For years, a pair of red Everlast boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali sat quietly in a private office just outside the Oval Office.

The gloves, with the uncomplicated inscription “For Barack,” were more than just a memento of then-President Barack Obama. They reminded us of resilience.

Soon the audience will have the opportunity to see them up close.

Obama is loaning the gloves to the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, where they will be on display starting in June.

The announcement comes on the anniversary of one of the most iconic nights in sports history: February 25, 1964. Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeated Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion at the age of 22. The upset marked the emergence of a fighter who would change not only boxing, but also the cultural and political landscape surrounding it.

More than sixty years later, Ali’s gloves are a actual reminder of his influence.

For Michael Strautmanis, director of corporate affairs at the Obama Foundation, the gloves carry both personal and historical significance.

“Muhammad Ali is a personal person to everyone,” Strautmanis told ESPN. “I knew what this relationship symbolized was very personal to President Obama. So he kept it close to him.”

Ali’s victory in 1964 was just the beginning. He became known as “The Greatest” not only for his speed and precision, but also for risking the title and enduring public backlash for his beliefs.

“Muhammad Ali’s activism and his skills in the ring complement each other,” Strautmanis said. “He was willing to take punishment in and out of the ring for what he believed in.”

In a 2010 essay and again in a statement after Ali’s death in 2016, Obama reflected on this legacy.

“Muhammad Ali was the Greatest. Period,” Obama wrote. “…Of course, he wasn’t perfect. For all his magic in the ring, he could be reckless with his words, and as his faith evolved, he was full of contradictions. But his wonderful, contagious, even innocent spirit ultimately won him more fans than enemies – perhaps because we hoped to see something of ourselves in him.”

Although the gloves are not associated with a specific fight, Strautmanis describes them as deeply symbolic. For Obama, this example was essential at a time when, as he once joked, he had to “fight it out here in Washington.”

“There were times when I got beat up a little bit,” Obama joked while showing off his gloves in a video posted to Facebook on June 9, 2016, a few days after Ali’s death.

During his presidency, the gloves were displayed in a private room near the Oval Office, beneath an iconic photo of Ali towering over Liston – a photo taken during their May 25, 1965 rematch in Lewiston, Maine. Since Obama left the White House, they have remained in his Washington office, where Strautmanis has seen more of them in recent years.

“I never get tired of it,” he said. “I always stopped and stopped and thought, wow. I’m glad the world will have a chance to experience the same thing.”

Their fresh home at the Obama Presidential Center hints at the role sports will play on the museum campus. The center will feature a full-size NBA-compliant basketball court, as well as other sports-related exhibits and artifacts.

“If one person walks through this museum, sees these gloves and decides they want to be part of something bigger than themselves,” Strautmanis said, “then we have more than done our job.”