Growing up in the Era of Ali Part 3

After the Foreman fight,it seemed as if the public perception of Ali was changing. The Ali  haters seemed to be less vocal. In the ring he left little doubt that he was indeed "The Greatest  after beating Foreman and in little over a year later beating Joe Frazier again in the "Thrilla in Manilla"
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Earlier in that year of Ali-Frazier 3,we had witnessed the Fall of Saigon,perhaps more came to realize Ali's statements on the Vietnam War were right. I also believe another factor in the changing perception was those of us who grew up with Ali from childhood were now transitioning into adulthood. At the time of the Thrilla in Manila,I had just entered my twenties.

There were no cries of  "The anti-establishment Ali selling out"when he started appearing on commercials. Besides,where I lived at the time in Park Slope Brooklyn long before gentrification,when Ali declared "I don't want you living with roaches" while hawking D-Con,one still felt as if he was speaking to you because what building in Brookly at that time DIDN'T have a roach problem?

In the summer of 1977,during the New York City blackout I witnessed arson,looting,and the greatest breakdown of order I've ever experienced to date.It occured in the Park Slope neighborhood I was living in,Yet a few months later,when Muhammad Ali beat Earnie Shavers that same neighborhood broke out in a spontaneous demonstration of joy with strangers high fiving each other and passing each other on the streets with shouts of "Ali Ali Ali!"

By now the Muhammad Ali-Howard Cosell confrontations had become legendary.. In Brooklyn,there  was Michael Lanzillotta. He was a tremendous pianist and a great vocalist.The church group we were both part of had a business New Life Service Company. It specialized in vinyl and leather repair,mostly at car dealerships.

For all of Michael's talents elsewhere,a vinyl repairman he was not and neither was I thus we were teamed up together by the bosses in hopes that two people that sucked at it together would be better than two that sucked individually. We did manage to ruin (New York Yankees outfielder) Reggie Jackson's Mercedes seat once,but beyond that we continued to suck and as a result,we didn't make a lot of money at it  Michael and I did generally have a good time driving aroun


One of the things we do while driving around the Boroughs and Long Island,supposedly hustling up work was impersonations. Our best one clearly was our Ali-Cosell impersonation. We made money doing it once on a Brooklyn street corner and even produced a version acceptable to perform as part of a Sunday church service..

Michael Lanzillotta

By the time I moved to Denver in 1980,it was clear Ali was not the fighter he used to be. I couldn't bring myself to watch the Trevor Berbick and Larry Holmes fights. I preferred to remember him for the fighter he was from the time I was 9 years old..

1985...as I'm glancing through the pages of the (now defunct) Rocky Mountain News I notice an ad from ( the now defunct) Dave Cook's Sporting Goods Store in Downtown Denver. Muhammad Ali would be making an appearance!
I knew I had to meet him. At the same time I realized getting to meet him would not be an easy task imagining the large crowd likely to appear.
Step One: Buy his Autobiography The Greatest..figured Ali would be more inclined to sign something with his likeness on it. After stopping a few few bookstores with no luck,I came across a copy at a (now defunct) used bookstore on South Broadway Avenue.

Step Two: Buy a dark suit. Muhammad Ali's bodyguards always wore dark suits. I've always hated wearing suits.In the rare times I have worn them,it has usually been after a strong case of persuasion.Count this as one time where no persuasion was needed,and found a used dark suit that fit at a used clothing store on East Colfax Avenue.

Step Three: It's all about the Timing. I didn't want to arrive at Dave Cooks too early and possibly give away my plan, and yet arriving too late would be a mistake given the crowd.
There are days when everything works out the way you hoped,and on this day I arrived at Dave Cooks moments before Ali's bodyguards began to appear,and as Ali and his entourage entered,I merged with Ali's bodyguards as he moved from the rear of the basement to the front area where a stage was set up. After making a few comments about Sonny Liston,George Foreman and Sugar Ray Leonard and after making a comment about what an honor it was for us to be in his presence,he began to sign autographs.
I have long regarded his autograph as my most valuable possession

Adult Prologue: When she was growing up,one of my daughter's favorite activities was going to the movies. She hated that I found myself bored at some of her favorite movies,and trying to find a movie we would both enjoy was often an exercise in futility. The one movie we did agree upon,albeit for different reasons was Will Smith's portrayal of Ali. I went to the movie prepared to hate it,but came away impressed. Apparently so was Ali.
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It's often said so and so is a "product of his/her generation. I for one feel privileged to have grown up in the era of Ali.

ALI ALI ALI!

Growing up in the Era of Ali Part 2

At the time of the first Ali-Frazier fight,I was attending a small predominantly white prep school. I was one of ten black students and one of them was my brother. By that time Ali had refused to be drafted,gotten the Supreme Court to rule in his favor and had begun his comeback in the ring,first by beating one 'Great White Hope" in Jerry Quarry.

By that time,I had involved myself in the anti-war Presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy and had been accused by my mom of being a hippie. A lot of hippies could have cared less about Ali's boxing career,but his anti war stance and willingness to stick it to "the man" made Ali a countercultural hero.  By that time,my younger brother had spent time at the Black Muslim mosque established by Ali's original mentor Malcolm X as well as the Hartford headquarters of the Black Panthers.  In our debates with my Mom,from the Joe Louis era,a Johnson-Humphrey Democrat and an active member of mainstream civil rights organizations,my brother would repeat the Ali quote:

"The Draft is about White People sending Black People to fight Yellow People to protect the country they stole from the Red People".

