Flip Schulke, the renowned magazine photographer, was assigned by Sports Illustrated to meet with Cassius Clay, an 18-year old amateur boxer and self-promoter of great promise. The photographer had never heard of this recent high school graduate, who already had the National Golden Gloves championship and the U.S. Olympic gold medal under his belt.

It was the 1960s, and both Schulke and the young athlete were aware of the power of the photographic medium and of LIFE magazine’s role as its premier vehicle--the magazine was selling more than 3 million copies per week. Clay quickly saw his next match materialize before his eyes when shown a recently published spread in LIFE of Schulke’s photo shoot of waterskiers taken from beneath the water. If Flip had to be reeled in, Clay just found the perfect hook and the perfect story for LIFE. Published in a two-page layout on September 8, 1961, Clay’s powerful hook and jab pictured cutting through a torrent of bubbles, created quite a stir. Already a master of hyperbole, Clay was quoted: “Not to be bragging or anything like that, but they say I am the fastest heavyweight in the ring--that comes from punching in the water”. A new underwater LIFE story, ”A wet way to train for a champion of the world”, begat a new hero, thanks to Flip Schulke’s distinctive vision and a bit of credulity.

The legend behind these pictures will survive as one of the great anecdotes of sports photography, epitomizing the distinguished genius of Ali both inside and outside of the ring. The pictures themselves will survive, not just as a publicity stunt perpetrated on LIFE magazine and the public by an unknowing photographer, but also as a metaphor for the larger-than-life mythical hero and boxing phenomenon that propelled this upstart into the media mainstream and on the path to becoming “The Greatest”.

Schulke has created over 500,000 images in his diverse career. Covering the major historical events of the 20th century, he is best known for his documentation of the Civil Rights Movement- featuring an extensive collection of Martin Luther King pictures, the political life and assassination of John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro’s rise to power, and the development of the U.S. Space & Aeronautics Program. The mid-20th century adage “if you were shooting for LIFE, you were ‘king of the walk’”, applied to Schulke, who still maintains that the sixties defined America. By the seventies, the televised immediacy of live broadcasts of moving images supplanted interest in the picture magazines and the still photography that was their lifeblood. LIFE folded in 1972.

Today, Schulke sees his work as a conduit for a better understanding of the world and its history. Through an active public presence, he hopes his pictures will help make the world a better place for humanity. To this end, Flip Schulke’s archive has been reposited for study at the Center for American History, University of Texas, at Austin.