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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

Encounter with Ali

December 15,1992

CBS-TV sportscaster Pat Summerall of Lake City once said that the Muhammad Ali-Jean

Pierre Coopman heavy-weight championship fight was the only event he ever covered that caused
him even the slightest embarrassment - the fight was so easy for Ali that he didn’t even take a bath
when it was over. Here’s the story Pat told.

Pat and Tom Brookshier were assigned to announce the fight. CBS paid $1 million for the
rights and sold sixteen commercials for $100,000 each. After all the costs, CBS would make

$50,000. Of course CBS was counting on the fight lasting long enough for them to show all sixteen
commercials to a full audience of viewers.

The day before the fight Pat had talked to Ali who somehow knew how many commercials
had been sold and the details. He told Pat he would try to make sure the network had a good show.

But after the first round of the fight, Ali came over to where Pat and Tom were sitting and said, “You
guys are in trouble with those commercials. This guy is nothing.”

The one-sided fight continued through the fourth round and the crowd started booing the
mismatch so Ali figured he better end it. Before the fifth round began, Ali winked at the announcers,

slipped off a glove and held up five fingers, and said, “I’m going to take him out in five.” And he
did.
The story reminded me that I once had a brief encounter with Ali. I was working for the

Department of Defense in Frankfurt, West Germany, in 1966 when Ali was scheduled to fight the
German champion Karl Mildenberger at Frankfurt Stadium. One evening, about two weeks before

the fight, I went to the Idle Hour Theater on the military post to see a movie and standing right there
at the ticket window was the heavyweight champion of the world! There was nobody else in the line

and I was too surprised to even speak to him. A short time later I saw him inside the theater
watching the movie and eating popcorn and looking very much like any other handsome, well-

conditioned young man.
Two weeks later I was in the audience of thousands when Ali defeated Mildenberger before

a crowd of mostly West Germans who chanted their support for their own national hero, “Mildie”.

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