Muhammad Ali’s boxing license application for our state is just one of millions of documents or other items housed by our Washington State Archives.

If you like Washington history, you’ll want to check out our new blog series featuring our State Archives and Washington State Library.

For years, we’ve talked about how many interesting, historical and cool items are found in the Archives and State Library. Now, we’re going to prove it by showcasing many of these amazing items and collections through a new poll right here on our blog.

Starting this week, we’ll spotlight three items found in our State Archives each month this year. We’ll describe each item in separate blog posts and provide an image whenever possible. On Friday, we’ll ask you and other blog readers to vote on the Archives item you like best. After a few days, we’ll tally the votes and let you know which Archives treasure is the winner for the month.

The first “Archives contestant” this week is the boxer’s license application (bottom) that Muhammad Ali (whose 70th birthday is Tuesday) submitted to the State Athletic Commission in 1970. Note that the former heavyweight champ used his former name, Cassius Clay, on the application. Also note that he listed former ABC sports broadcasting giant Howard Cosell as a reference.

However, the commission voted 2-1 to deny his application, which would have given Ali a boxing license to fight Joe Frazier.

Boxing bonus: Here is the boxer’s license application (there’s a head photo, too) turned in by heavyweight legend George Foreman in 1970. It’s doubtful that he had even thought about creating the George Foreman Grill back then!

In two weeks, we’ll launch a similar monthly poll for the State Library and its many historic documents, collections, maps, directories and other treasures.  And then we’ll repeat the whole process in February and the remaining months of the year. So make sure to look for these blog posts and then VOTE on your fave!