While waiting at an unusually empty gate area at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, I looked up from my book--and, standing not 100 feet away, there was Muhammed Ali! He was all by himself. Superficially, he looked great: trim, not fat like most former heavyweight boxers, no gray hair, no obvious marks on his face. But his eyes told a different story: he was a million miles away, lost in space.
I just read this now. What a stark difference from SC's encounter. I never saw Ali in person although he used to train in Deer Lake, PA, which was a little over an hour from me.
I pulled up alongside Joe Frazier once on South Street in Philadelphia. It was the summer of '83 because the Sixers had just won the championship.
