Seahawks coach Ken Norton Jr.’s life changed with his dad’s fights against Muhammad Ali
Sometimes you wouldn’t know it with the criticism he gets — such as this week, after Seattle allowed 532 yards and 33 points while losing to Tennessee.
But the lead coach of the Seahawks’ defense is one of the most accomplished coordinators in football.
Ken Norton Jr. was an All-American linebacker at UCLA. He played the position for 13 seasons in the NFL, for the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers from 1988-2000. He was an All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowl selection. Norton remains the only player to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
And his dad broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw.
Norton’s father is former heavyweight champion of the world Ken Norton. His dad was an ex-Marine. He shattered Ali’s jaw while becoming one of the few men on Earth to ever beat Ali. Norton won the first of their three fights, in 1973.
The father of the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator has gotten renewed attention nationally this week. The boxer Norton was prominent in the third of four two-hour episodes of the acclaimed Ken Burns’ new documentary “Muhammad Ali” airing this week on PBS.
Coach Pete Carroll and other Seahawks have been talking about the film. They’ve been marveling at its insight and details from that era of civil-rights demonstrations, Vietnam War protests — and some of the most classic title fights in the history of sport.
Norton hasn’t been marveling as much. It’s not exactly a revelation to him.
“Oh, yeah. I was there,” Norton said. “I wasn’t a spectator. That was my life.”
The younger Norton calls Ali “a hero.”
“First fight that my father had with him changed our lives,” he said. “It was the fight that changed everything.”
In the early 1970s, Norton’s dad was a single parent. He was mainly as a sparring partner for Joe Frazier, the first man to beat Ali. Norton Sr. made $50 per day to get pounded by Frazier, to prepare the heavyweight champion for his next bout.
On March 31, 1973, Ali gave Norton a fight. It was considered a tune-up for Ali getting a rematch with Frazier.
The first Ali-Norton fight was at the old San Diego Sports Arena, in the city where Norton and his 7-year-old son by the same name lived. Ali entered the ring wearing a fancy white robe with “People’s Choice” on the back that Elvis Presley had given him.
“I’m very grateful. It was very positive,” the younger Norton said of Ali Wednesday. “That fight, my father was just the warm-up for Ali’s next fight.
“Then he surprised him and broke his jaw.”
Yes, Frazier’s sparring partner beat Ali, in Ali’s supposed tune-up for Frazier.
“That was the start of a new life,” Norton Jr. said.
Norton earned $100,000 for that first fight with Ali. His 7-year-old son watched Dad beat Ali on television from a room in the LaJolla Village Inn in north San Diego County.
“My grandmother and I were sitting at the hotel, sitting there waiting on him,” Norton said following the Seahawks’ practice Wednesday for their game Sunday at Minnesota. “He came in (after the fight) with some sunglasses on and some wrappings around his waist. His ribs were pretty sore.”
His dad told them their lives of scraping by had just changed forever.
“Oh, yeah. It was pretty bad,” Norton said. “That’s the story no one knows. They think he was always a contender. He wasn’t always that way.
“Things changed.”
Norton Sr. went on to fight Ali two more times, for even bigger paydays. He lost a split decision in the second fight.
But he and his dad were winning in life.
“He was just the sparring partner that got beat up on for 50 dollars a day. It was hard to raise a family,” Norton Jr. said. “It was just he and I. He was a single parent, so it was tough days in those times being the kid holding the spit bucket all of the time. ...
“Those fights, he made some money. About a hundred-thousand dollars. The second fight, we were able to buy a house and get out of the apartment.
“Things got better.”
Norton Sr.’s third fight against Ali was in September 1976 inside Yankee Stadium. Ali won a controversial unanimous decision. Many at ringside and watching on television believed Norton won that night in New York.
“I thought he won all three of them,” Norton Jr. said, smiling.
“Actually, we all won — because we ate well after fight one. So, it’s all good.”
‘Made me a better parent’
Norton Sr. went on to win the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship in 1978. He retired in 1981, the year his son turned 15. His career record: 42 wins (33 by knockout), seven losses and one draw. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1982.
Norton’s net worth from his boxing career was estimated to be $5 million.
Yes, a life away from $50 a day as a sparring partner.
“It was tough. He had to go to the gym a lot. He was gone an awful lot,” Norton Jr. said. “I was staying with babysitters and the neighbors. A lot of sleepovers with the neighbors. A lot of girlfriends were babysitting.
“But we got through it. I’m better for it. It made me a better parent.”
His son never watched him fight in any of Dad’s 50 pro fights in person.
“It is true. He didn’t like the game, and he knew I would end up doing what he was doing (if he went to his dad’s fights),” Norton said. “He didn’t want me to become a fighter. He wanted me to have to opportunity to decide what I wanted to do for myself. Go to college. He didn’t finish college, so he wanted to make sure I would be able to do all those things he wasn’t able to do.
“I went to the training camps, did all the boxing. I just couldn’t go to the fight.”
For him, his dad fighting wasn’t what boxing is for the rest of us.
It wasn’t entertainment.
“Sometimes it’s different for you guys than being my father,” he said. “If you sit there and watch your dad get hit and beat up...it’s not really something you want your son to see. It’s a little different for father/son than if you were a spectator.”
Ken Norton died Sept. 18, 2013, at age 70 following a series of strokes. His son was in his fourth year as the Seahawks’ linebacker coach, beginning the season Seattle won its only Super Bowl, at the time of his father’s death.
Wagner’s respect
Norton brought up Bobby Wagner in the NFL, as his first linebackers coach when Wagner was a rookie with Seattle in 2012.
Wagner playfully shadow boxes with Norton on the field at Seahawks practices.
The 31-year-old Wagner, whose mother died his freshman year of college when he was at Utah State, says he’s talked often to Norton about his father’s boxing career.
“I’ve definitely talked to him about it, because I’ve lost a parent,” Wagner said. “So I understand talking about that parent is not always the easiest thing, especially when your parent was as successful as his was. Over the years, we’ve talked more and more about it. I’ve become more aware of key moments, like when he passed and certain things like that. ...
“What his dad did was amazing, and what he was able to accomplish was amazing. As a kid, you want to continue your parent’s legacy. The conversations that we have, have been amazing. Even little things he says about not being able to go to the fights or watch the fights, that’s crazy to have your dad be a superstar and you don’t want to go there.
“The conversations have been cool. I’ve done a lot more research as I’ve found out stuff he was doing. It’s impressive.
Wagner says “whenever I’m around him, I try to box Coach Norton.
“He doesn’t ever try to box me back, though.”
Norton knows better.
“No, no,” Norton said. “Early on in Bobby’s career, I taught them all how to box early on. I taught them how to use his feet, use their hands. Throw back jabs and right hands. That was just part of their growth as linebackers.
“He understands.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 7:44 AM.
