UNSCRIPTED: Muhammad Ali The Night The “Champ was Here” In Our Summit City!

Unscripted By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.”“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it!”Service to others is the rent you pay, for your room here on earth”. ~ Famous Quotes from Muhammad Ali

It was a typical winter night in Fort Wayne, Indiana in February 2003. Nothing really special about that particular evening except....there was an anticipation of something different, something magical was in the air that made this particular evening at the Memorial Coliseum just a little bit different... Let’s look back on what occurred that evening and how it changed our city...

**Before I go any further, I’d like to Thank Fort Wayne’s own Wayman Lindsay for reminding me of this legend being in our city and to pay remembrance to him!)

The Fort Wayne Komets were having their annual Comcast Report Card Night where hundreds, excuse me, thousands of our Fort Wayne area kids are allowed into the game for FREE if they have at least 1 “A” on their report card! What a deal! It was announced that a special “GUEST” was in the building but the over 10,000 people in attendance had no idea just how special this guest was! Right before the puck dropped to start the game, and before the combatants began mixing it up on the ice, the lights dropped, and who appeared in the spotlight on center ice? Arguably the greatest athlete of our generation and a global icon, MUHAMMAD ALI! He’d spent a great part of his day doing what came naturally for him, helping to raise over 15,000 dollars in funds for kids with life threatening diseases through the Three Rivers Literacy Alliance, and Camp Watcha-Wanna-Do of Northern Indiana (whom I’m very familiar with because of Jay Leonard and Jim Casaburo’s tremendous work with a young man I met while being involved with a young man named William...) Reports were that Ali was being his usual playful self with the audience showing off his “Ali Shuffle” and Shadow Boxing (of course) but was really into that evening which made me smile.

Now, what can I say about this man that hasn’t already been said. He was a tremendous fighter, an iconic personality, an endearing father to his kids, and an outspoken man of dignity and principle that made you stand up and take notice whenever he entered a room, arena, or building! In an era where the debate of who’s the Greatest of all time (G.O.A.T) argument in sports always comes up, in my mind there have been many who try to claim that title, names like Jordan, Gretzky, Brady, and Tiger, but for me. It begins and ends with Muhammad Ali!

He couldn’t give us his full theatrical quips this particular evening because he was slowed by his battle with Parkinson’s Disease, but just the fact that he took the time to visit our city and to help our kids made his visit UNFORGETTABLE! As I continued reading the accounts of his visit, I found one thing to be very poignant that he said before leaving. “It was so loud in here tonight, I wished that I could have boxed here” That to me says a lot about our city and how we recognize TRUE greatness! Muhammad Ali died June 3rd, 2016, with over 56 wins and 37 KOs on his resume, One place where he really scored a KO was when he visited our Summit City on a chilly night in February 2003. Many will NEVER forget the night “The Champ Was Here!”