Muhammad Ali to Rumble at "Jungle"
The Journal Gazette
January 13, 2003

The Fort Wayne Komets are bringing in a fighter, the self-acclaimed "Greatest of All Time."

Muhammad Ali will be at the Komets' Feb. 8 game at Memorial Coliseum, team officials confirmed Sunday night.

"We are very fortunate to be able to bring in Muhammad Ali, in my opinion the greatest boxing champion of all time and one of the greatest celebrities and greatest known individuals in all of the world, to go to the hockey game that particular evening," Komets president Michael Franke said.

"He will drop the opening puck at center ice. We have already arranged for a special vehicle that will bring him out on the ice. And I also understand he would like to meet the players before the game, which is outstanding."

Ali, a three-time heavyweight champion and gold-medal winner at the 1960 Olympic Games, is known as an activist as much as an athlete. He lit the Olympic torch at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

He suffers from Parkinson's disease and Ali rarely makes public appearances.
Franke said the Komets were able to arrange the visit through local businessman Tom Shears, an acquaintance of Ali. Neither Ali nor his wife, Yolanda, who acts as his business manager, could be reached for comment at their home in Michigan.

"During that night (Feb. 8), we will have some local children who are battling life-threatening diseases right now that Ali will meet with, sit down with and sign autographs with," Franke said. "This is a very big part of his life now. These are the types of things that he likes to do."

Fans will not have direct access to Ali during his visit, when the Komets host the Kalamazoo Wings, Franke said.

"We will bring him out in a specially designed golf cart and let him go around the arena and pay homage to Komets fans that night," Franke said. "He will drop the puck at center ice, and he very much wants to watch the hockey game."

Ali's visit is the latest in a series of highly marketable events for the Komets, who are averaging a UHL-best 6,973 fans per game at the newly renovated Coliseum and are on pace to shattering every one of the 51-year-old team's attendance records. The latest high-profile happening came Sunday, when 40-year-old Steve Fletcher, the franchise's all-time leader in penalty minutes, made a one-game return after six years in retirement.

"From our standpoint, (Ali's visit) is just one more thing to offer the Komet fans," said Scott Sproat, a vice president with the Komets. "Our new philosophy is, come out and you're going to see a great hockey game with good hard-skating and competitive action. But then we're going to try and come up with those one or two little twists now and then that will give you that little more value than you'll get from your traditional sports team."

And the Komets plan on making sure a portion of the money raised through Ali's visit will be donated to charity.

"Any time we have a chance to benefit a good cause in Fort Wayne and raise some money for some local charities, we're all for that," Franke said. "There's a lot of ways to do it, but to do it with this big a statement or bang makes a little bit more of a difference."

The possibility of a visit by Ali has been known by select members of the Komets' staff for almost a month, but the secret was closely guarded. Plans for the visit weren't finalized until Friday, a source said.

"This is unbelievable," Franke said. "This man was my idol growing up in the sports world. My hands get sweaty just thinking about the chance to shake his hand. To me, this is the biggest sports celebrity of all time, in my opinion. This guy is like my idol."