the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

OOPS 174
fought professionally only seven times before. Spinks’s accomplishment
was so stunning that his victory not only led the sports section of the next
day’s Los Angeles Times, but was the banner-headlined lead story on the
paper’s front page as well. As a news event, the paper’s editors deemed
“Spinks Dethrones Ali” more newsworthy than other front-page stories
that day, including President Jimmy Carter’s efforts to end a nationwide
coal strike, a national PTA report on television violence, and Israel’s objections
to the U.S. decision to sell fighter jets to Arab countries. The
dominant photograph on the page was of a jubilant Spinks on his handlers’
shoulders, his still-wrapped hands thrust into the Las Vegas night air,
flashing the gap-toothed grin that would become his trademark. It was
heady stuff for a twenty-four-year-old former marine who, along with his
brother Michael, had risen from a St. Louis housing project to become a
1976 Olympic gold medalist less than two years before.
Within seven months of winning the heavyweight championship,
though, the gregarious and hard-partying Spinks had burned through
nearly all of the $350,000 he earned for the Ali fight, and apparently had
a good start on the $3.8 million that he was promised for the rematch. He
bought, and eventually wrecked, a fleet of cars that included a Corvette
and a Cadillac, and clad himself in a designer wardrobe that included at
least one mink coat, a double-breasted Christian Dior sport coat, and a
gray felt derby with his initials embroidered in the sweatband—all of
which helped earn him the nickname “Neon Leon.” He mated abundantly,
tipped extravagantly, chartered airplanes, and partnered with his
investment counselor’s father-in-law to back a struggling rock band you’ve
still never heard of. During his brief reign and beyond, the champ was as
much in the news for his traffic accidents and assorted run-ins with the
law as he was for his stewardship of the most coveted title in sports.
Ali snatched that title back from Spinks the following September,
but by then Spinks had already begun his sad slide into the Pantheon of
Wobbly Gods—American sports heroes who had it all, but who managed
their success with the restraint of a sailor on shore leave. Because Leon