bronze-coloured cylinder incorporated into the Muhammad Ali Centre’s architecture might resemble a cocktail shaker but of course it is not (the city’s most famous son, born here in 1942 and buried here in 2016, converted to Islam and was a teetotaller). The structural element was inspired by Ali’s lighting of the torch at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
From certain angles, you might also spy a winged roofline – an homage to Ali’s poetic taunt to opponents that he could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. Artfully placed tiles on the facade depict Ali in various boxing stances.
The centre, overlooking a stretch of the Ohio River separating Kentucky from Indiana, opened in 2005. Celebrating the outspoken boxer and activist, once called the “Louisville Lip”, before simply becoming “The Greatest”, it showcases not only Ali’s sporting achievements but his humanitarian ones. It also includes a prayer and reflection room – an acknowledgment of his faith.
This might sound serious, but there’s also lots of fun to be had. At a re-creation of Ali’s Deer Lake, Pennsylvania training camp, for example, you can shuck your shoes and step into a ring to take boxing lessons from one of Ali’s nine children.
From a TV screen, Laila (who followed in her father’s dancer-like footsteps and remained undefeated until her 2007 retirement) advises: “Check out his trademark shuffle he used to avoid and confuse opponents.” Then put her lessons into effect by “shadow-boxing” Ali himself.
Ali’s tumultuous, multifaceted life (which included 30 years of living with Parkinson’s disease) was so large that it’s an almost impossible task to cover it all. Of course, the centre spotlights his Louisville childhood, with a timeline revealing how 12-year-old Cassius Clay first became interested in boxing. When he reported the theft of his bicycle, he met a policeman who ran a boxing program. Cassius took to the sport right away. His journey from devout, churchgoing Christian to his embrace of Islam, leading to a name change at 22, is also explored in-depth.
Ali became a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War. His refusal to be drafted led to professional repercussions that lifted only as the public mood swung against the US involvement in the conflict.
Visitors with more than a passing interest in boxing can take a seat “ringside” to watch Ali’s historic matches, including the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 against George Foreman in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Artefacts also point to Ali’s ventures outside the ring, including a cologne, a comic book in which he joins forces with Superman, his 1975 biography, The Greatest, edited by Toni Morrison (then working at Random House) and his Grammy Award-nominated spoken-word record.
The larger-than-life, three-time heavyweight world champion has been gone a decade now – yet his legacy includes lessons for us all. He was literally a life-saver (in 1981, he talked down a suicidal man from an LA high-rise), famously generous and supremely self-confident. As a keep cup in the gift shop says: “Be Great. Do Great Things.”
THE DETAILS
VISIT
The Muhammad Ali Centre, on Museum Row in downtown Louisville, is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm. Entry costs $US20 ($28) adult/$US10 children. See alicenter.org
FLY
The fastest way to reach Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport from Australia is by flying Qantas to Dallas Fort Worth and connecting via American Airlines to Louisville. Australian passport holders require an ESTA ($US40.27) to visit the United States. See qantas.com, esta.cbp.dhs.gov
STAY
Omni Louisville Hotel is near downtown Louisville’s main attractions. See omnihotels.com
The writer was a guest of Travel South USA.
Katrina Lobley is a Sydney-based freelance travel writer with expertise in ABC (art, bars, culture). She’s been writing for Traveller since 2006.Connect via email.
