[SIGCIS-Members] NCR315 and Mohammed Ali vs Rocky Marciano

[Alberts, Gerard]

Dear colleagues,
A friendly Dutch journalist picked up on the story of Boxing simulation with the aid of an NCR 315 computer in the late 1960s. It ended with a simulated fight on film between Mohammed Ali and Rocky Marciano. 
Read all about it in the links below. Admitted, it is fun.
It is one of those legends that keeps popping up now and then, hope it is not an "urban legend". Has anyone of you dug deeper into this story?
The question put to me is if there is anything further to say about the computer and programming involved. According to the sources below Hank (Henry II) Meyers headed a small computer service firm and did the programming with support from the NCR firm. That is all I can find, nothing on the specific type of NCR 315 (types ranging from desk size bookkeeping computer to mini-sized mainframe), no specifics of the program developed.
If this was serious computer supported simulation in sports, it must have been a very early instance of this.
Can anybody help me to be of help to this journalist.
Gerard Alberts
Amsterdam
 
Here is the wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Super_Fight

The most elaborate report on it

Boxing Simulation All-Time Heavyweight Champion

is in:

The People's Almanac, David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace, 1975
http://www.trivia-library.com/boxing-all-time-heavyweight-championship-of-the-world/index.htm
 
Here is the small chapter on the computer used
http://www.trivia-library.com/a/boxing-simulation-all-time-heavyweight-champion-part-2-computers-and-production.htm
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20110526/46510415/attachment-0001.htm>