The Story Behind The Greatest Photograph In Sports History

*Photographer Neil Leifer poses next to his iconic image of Muhammad Ali./Getty Images

FIFTY years ago Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in the first round of their heavyweight title rematch — and Neil Leifer took a photograph.
It was that simple but in so many other ways it wasn’t.
Earlier this year American writer Dave Mondy published fascinating research into arguably the most iconic image in sports history and revealed it would have never been taken if not for a series of extremely fortunate events.
Perhaps the most comical contributing factor to Leifer’s historic snap was he was only in position to take it because a senior photographer had shunted him to that side of the ring. Mondy revealed Sports Illustrated’s Herb Scharfman pulled rank on Leifer — who at the time was just 22 — to claim a spot by the judges’ table that he felt gave him more room to manoeuvre during the fight.
But when Liston fell it left him staring at Ali’s back — you can see him positioned between the champ’s legs in Leifer’s photograph.
“It didn’t matter how good Herbie was that day,” Leifer told Mondy. “He was in the wrong seat.”
Why his ringside angle was the one printed on posters for years to come was because it became the ideal illustration of Ali in his prime.
“This photo shows Ali at the height of his powers,” Leifer told Mondy. “People wanted to remember him at his best.”
But by no means can we put the photograph down to dumb luck. Leifer enjoyed one of the most celebrated careers in sports photography because he had a stroke of genius.
As a boy growing up in New York he would gain free admission to Giants football games by pushing the wheelchairs of handicapped patrons into the stadium and then position himself on the field with the photographers. On his 16th birthday he took several shots of the game winning touchdown in the 1958 NFL championship game and sold them to Sports Illustrated — where he received a job and became a boy wonder.
Leifer would go on to photograph nine summer Olympics, four soccer World Cups, the first 12 Super Bowls and every major heavyweight title fight since 1959. He photographed Ali on 60 different occasions, including all of his biggest fights and 30 one-on-one studio sessions.
But there’s one image that will be remembered forever.
-News Limited