But it was perhaps the Pan American Amateur Boxing Trials in 1959 that brought the greatest boxer the Field House has ever seen in the form of a 178-pound, 17-year-old high school student: Cassius ...

CASSIUS M. CLAY of Kentucky ... "Put me at the head of the United States and I will whip them." [Applause and laughter.] Mr. CLAY -- Why, you seem to be really in earnest about it.

lands a left hook that pops back the head of Chicago’s Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) in the 175-pound inter-city Golden Gloves title bout at Chicago Stadium on March 25, 1959. Clay, only 17 ...