During the Vietnam War

[Mr. Ryan]

Why did they only go after Ali? Why didn't they try to get Joe Frazier or Sonny Liston or Jimmy Ellis into the Army?

[Yogi]

The "married with children" exemption possibly?

[American_Ninja]

Why did they only go after Ali? Why didn't they try to get Joe Frazier or Sonny Liston or Jimmy Ellis into the Army?

Liston was a lot older than Ali. Frazier probably had flat feet, and he was short, not good Army material. Ellis? No telling. If they even got draft cards, I don't think everyone got em.

[butterfly1964]

The "married with children" exemption possibly?

Darn, you beat me to it.

[Verstyle]

Why did they only go after Ali? Why didn't they try to get Joe Frazier or Sonny Liston or Jimmy Ellis into the Army?

r u going to be another butterfly. i see u found new interest in ali. maybe i will also. cause the movie wasnt enough

[butterfly1964]

r u going to be another butterfly. i see u found new interest in ali. maybe i will also. cause the movie wasnt enough

I got a prodigy!

[Abe Attell]

Bottom Line:

Ali was popular...he was "The Champion"...they wanted to use him to promote the war, like Joe Louis did for WWII.

I wonder what the chances of the "Heavyweight Champion of the World" being picked in a lottery.


And why continue to go after him after he failed the test to get in more than once?

Why come to him and say you don't have to fight, just boost moral?

[BoxingFan2]

I have a feeling they knew he wouldn't go, so they could see that as a reason to put him in jell or just taking his title from him which is crazy really. Ali was simply hated in 60's because of his being member of Nation of Islam, and having very open mind about racial injustice and prejudice. They knew there was nobody who could beat him, and they didn't know what to do with him. If you see his fights in 60's you can hear booing, he was hated just because of his religion, they even wouldn't call him Muhammad Ali.

[butterfly1964]

Bottom Line:

Ali was popular...he was "The Champion"...they wanted to use him to promote the war, like Joe Louis did for WWII.

I wonder what the chances of the "Heavyweight Champion of the World" being picked in a lottery.


And why continue to go after him after he failed the test to get in more than once?

Why come to him and say you don't have to fight, just boost moral?

The army was in desperate need of troops, so they lowered the required test scores needed to get in, and Ali fell into that category.

[Yogi]

The army was in desperate need of troops, so they lowered the required test scores needed to get in, and Ali fell into that category.

Very Good, Butterfly, and that's exactly what happened and Ali was by far from the only one who got reclassication to the 1-A status after previous being 1-Y...I see that there are 2,000,000 others that fit under that category according to the NY Times on Dec 24th, 1965 (I imagine some of those recieved an exemption due to having dependants*, like Frazier who also got reclassified from 1-Y to 1-A). Exactly one week later the Times mention that the Selective Services, due to "manpower needs", were planning to restore the Korean Draft Rule, which made college students eligible for the draft and apparently that's exactly what they did...


"To protest U.S. policy in Viet Nam, 16 draft-deferred University of Michigan students took part in a sit-in at the Ann Arbor draft board in 1965. Reaction came swiftly. With the blessing of U.S. Draft Diector Lewis B. Hershey, all 16 students were reclassified 1-A."

-TIME Magazine Feb 10th, 1967


*Out of those 2,000,000 that were reclassified and didn't get a draft exemption (or weren't drafted for a different reason)...I wonder how many of them didn't come back alive?