My brother and I had very different temperments and sometimes diffrent opinions but we both agreed Muhammad Ali  was the greatest..
By rhat time,my mom would agree that Ali was "pretty" but often would state aloud "I wish he would just shut his mouth"

It was for that wish to have Ali shut up as well as his Vietnam stance that had most all the white students and a couple outspoken teachers at school in Joe Frazier's corner. It seemed like for this fight,Joe Frazier had become the de facto "Great White Hope". In reality,he was far from it,and a little known fact is that during Ali's exile from boxing,Joe Frazier kept a nearly broke Ali from going under. Joe Frazier's selling point for them? Joe Frazier is a quiet. boxer

Mom wasn't about to let my brothers and I to attend the closed circuit theater showing of the fight thus we were relegated to radio accounts of the fight.

It hurt when Muhammad Ali lost and it was hard dealing with some of the comments in school the day after the fight. After school,it was best to take solace with longtime neighborhood North End friends.


...Fast Forward to January 1974

I had recently become the first freshman student ever elected to the Student Assembly at Alaska Methodist University (Now Alaska Pacific University) located in Anchorage. While I had clear ideas relating to the campus role in shaping a changing Alaska,(Pipeline construction era),I was elected  to the Assembly by conducting a campaign primarily aimed at the many potheads on campus as well as students who were generally indifferent about student government.. My first act  as an Assemblyman.was to open up the Student government office so that students,many who didn't own radios could listen to Ali-Frazier 2. Discovered that Muhammad Ali was a hero to the Yupik,Tlingit,and Athabascan as well.

October 1974

I could have seen the closed circuit showing of the Ali-Foreman fight had I remained in Anchorage.A friend who worked as an usher at the theater had promised to let me in..however personal issues found me back home in Hartford. My brother was also home,taking a break from Howard University,thus all three Daniels brothers once again found themselves gathered around the radio for the fight. We were upstairs,Mom was watching TV downstairs. Just before the fight began,I had gone downstairs to visit her when a bulletin came across stating that former President Richard Nixon was in critical condition due to phlebitis.
I had a sense Foreman may be another Sonny Liston,but didn't want to state it for fear of jinxing Ali.
When, in the early rounda,when Ali was leaning against the ropes,taking Foreman's punches,one brother left the room afraid of a result and feeling similar to that of Ali-Frazier 1.
Then it happened..Ali knocked Foreman out. Hartford Connecticut is thousands of miles away from Kinshash Zaire,but the excitement and noise coming from the Daniels brothers could have easily matched the buzz coming from Kinshasha.
Mom came running upstairs to quiet us down. She was first greeted by me shouting "Ali! Ali! Ali!!"
My brother's last words? "On this day when the White Man's President is down,the Black Man's Champion has risen!"

In the years since,I've had my share of troubles,some of them rather serious. Life can throw some serious punches at times.I've used the Ali-Foreman fight as a means of dealing with those struggles.
When life would be kicking my ass, I'd picture myself as Muhammad Ali up against the ropes enduring George Foreman's best punches before coming back and delivering a knockout blow. Ali Bomaye.

More to come..

Growing Up in the Era of Ali Part 1

I became a fan of Muhammad Ali in 1964,shortly after he beat Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Championship. I was 9 years old,and then many knew him as Cassius Clay.

He called himself "The Greatest" and because of that proud boast, there were many that didn't like him... including my Mom.Joe Louis was the Heavyweight Champion of the 1940's generation,and my Mom was part of that generation. She told me the story of meeting Joe Louis at a segregated Washington D.C. park. Joe Louis may have internally felt the indignation of walking through a segregated park,but gentlemanly Joe Louis was not one to make an issue of it.

My Mom felt it was wrong to be that boastful,but in the eyes of a 9 year old boy,if Mom said something was bad,it had to be good.
His conversion to the Nation of Islam created ripples in my neighborhood because at the same time, Malcolm X was attempting to set up a mosque in this largely black middle class enclave in Hartford Connecticut's predominantly black North End.

Though it would upset my Mom,I began to call myself the Greatest too,and in 1964 while in 3rd and 4th grades,it seemed as if Ali's spirit was protecting me too.
In 3rd and 4th grades,it was a daily occurance in school to be harrassed and teased due to my thick lips.It didn't help matters that I was a terrible athlete or a top notch student and that sense only escalated  after the Kennedy Assassination,when I would declare my aspiration to become President of the United States.That aspiration was considered by many of my classmates as crazy at best,(because no black man could be President) or "acting white". at its cruelest.

There were some kids in the neighborhood that were going to put me in my place. On an afternoon after school on my way to a Cub Scouts meeting,I was approached by three boys asking me if I would play Muhammad Ali fight with them.
At home,my brothers and I would play Muhammad Ali.The only requirement was that I,as the oldest brother got to be Muhammad Ali. That never fared well for my younger brothers,and especially didn't fare well for them if I happened to be bothered by something they did earlier in the day.

Facing these boys would be another matter however. I sensed these boys wanted to hurt me based on the whispering and laughing they were doing on the side.

Their biggest mistake was allowing me to be Muhammad Ali. I can't say I wasn't scared,but the odds were agaisnt Ali in all realms of life as well.
On someone's front yard,the "fight" began One kid out of the three was chosen as my opponent.Based on how he moved,it seemed liked he knew how to fight.

He swung. I moved to block his swing. In my awkward motion,my left elbow caught the kid in the eye and he ran off screaming and crying. His buddies seemed shocked.


I was never teased or bothered by those boys again. It should be remembered that Muhammad Ali had his toughest fighta against left handers like Ken Norton.
In 1964,it was virtually unheard of for a black man to speak confidently of himself or to stand up for oneself.
I began to learn in my own way that if it was good enough for Muhammad Ali not to back down and to stand up for himself,it was good enough for me.

More to come..