Muhammad Ali: A Tribute to the Greatest (16 page)

Meanwhile, as the game progressed, I began to talk with an elderly woman sitting to my left. She was Ellen Stonebreaker, grandmother of the Notre Dame co-captain and middle-linebacker, Mike Stonebreaker. If I had to guess, I’d say she was about eighty. She was charming. And when Notre Dame was on defense, her eyes never left the field. Even Ali noticed the intensity with which she was watching. “Look at that old lady,” he told me. “She’s like a hawk.”

Notre Dame won. Down ten points going into the fourth quarter, they rallied for two late touchdowns capped by an 18-yard scoring pass from Mirer to Adrian Jarrell with 1:40 left to play. But one moment stands out in my mind.

It came in the second half. Ellen Stonebreaker had been sneaking glances at Muhammad for some time. Finally she said to me, “You know something; that boxer is a good looking fellow.”

“Tell her I don’t fool around with white women,” Muhammad advised me. Which I duly reported to Mrs. Stonebreaker, who seemed more bemused than disappointed. However, she did have one request.

“I haven’t done this since I was a young girl,” she acknowledged. “But could you get me that fellow’s autograph.”

I asked how she’d like her name written. She said she’d prefer it if Muhammad used her maiden name. She spelled it for him. He wrote it out, drew a little heart, and signed “Love, Muhammad Ali.”

Then he kissed her.

It was just another day for Muhammad; one that I’m sure he’s long since forgotten. But as is often the case, whenever and wherever he travels, it was a memorable night for everyone around him.

MUHAMMAD ALI: THANKSGIVING 1996

“I’VE GOT A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR”

1996

A
s is his custom, Muhammad Ali awoke shortly after 5:00
A.M.
on Thanksgiving Day. He was in Los Angeles to pursue his latest mission; teaching people how to love.
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is a cause that Ali can wrap himself around.

After washing himself with clear running water, Ali put on clean clothes and said the first of five daily prayers. Then he moved behind his hotel-room desk and began signing bookplates that would be distributed to fans who attended one of several book-signings in the days ahead.

Ali’s weight has been over 250 pounds for several years, and he recently decided to get down to 220. Accordingly, he skipped breakfast as part of his personalized brand of dieting and announced, “This is my third day of not eating, except for one meal a day.” However, as the day progresses, Ali ate pears, apples, and oranges from a large basket of fruit that had been sent to his room by the hotel management.

“And maybe a muffin,” Ali admitted.

Correct that. Several muffins. And chocolate-chip cookies, cheese, and crackers; all before his “one meal of the day”—a large Thanksgiving dinner.

“I’m losing weight because I’m planning a comeback,” Ali said. “On my fifty-fifth birthday, I think I’ll fight the top three heavyweights in the world, one round each, at Madison Square Garden.”

“You’d better get in shape fast,” Muhammad was cautioned. “Your fifty-fifth birthday is in seven weeks.”

“Seven weeks? Maybe I’ll do it when I’m sixty instead.”

At 9:00
A.M.
Pacific Coast time, Ali turned on the television to accommodate yours truly, who wanted to watch the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Detroit Lions. “In my whole life,” he admitted, “I’ve never watched a football game on television from beginning to end. Sometimes I go to the Super Bowl because the people around me want to go, and because of me, they can get in. But the only sports I’m interested in now are big fights. I like watching big fights to see how I’d do if I was in them.”

On the TV screen, Detroit’s Barry Sanders was seen making a particularly shifty move. Muhammad’s eyes widened. “How old is he?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“When I fought Sonny Liston, that man wasn’t even born.”

The Detroit Lions scored a touchdown, and the obligatory end zone dance followed.

“You started that,” I told Ali. “All the dancing and celebrating and showing off started with you.”

“I started the big salaries too. Big salaries started when me and Joe Frazier got $2,500,000 each the first time we fought.”

The Chiefs vanquished the Lions 28-24, at which point the Dallas Cowboys took the field against the Washington Redskins. Meanwhile, Ali had begun turning the pages of a Bible, pointing out contradictions.

“Look at Exodus 33:11 [And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend]. Now look at Exodus 33:20 [And the Lord said, ‘Thou canst not see my face, for there shall be no man see me and live’]. Some people think the Bible is the word of God,” Ali continued. “But in one part of Exodus, it says Moses saw God’s face. And in another part, it says no man can see God and live. How can the word of God be two different things? Here’s another contradiction. John 5:31 [Jesus said, ‘If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.’] Now read John 8:14 [Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true’]. You’re educated. You tell me, is Jesus’s witness true or not true? Heavy, ain’t it?”

Shortly after 2:00
P.M.
, Ali left the hotel to travel to the home of Connye Richardson, a longtime family friend. Richardson lives in Hancock Park, the section of Los Angeles that Ali lived in during his marriage to Veronica Porche.

Ali has mixed feelings about his years in Los Angeles. The period encompassed some of his greatest glories, but it was in Hancock Park that his fortunes began to turn. He was living there when he lost to Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes, and Trevor Berbick. It was in Hancock Park that his health began to fail, his family life [now on solid foundation again] began to unravel, and he felt himself growing old.

Connye Richardson’s home was spacious and comfortable. During the course of the day, twenty family members and friends dropped by. Ali was wearing tan slacks and a white short-sleeved shirt, his still-powerful forearms visible. Thanks to new medication [a combination of Artane and Medapar] his voice was clearer and his face more animated than they have been for several years.

