Celebrity Fight Night continues Ali’s greatness

 

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 3/29/2007

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — I’ve been in Arizona covering the NFL March owners’ meetings, Major League Baseball spring training, and a Timberwolves game against the Phoenix Suns, a game the Timberwolves lost although Garnett scored 30 points and had 16 rebounds. On Saturday night, March 24, my son Larry Jr. of the Arizona Cardinals and I were invited to attend an awesome event called Celebrity Fight Night XIII at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa.

The event was established to promote ongoing efforts to eliminate sickness and poverty. Celebrity Fight Night Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that continues to support the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix by providing free treatment and medicine for people of all ages regardless of their ability to pay.

Just in case you need to be reminded, there will never be another Muhammad Ali. That’s the man who started out as Cassius Clay and took the heavyweight title on February 25, 1964, from Sonny Liston nine days after he changed his name to Muhammad Ali and later won his religious belief battle with the Supreme Court.

He is still the greatest, and this event continues to prove it. Before last Saturday’s event, Celebrity Fight Night had raised over $38 million. And on this night, several thousands of people — the biggest and richest — came from around the world because the champ asked them to.

Will you ever forget where you were in 1974 when Ali shocked the world and beat George Foreman? Or In 1975, “The Thriller in Manila ,” the epic third fight when Ali beat Joe Frazier again?

It is great to see that people show their support for Ali and his wife Lonnie by giving. The program was hosted by Reba McEntire, and among the award presenters were Emmitt Smith and Billy Crystal. The 2007 Muhammad Ali Awards were presented to John Elway, Steve Nash, Sharon Stone and Donald Trump. Musical entertainment was provided by David Foster, Carlos De Antonis, Lucia Micarelli, Neil Sedaka, Michael Bublé, and the legendary Diana Ross.

Somebody bid $350,000 to have a power lunch with Donald Trump and $200,000 to have the greatest dinner of all time with the champ, Ali. It was a spectacularly successful event that raised more than $4 million.

 Fitz Notes & Quotes

Going, going, gone… If the Timberwolves miss the playoffs again, they will lose their 2007 number-one draft pick to the Los Angeles Clippers. That also means they may have no shot at winning the NBA lottery and drafting Ohio State ’s Greg Oden or Texas star Kelvin Durant (25 points and 11 rebounds per game, the only player ranked nationally in both scoring and rebounding).

What if new Gophers men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith were able to win an NCAA national title in his first year at Minnesota as he did in Kentucky ? Joel Maturi’s hiring of Smith proves that, after all these years, the U of M is finally committed to a winning men’s basketball program.

Much credit should be given to Minneapolis Urban League CEO and Holy Angels boys’ basketball coach Rev. Clarence Hightower and attorney F. Clayton Tyler. Both men were on the U of M men’s basketball search committee and contacted Smith first to see if he was interested in Minnesota before recommending him to Maturi as the man for the job.

Gophers guard Lawrence McKenzie scored over 1,000 points last season and led the team, averaging 15 points a game. He was also fifth in the Big Ten in three-pointers with 2.57 per game. Tubby Smith will be his fourth head coach since transferring to Minnesota from Oklahoma , following coaches Kelvin Sampson, Dan Monson and Jim Molinari. That might be an NCAA record.

Former Clem Haskins Gophers assistant Milton Barnes is an NBA scout for the Washington Wizards. Former DeLaSalle star Alan Anderson, who graduated from Michigan State , has re-signed with the NBA Charlotte Bobcats.

Former U of M Vice President of Athletics Dr. McKinley Boston is the athletic director at New Mexico State University , which qualified for the 2007 Men’s NˇΩCAA Basketball Tournament. Boston is the man who hired talented men’s basketball coach and former NBA star Reggie Theus as his coach.

That in many ways makes it clear that academic fraud was never proven at Minnesota . Why? Because Boston could never have gotten a job at an NCAA school running an athletic program if academic fraud had been proven to have happened during his watch.

Former NFL Chicago Bears star Robert Thomas kicked the game-winning field goal in the 1973 National Championship game against Alabama . He is now chief justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. His former teammate with the Bears and at Notre Dame and former NFL-MVP with the Vikings, Alan Page, is associate justice in the Minnesota Supreme Court. Page recently was honored by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame with its Distinguished American Award.