Vintage Bodies

From: ESPN

 Rocky Graziano 

Photograph by Stanley Kurbrick/SK Film Archives/Museum of the City of New Your

The man with the pipes is Rocky boxing Graziano, a middleweight champ who became an American folk hero.  Raised on the streets of New York, he ducked in and out of trouble, spending time in reform school and going AWOL form the Army after punching an officer.  But then Grazziano put his fists to better use, winning the middleweight title in 1947 with sixth-round of  Tony Zale.  This shower scene was shot for Look magazine in 1950 by a photographer whose own  body of work would knock people out: Stanley Kurbrick, the director Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey

 Bobby Riggs 

Photographed by C. Gunther

Yes, Bobby Riggs was a sex symbol--just not in the traditional sense.  A Tennis hustler and former Wimbledon and two-time U.S. Open champion, the 55-year old Riggs revived his tennis career by challenging and beating Margaret Court, the No.-1 ranked female player in the world, on Mother's Day in 1973. (That was the year this photograph was taken.) Riggs victory set the stage for the even bigger, more balley-hooed "Battle of the Sexes" with Billie Jean King on Sept. 20 of '73 in the Astordome, King claimed the $100,000 winter-take-all prize with a straight-three-set-victory, thus destroying the myth that a former male champion could sport a U.S. top-ranked female 26 years younger and still beat her.  But in the years after the match, the rivalry gave way to mutual respect and affection.  Before Riggs died in 1995, King's last words to Rigg's were "I love you."

Everton 

Photographed by Bob Thomas/Getty Images

Everton beat Liverpool 1-0 on August 18, 1984 at Wembly Stadium for the FA charity Shield, a time-honored trophy that seemed appropriately named given that these Everton players decided to take it with them to the post-game bath (L-R) Adrian Heath, John Bailey, Graemed Sharp (center) Kevin Ratcliffe, Neville Southall and Kevin Richardson. The player who scored the goal at the 55-minute mark, though, isn't in the photograph.  That's because he was in the other locker room:  the legendary Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar mistakenly deflected the ball into his own goal.

Joseph William Namath  

Photo by Harry Benson 

There were two faces to Joseph William Namath when Harry Benson, who photographed icons for Life, People and Vanity Fair, snapped this shot in the Jets locker room in 1974.  There was Joe Willie, the incredibly talented quarterback who led Alabama to the nation title in 1964 and shocked the NFL by following through his boast to beat Baltimore Cots in Super Bow III.  Then there was Broadway Joe, the shaggy-haired, fur-wearing sex symbol who basked in the neon lights of Manhattan and did a naughty (for the time) Noxzema shaving commercial with actress Farrah Fawcett. Modesty, thy name was neither.

 Cassisus Clay (Muhammad Ali)

Photographed by Paul Slade/Parris Match/Getty Images 

The Greatest Of All Times was just the brash 22-year-old Cassius Clay when Paul Slade of Paris Match photographed him in training for his February 1964 heavyweight title fight with champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.  Few experts liked Clay's chances,  and white America didn't like him, period.  But Clay's speed and surprising power proved too much for Liston, and his craftiness enabled him to survive the fifth round, when he was temporally blinded by a solution that had been applied to Liston's glove.  When Liston called it quits after the sixth round, it was he and not Clay, who was exposed.

 Paul Nixon 

Photographed by 
David Munder /Popperfoto /Getty Images

The wicket keeper in cricket is much like the catcher in baseball, and there were few better at guarding the stumps and balls than Paul Nixon, seen here after a match for Leichstershire in circa 1994. Nixon, who also was a gifted left handed batsman, retired in August of 2011 after a 23-year career. Known for his daring defense and steady banter, he made headlines with a different sort of revelation: An Indian businessman tried to bribe him to fix and  2010 Leicestershire match. Nixon told him, No soap.

 Arnold Schwarzengger 

Photographed by George Butler/Contract Press Images

Behold the pecs that launched more then 40 films and two terms as governor of California.  They belong, of course, to Arnold Schwarzengger, who in 1973 was in his mid-20's, a bodybuilder and a part-time actor from Thal, Austria, when George Butler captured this image of him at Gold's Gym in Venice, California,  That magnificent physique won Schwarzenegger five Mr. Universe and seven Mr. Olympia titles, and Butler's 1977 documentary, Pumping Iron, propelled him to new monikers:  Conan the Barbarian, the Terminator, Mr Freeze, the Governator.  So it's nice to see him when was the innocent-looking Austrian Oak.