MANSFIELD — Harold Roane will never forget Muhammad Ali’s visit to Mansfield on May 28, 1971.
It’s been nearly 45 years, but Roane has a vivid memory of perhaps the world’s greatest celebrity stopping here for a speaking engagement at Ovalwood Hall on the campus of The Ohio State University-Mansfield. Ali is believed to be one of only two heavyweight champions to ever visit the city, the other was Jim J. Jeffries, who owned the crown from 1899 to 1905.
Ali’s arrival was at the peak of the Vietnam War controversy, and he was at the epicenter of it. Professionally, he had just lost a heavyweight title fight to Joe Frazier in March of that year. But the former champion was still the significant voice of his generation, and an attention magnet due to his 3.5-year ban from the sport for refusing induction into the draft based on religious objections.
Some called him a draft dodger. Others called him a hero. But no one could deny he was the most controversial figure of the era.
When he wasn’t boxing, Ali crisscrossed the world. He was brought here by the OSUM’s Black Culture Club. The visit was reportedly arranged by campus president Arnold Holmes and Harold Dorsey, director of faculty.
Roane, a retired police and firefighter medic who now lives in Sandusky, was a Mansfield Senior product who helped found the Black Culture Club there in 1968.
Richland Source asked Roane to share his recollection of that night, and here are his thoughts:
Ali in Mansfield
Ali, during his talk, joked with the crowd which consisted of about 350 people. Ali was paid $1,500 for the speech which does not seem like very much for a man who had just made $2 million for his boxing match with Joe Frazier on March 8, 1971.
I had a girlfriend who was in attendance named Deborah Wilcox. I remember him joking about my girlfriend’s mother Mrs. Elizabeth Wilcox, who was a black woman very influential in the community. She liked to wear wigs and this night she had on a very light-colored wig. Ali spotted her in the crowd, asked her to stand up and inquired if he could ask her a question.
She said, “Sure.”
He said, “Is it true that blondes have more fun?”
The crowd roared with laughter. At the end of his speech, the P.A. system suddenly began to hum, buzz and make feedback noises. Ali looked at the microphone, shook it a couple times and impromptu said, “I like your school and I like your style, but your system is cheap so I won’t be back for a while.”
Then he opened it up to questions and someone asked what he thought about Joe Frazier, who had just beaten him two months earlier.
Ali said just two words that brought down the house. “He’s ugly!”
Later, while he was talking about something else, he suddenly stopped and said: “Ladies and gentlemen I just noticed that we have a celebrity in the audience. He is sitting in the back-row seat.”
Everybody turned around and Ali said, “I want you to meet the great heavyweight boxer Mr. Joe Frazier. Stand up, Joe.”
Everyone was clapping and looking around. When no one stood up, Ali said, “Oh, excuse me folks, I made a mistake. It’s just someone who looks like Joe Frazier. Excuse me. I’m very sorry, lady.”
That got a huge laugh.
Ali also sang a couple songs. One was called “Black Balloons.” He had a pleasant voice but certainly he was not a trained singer. He did the songs without music accompaniment.
Let me say this about Ali’s perceived style of being loud, brash and a braggart. Ali is actually very quiet and soft-spoken in real life. He spoke so softly you could barely hear him. His wife and entourage did most of the speaking. His over-the-top, loudmouth, wide-eyed raving antics were all publicity stunts. Ali admitted all that “I am the Greatest” stuff was something he learned from watching the flamboyant professional wrestler Gorgeous George, who always claimed he was the greatest wrestler that ever lived.
When he left the campus, the owner of the Park Avenue Burger King (whose name was Chuck Parton) had told my brother-in-law, John McDowell that he would purchase a new 25-inch color television if he could convince Ali to stop in at the restaurant for pictures and publicity.
Johnny, who was a Mansfield police officer, was too intimidated by Ali after the show was over to get up the courage to ask Ali if he would do this favor. He instead asked me to talk to Ali.
As Ali and his group were walking out, I was able to get next to Ali. He never looked at me while I was pitching my talk to get him to go to Burger King for a worthy cause. I thought he was ignoring me but after I got done, he whispered something in the ear of one of the men who were accompanying him and the man said to me, “Ali has about 2 1/2 hours before his flight so he has agreed to make an appearance at the restaurant.”