As he often does when he feels at home in someone else’s living room, Muhammad turned on the television. A movie about Vietnam starring Gene Hackman was showing. The last twenty minutes were unremitting violence and gore.

“I made a wise decision when I didn’t go to Vietnam,” Ali told one of the other guests. “All that killing was wrong.”

Then he switched to CNN, which had a brief feature on a presidential pardon given by Bill Clinton to a forty-five-pound turkey. Instead of winding up on someone’s dinner table, the turkey would spend the rest of its years on a petting farm in Virginia.

Ali was asked if he thinks it’s right for people to kill animals to eat when other types of food are available. He considered the issue and responded, “Everything that God made, he made for a purpose. I don’t believe in hunting just to kill an animal. That bothers me. But I think it’s all right to eat animals like turkeys and fish and cows.”

Connye Richardson had been cooking for days, and it seemed as though every one of God’s foods was served. If Muhammad is truly planning to fight again in Madison Square Garden, this wasn’t the place to slim down. But it was a good Thanksgiving. Ali was both happy and in a reflective mood as the day drew to a close.

“God has been good to me,” Muhammad said in the car going back to the hotel. “I’m thankful I’ve got a good wife and nine healthy children. I’m thankful I was three-time heavyweight champion of the world. I’m thankful I live in a country like America. I’m thankful I’ve been able to travel and meet people all over the world. I’m thankful that, even though I haven’t fought for fifteen years, people still remember me. I have a good life. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

FEBRUARY 27, 1997

As noted earlier in this volume, I spent part of 1996 and 1997 traveling around the country with Muhammad Ali, speaking to students about tolerance and understanding. On February 27, 1997, our travels took us to Pensacola, Florida. The plan called for Muhammad and myself to address 7,600 students at the Pensacola Civic Center on the subject of
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. But a group of Christian fundamentalists threatened legal action to halt the event, claiming that our appearance was a plot between a Muslim and a Jew to teach heresy to their children. For several weeks, a controversy raged. Then, inexorably, the community came together in support of our visit. Florida Governor Lawton Chiles attended the assembly and praised its purpose. The event was an enormous success. My own remarks to the students of Pensacola follow.

A
s most of you know, Muhammad Ali and I have co-authored a book about bigotry and prejudice. Early in the book, there’s a statement by Muhammad that has led to some controversy in Pensacola, and I’d like to discuss that quotation with you. Muhammad’s words were as follows:

My mother was a Baptist. She believed Jesus was the son of God, and I don’t believe that. But even though my mother had a religion different from me, I believe that on Judgment Day my mother will be in Heaven. There are Jewish people who lead good lives; and when they die, I believe they’re going to heaven. If you’re a good Muslim, if you’re a good Christian, if you’re a good Jew; it doesn’t matter what religion you are; if you’re a good person, you’ll receive God’s blessing.

The words I just read to you reflect Muhammad’s belief that all people serve the same God; we just serve Him in different ways. Obviously, there are people who disagree with Muhammad’s view. They believe that the only way a person can go to Heaven is to embrace Jesus Christ as his, or her, Savior. That belief is their right. But some people in this community have carried their beliefs a step further by trying to halt this assembly.

I got a telephone call recently from one of these people. She didn’t give her name. Instead, she began by demanding, “How dare you question the word of God?” I told her, “I’m not questioning the word of God. I’m questioning your ability to interpret the word of God for me, because I believe in a loving God, who bestows His blessings upon all people.” That was the end of the conversation, because she hung up.

I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that no one on this stage today is here to challenge what any of you believe insofar as it relates to your own personal religious convictions. I hope you like your religion and are fully satisfied with it. Muhammad and I like our respective religions too. All we ask is that you keep in mind that we all have the same Creator, and all of us have to work to get along. Our message is simple. Let’s understand each other and be tolerant of our differences, whether those differences relate to our religion, the color of our skin, the language we speak, the country we come from, or any of the other sources of diversity that sometimes divide us.

As you go through life, you will find that your education, your jobs, your personal relationships, and your government, are all dependent in varying degree upon the will of others. That’s the nature of living. No one goes through this world on their own. But there’s one area where each of you will have total control over your own destiny. Each and every one of you has complete control over your own moral fiber. That means you can be as bigoted and prejudiced and hateful—or as tolerant and understanding—as you want to be. Hate is ugly. It’s ugly when it’s shouted out on the street. And it’s ugly—it will eat you up and destroy you—when it lies in your heart. So if you hate, let go of it.

It’s unlikely that any of you will ever become as good a fighter as Muhammad Ali or have the same impact on history as Muhammad Ali. But in your own way, each of you can become as good a person as Muhammad Ali. All you have to do is take the best qualities that people like Muhammad have to offer and make them part of your own individual personalities. But don’t stop with famous people. There’s a horrible misconception in our society that just because someone is famous or a big celebrity that that person is a hero or a good role model. And that’s not necessarily the case. Some celebrities are lousy role models.

But if you look around, you’ll find people in your everyday lives who are wonderful role models. I’m sure there are teachers in your schools who care about you and work hard to give you the best education they possibly can. Those teachers are wonderful role models. I would hope that all of you have one or more relatives who love you and provide for you and do everything they can to give you good values. Those relatives are wonderful role models. And whether you know it or not, each of you is a role model. There are kids in grade school who look up to you and want to be like you. Many of you have younger brothers and sisters who feel the same way. And as role models, you young men and women have a responsibility to be the best people you can possibly be.

Focus on what’s best in yourselves. Learn to treat other people with dignity and respect. Learn how to love.

Thank you.

A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE