Watch CBS News

Terry Foster: Frazier Painted Unfairly As A Villain

Many years ago, I met former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier at an event in Philadelphia and made a confession to him.

"When I was a kid, we hated you and rooted for you to lose to Muhammad Ali," I told him.

He smiled and nodded, as if he'd heard this story many times before. As a child growing up in racially polarized Detroit, I always believed Ali was our champion and Frazier was the white man's champion. And there was resentment across Detroit for a man I'd later find out was a pretty cool dude and was nothing like we thought.

Smokin' Joe Frazier, 67, died Monday night from liver cancer. I respected him a lot more in later life than I did as a child. Maybe that was because of maturity or maybe because Ali was a lot more colorful and artful with the spoken word. Frazier was never a great spokesman. Ali was.

"He had a way of twisting things," Frazier told me.

His voice was low and you could tell this was the aftershock of taking so many blows to the head.

Read the rest here at The Detroit News.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.