When we got to the parking lot, Ali said to me, “I want you to ride with me and show the driver the way.”
So I rode in Ali’s limousine with a procession of cars following us from the college branch over to Trimble Avenue and then to Park Avenue West to the Burger King. I remember walking in beside Ali and one man sitting at a table had a Burger King sandwich up to his mouth and was ready to take a first bite when he saw Ali and he just froze with his mouth open and eyes wide open.
Ali ordered two Whoppers and a large drink. I sat at the table with him but I ordered nothing. I couldn’t take my eyes off Ali. Here I was sitting at a table with Muhammad Ali, the idol of my life.
His wife, Khalilah, did not sit at the same table with him, but sat with a couple other women and she had her 2-year-old daughter, Maryum, with her. Being Muslim, I later learned she had certain religious customs she adhered to like walking behind her husband and eating at separate tables.
Ali was a big man and he had a big mouth and the first bite took about a third out of the sandwich. Two more bites and it was done. Same for the second sandwich.
I asked Ali about eating meat that I thought was against his Muslim faith and he said he does not eat pork because it is from an unclean animal but other meats are allowed.
I also looked at his huge hands and he held his hand up against mine and dwarfed it even though I was 6 feet tall and thought I had a large hand and long fingers. Ali took off his wedding ring and said “watch this.” He then put the ring on my middle ring finger and it was way too big.
He joked, “Maybe I should try it on your wrist.”
I noticed the back of both of his hands were heavily scarred and calloused. I asked him about that and he said that came from hundreds maybe thousands of hours punching leather speed bags and the weight bag and from his many amateur and professional fights. He also joked that he used to have pretty hands until he smashed Joe Frazier in his ugly face and now his hands look like Joe’s face.
Ali’s humor was amazing and usually outrageous. He had the whole restaurant laughing at his jokes and antics. He took pictures with the people including one with my brother-in-law, police officer John McDowell, who still was intimidated by the presence of Ali even though John was about 6-foot-4 himself.
Ali and his group was leaving and John hurriedly asked me if I would ask Ali to pose with him in a picture. So, I asked Ali if he would take a picture with my brother-in-law. This was John’s last chance. I knew John wanted the picture to show to his fellow police officers because he had bragged to them all about how he knew Ali personally.
In reality, John had only seen Ali on TV. So, John stood next to Ali for the picture and I took the shot, but before I did, Ali decided to make the shot more interesting. He faced John McDowell and had him assume a fighter’s stance and put one of John’s hands under his chin and had him make a fist — as if John had struck him and Ali threw back his head and had this open-mouthed surprised, wide-eyed look on his face and held it while I took the shot.
Unfortunately, for some reason I kind of bent down a little because both men were much taller than I and I couldn’t get all of their bodies in the shot on this Instant Polaroid land camera.
John was all excited about the prospect of showing this picture to his police buddies and everyone else, but when I peeled the instant photo off as Ali left the building, I had inadvertently cut them both off at the head. All I had was both of them from the neck down.
Johnny was infuriated at me. Even years later he had never forgiven me for that fiasco. If the subject of the picture was brought up years later, John would always say, “I know you did that on purpose.” He would show the picture to his police buddies and at that time I was also on the Mansfield police force and John would claim it was him punching Ali. But of course they would not believe him and just said “Yeah, right John! A headless Ali.”
I also know John’s brother Wayne McDowell, who was a local attorney was present at the restaurant and had someone take a photo of him and Ali.
Ali spent a fair amount of time at the restaurant, joked and shadow-boxed with the customers, took pictures and signed a few autographs. I did not think to ask for one myself. They even sold autographed pictures of Ali at the show that was only $1 apiece. Once again I did not think to get one.
Ali ultimately spent too much time at the restaurant, ran into congested traffic and ended up missing his flight at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
I also communicated with his wife a couple times after that. She actually wrote to me first after the visit.
The owner was good on his word, providing the TV set, and it was donated to the Salvation Army.
