Howard Cosell was born on March 25th, 1918 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. He graduated law school and practiced it before becoming a sports writer and television reporter in New York City. He covered all sports, but his claim to fame began when he met Muhammad Ali.
Ali and Cosell were an odd couple from the start. But the pompous and often annoying Cosell had a rapport with the fighter, and their interviews became more and more popular with each one. Cosell was also in Ali’s corner when he refused to accept induction into the army in 1967, and decided to fight his case legally. He was stripped of his championship belts because of his Muslim beliefs, and much of the sports world saw him as a traitor to his country. That certainly solidified what was a strange but real friendship.
Although he would come to later fame as one of the voices of ABC’s Monday Night Football, Howard first gained national prominence as the other half of the Ali-Cosell show. He never lost his loud mouth and arrogant cockiness, and to many he is still known as ‘The Mouth that Roared.’
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