Some people thought I was a hero. Some people said that what I did was wrong. But everything I did was according to my conscience. I made a stand all people, not just black people, should have thought about making, because it wasn’t just black people being drafted. The government had a system where the rich man’s son went to college, and the poor man’s son went to war.

Muhammad Ali (65 in January), looking back on his career- and life-altering decision to refuse to go to Vietnam in 1967. Quoted in Dave Zirin’s Edge of Sports on-line column.