Next, I interviewed approximately two hundred people who'd known Ali over the years: members of his family, friends, ring opponents, business associates, doctors, world leaders, and others. First, there were Muhammad's personal papers, medical records, cartons of legal and financial documents, newspapers, magazines, and tapes. In researching Ali's life, I proceeded on several levels. The Pulitzer-Prize nominated Hauser wrote the 1991 Ali biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The man behind the towering social and political icon by Thomas Hauser Read More: Exclusive: At Home With Muhammad Ali, the Father Louis, a pretty good counter-puncher, came back with: 'Well, if you were around in those 'Bum of the Month' days, you would'a been on the list.' It was the only time I ever saw Ali speechless. 'Why, you ain't so big, and all you did was fight that 'Bum of the Month Club.''

Gallo, the longtime Daily News columnist and cartoonist, wrote this Ali tribute before he died in 2011.Īli was a heckler to everybody - even to Joe, the man he greatly admired. I saw it turn politicians, captains of industry and Howard Cosell into slack-jawed, Jell-o-kneed sycophants. I saw it dwarf the psyches of absolute-power heads of state like Zaire's Mobuto Seseseko and the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos. I watched Ali press the flesh in Manila and Kuala Lumpur, in Kinshasa and London, in Vegas and New York, saw the magic of his charisma hypnotize Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and enough other entertainment superstars to light up the Hollywood sky.

He won the Associated Press Sports Editors' Red Smith Award in 2000. The 85-year-old Izenberg is a member of the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey and was a 2000 inductee of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. Muhammad Ali: Why they called him 'The Greatest' and why I called him my friend by Jerry Izenberg

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