“but I think things really changed after Muhammad Ali.”
I couldn’t agree more. It seemed to me that Ali was the first “super star” athlete to make obnoxious bragging about oneself “respectable” or even admirable. I’m in my 60’s now and I remember being turned off by his behavior when I was a kid.
Ali was the first legitimate sports star to employ the super conceited persona. The first super star to employ that persona, however, was pro wrestler Gorgeous George. Pro wrestling was popular programming when TVs started becoming commonplace in living rooms in the 50s, and George was the most despised villain because of his personality.
In this video Muhammad Ali discusses the influence Gorgeous George had on his persona...