“The world needs a champion who always worked to bridge the economic and social divides that threatened a nation he truly loved”, Gumbel said.
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Crystal cracked everyone up with his career-making impersonation of a boastful, fast-talking Ali – and his imitation of Ali’s foil, sportscaster Howard Cosell – and rhapsodized about Ali’s charisma, outspokenness and talent in a way that brought the crowd to its feet.
“Ali and MLK instilled in our generation that you didn’t just have to sit back and do as you were told”, Martin said.
“Before James Brown said, ‘I’m black and I’m proud, ‘ Muhammad Ali said, ‘I’m black and I’m pretty,”‘ Cosby said. He was amusing, he was handsome. As the hearse arrived, police standing shoulder-to-shoulder cleared a path, much like a fighter’s entourage clears his way to the ring. The 16- to 18-car procession passed the Ali Center, went by his childhood home, weaved past Central High where he graduated and then continued to the Columbia Gym where he first trained.
“He was a tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air, a fantastic combination of power and beauty”, comedian Billy Crystal said in an address that had the crowd of about 15,000 laughing at almost every turn. Dinners, charities, whatever he needed.
Others admired him for making Islam more acceptable and giving US Muslims a hero they could share with mainstream America.
“Muhammad indicated that when the end came for him, he wanted to use his life and his death as a teaching moment”.
Around 15,000 people are expected to fill the arena to pay their last respects to Ali, with special guests including Aretha Franklin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Spike Lee, Snoop Dogg, and fellow boxing icons Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman. But they didn’t allow Jews there, so Ali vowed to never run there again. “You had to live in his time”, Crystal said.
They remember what The Champ would say about this very moment. His power toppled the mightest of foes, and his intense light shined on America. We were able to see clearly injustice, inequality, poverty, pride, self-realization, courage, laughter, love, joy and religious freedom for all.
Translating a message from Chief Sidney Hill, of the Onondaga Indian Nation, Chief Oren Lyons, mentioned Ali’s struggle against the United States government – “we know what he was up against, because we’ve had 524 years of survival training ourselves”.
Thousands gathered today to get a glimpse of the funeral procession for Ali, as it made its way to the KFC Yum!
Former US president Bill Clinton, one of the many to deliver a eulogy at the funeral, called Ali “a universal soldier for our common humanity”.
Ali, the most magnetic and controversial athlete of the 20th century, died last Friday at 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
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Three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali will be laid to rest in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday in a service he planned himself.
