The 1960s were a powder keg of tensions in the United States as social issues took precedence with the backdrop of the controversial Vietnam War.
And it was in front of that billowing canvas that Muhammad Ali faced one of the toughest periods of his life.
Banned from boxing after refusing conscription to the United States Army in 1967, the former heavyweight champion did not fight professionally again until 1970, robbing arguably the sport's greatest exponent of some of his peak years.
Tonight on Off The Ball, we wanted to look at that period in his life when he was exiled from boxing and Ger Gilroy spoke to Jerry Izenberg, the renowned sportswriter who has followed Ali throughout his career.
The 85-year-old The Newark Star-Ledger scribe took us back to a trip to a boxing gym in Canada prior to a fight against George Chuvalo, when he and Ali had a rare clash.
"I said to 'I'm going to tell you the truth, Muhammad, a lot of young American boys who do not want to go to Vietnam have been granted political asylum in Canada and honestly I'm here to see when you go back'. It was the only fight we ever had. He jumped off the table, he got in my face and he said 'you should know better ... you of all people should know better, how can you say a thing like that? If I have to go to jail, I'll go to jail. I don't make the rules and I don't abide by them but I'll tell you this - nobody's here to chase me out of the place I was born.' And I walked out of that place convinced that he would have gone to jail and I still believe it today. So his sincerity couldn't be questioned."
Muhammad Ali addresses a gathering at a Black Muslim convention in Chicago (AP Photo/File)
Izenberg also detailed the time when Ali aligned himself with the Nation of Islam and changed his name from Cassius Clay.
"It struck a very fearful and angry chord with white America - and with some of black America. So his association with Elijah Muhammad (the then-leader of the Nation of Islam) was not frowned upon but judged instantly," he said.
Izenberg also detailed the process involved in Ali's drafting and legal arguments over his wish to be recognised as a conscientious objector, as well as the ensuing fallout.
"I remember when Ali couldn't get work, I remember loaning him $20 for the Americana," Izenberg said as he recalled the toughest periods of Ali's exile era including stints on a Broadway musical and lecture tours.
He also detailed the swing in perceptions from the period when Ali was vilified to the current era when he is idolised as one of sport's all-time greats.
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