Muhammad Ali, the Greatest, Gone But Not Forgotten in Chicago

Muhammad Ali, perhaps the most iconic boxing figure in history, died late Friday. He was 74.

Ali suffered from a respiratory problem and was admitted to a Phoenix-area hospital Thursday. He has battled Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years.

Ali’s prowess in the ring, the controversial stands he took outside it, and his remarkable personality and charisma made him one of the most recognizable and admired figures of the 20th century.

Ali lived for a time in Chicago, moving to Hyde Park to be close to Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam. He was just a teenager when he first learned of the burgeoning religious movement, he said in his memoir, “The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey.”

“I was still in high school when I first heard about the Nation of Islam,” Ali said. “It was 1959 and I had traveled to Chicago for a Golden Gloves tournament. The Nation of Islam was led by Elijah Muhammad, and what he and his followers were saying about Black pride really got me thinking. Their self-confidence and military discipline also caught my attention. When I went back to school, I tried to do a term paper on them but my teacher wouldn't let me because many White people, and some Blacks as well, thought the Nation of Islam was a pretty scary bunch.”

Ali also got married in Chicago in 1964, raised his children here, and trained here, too, at Coulon's Gym on East 63rd Street.

Mayor Richard J. Daley, "The Boss," even arranged for a Chicago police officer, Howard "Pat" Patterson, to serve as Ali's bodyguard. He couldn't go anywhere without a crowd of admirers forming.

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Ali lived in a South Kenwood mansion on South Woodlawn Avenue and was “often seen riding his motorcycle up and down Lake Shore Drive,” according a University of Chicago piece on famous residents of Hyde Park.

Ali campaigned for Harold Washington, Chicago's first African-American mayor, in 1983, and appeared in Chicago's annual Bud Billiken parade, the largest African-American parade in the United States.

In 1987, Ali, along with manager Jabir Herbert Muhammad, who was a son of Elijah Muhammad, founded Chicago’s largest mosque, Masjid Al-Faatir, at the corner of 47th Street and Woodlawn Avenue.

The mosque was just a few blocks from his home. A native of Kentucky, Ali would live on and off in Chicago for 20 years.

During a Golden Gloves competition at the old Chicago Stadium in the late 1950s, Ali made a strong impression on the other fighters. Chicago boxer and Roseland native Ernie Terrell remembered this moment well.

"Ali got up and said, 'I want every light heavyweight to stand up.' And they did. And he said, 'I just want to tell you, you know who's going to win this thing? It's gonna be me!' He just left us standing there looking at each other. That's the first time I noticed him," Terrell told the Chicago Tribune.

Ali won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome and was just 22 — and still using his birth name, Cassius Clay — when he defeated world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami. Before he beat Liston again in a rematch 15 months later, Clay had converted to Islam, affiliated himself with the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

Ali never fought professionally in Chicago or Illinois, but he was supposed to.

Ali was scheduled to fight Terrell, by this time the WBA heavyweight champion, in 1965 but the event was called off, undoubtedly due to Ali’s indications that he would refuse to serve in the Vietnam War.

Illinois Attorney General William Clark claimed Ali and Terrell had “violated various trivial state laws but in reality Ali’s increasingly militant anti-Vietnam war stance was slowly reducing the available cities for him to continue fighting in,” the Independent reported.

Ali and Terrell eventually met for a bout at the Houston Astrodome.

Ali’s increasingly vocal opposition to the war in Vietnam escalated to the point he was convicted of evading the draft and sentenced to five years in prison. Ali remained free on bond but lost more than three years of his career — his passport was revoked and he was denied a license to box in every single state in the country — while his court case dragged through the appellate process.

The Supreme Court ultimately overturned his conviction in a unanimous ruling.

Ali recaptured the heavyweight championship in 1974. He lost it in a 1978 split decision to Leon Spinks but won it back once again in a rematch with Spinks. Ali retired after the second Spinks fight but made a comeback the following year for a title fight with Larry Holmes. Ali lost by technical knockout in the 11th round.

Ali's star power transcended the sport of boxing, bringing him into personal relationships with the world's greatest singers, leading politicians, entertainers and business people. His accomplishments, activities and dynamic personality made him a cultural icon.

• read Muhammad Ali's Obituary on Patch

Ali played himself in the film “The Greatest,” a 1977 dramatized version of his life, starred in the television movie “Freedom Road,” and appeared on “Diff’rent Strokes.” While he was banned from boxing, Ali starred in the Broadway musical “Buck White” in 1969. Ali also provided his own voice for “I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhammad Ali,” a 1977 cartoon series.

“The series placed Muhammad Ali in his own adventures, some of which dealt with unexpected or unexplained mysteries,” explained the Museum of Uncut Funk. “Ali solved crimes with his entourage, which consisted of his niece Nicky and nephew Damon (voiced by real-life siblings Patrice and Casey Carmichael).”

Ali “has been celebrated not only for his remarkable athletic skills, but for his willingness to speak his mind, and his courage to challenge the status quo,” said the website Biography.

“As the 1960s grew more tumultuous, Ali became a lightning rod for dissent in America,” Thomas Hauser wrote for History Now. “His message of black pride and resistance to white domination was on the cutting edge of the era.”

Ali had seven daughters and two sons.

Today, one of his daughters, Jamillah Ali, lives in Chicago with her husband, Mike Joyce. An attorney, former boxer and St. Leo High School boxing coach, Joyce owns the Celtic Boxing Gym. A son, Muhammad Ali Jr., reportedly had been estranged from his father for much of his life and has been living on Chicago's South Side in Englewood, according to a report in the N.Y. Post.

Contributing: Dennis Robaugh