“There can only be one Muhammad Ali, but his journey from Grand Avenue to global icon serves as a reminder that there are young people with the potential for greatness in the houses and neighborhoods all over our city, our nation, our world”, he said.
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Ali’s close friend Tim Shanahan said: “Muhammad handled any setback with dignity”.
He was never downcast when talking about his death, said Bob Gunnell, an Ali family spokesman.
The memorial service will be held at the city’s basketball arena, which can accommodate a crowd of 22,000 and will be open to the public.
The three-time heavyweight champion had been hospitalized in the Phoenix area since last Monday with respiratory problems and his children had flown in from around the country.
A day after Ali died at age 74 from complications of Parkinson’s disease, a family spokesman outlined plans for Ali’s funeral as people from Manila to Louisville to his adopted home of Arizona mourned the boxing great’s passing. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.theeagleonline.com.ng as the source. He remembers Ali for his “gentle spirit and generosity” but also as a merry magic prankster who would pretend to levitate but reveal to impressed guests how he did it, lest anyone think he was some type of “guru”.
So my experience with Muhammad Ali was inspiring, creating a lifetime memory being in the presence of the greatest of all time.
Mayweather’s great rival Manny Pacquiao said: “Boxing benefited from Muhammad Ali’s talents, but not as much as mankind benefited from his humanity”. Detroit Lions running back Ameer Abdullah said Ali’s devotion to Islam “will always be an inspiration for me”.
When Muhammad Ali refused induction into the American war effort in 1967, he made his point by reminding the nation that no one in Vietnam had ever called him a racial epithet.
Muhammad Ali was a role model, someone who was uncompromising and willing to go to prison and sacrifice his livelihood for his beliefs.
“The kids on the bus would be laughing and Ali would be laughing too”, he recalled at the Grand Avenue home.
Those mourning Muhammad Ali’s death at an interfaith gathering never mentioned the name Donald Trump.
On Friday, the procession – which will see Ali’s coffin paraded through the streets of Louisville – will allow those without tickets for the Islamic service or the public memorial to see their hero one last time.
Ali announced his conversion to the Muslim faith soon after upsetting Liston in 1964 to win the heavyweight crown for the first time. The civil rights establishment had fallen in line on the war, and when Martin Luther King publicly denounced America’s exploits in Vietnam, he was inspired by Ali, as The Nation notes.
Not long after graduating from high school, Ali won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
By mid-afternoon, almost 3,000 people had come through the doors, said Donald Lassere, the center’s president and CEO. He never looked around to see who was listening before he said what he had to say. We’re just like two slaves in that ring. He brought along a photo showing him posing with Ali.
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Amid the flurry of activity by mourners outside the Ali Center, Frank Green, 73, had his own reflective moment about the champ.
