In an interview that appears in “Going 15 Rounds With Jerry Izenberg,” the legendary sports columnist shared details from the summer of 1996, when he was tasked to find out if Ali would light the torch for the Opening Ceremony.

By Ed Odeven

Fifty-five years after Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) won a gold medal as a light heavyweight at the 1960 Rome Olympics, their friendship produced a tale for the ages. 

In a 2015 interview, legendary sports columnist Jerry Izenberg dished out the compelling details with a movie director’s eye for memorable scenes. Here’s the story behind the story of Izenberg’s attempt to find out if Ali would light the torch for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics and what transpired the next day.

“I’ll tell you how close we were,” Izenberg said. “When he lit the torch for the Olympics, I called and he had a secretary called Kim out in Berrien Springs, Michigan. He bought (Al) Capone’s old farm.

“I called her up that morning and I said, ‘My paper’s bothering me. Is he going to light the torch? I don’t really care. But they want to know. I wanted to know for one reason: Whoever lit it was going to light it at night, and if it was him … how could this man be chosen?’ 

“Nothing else was gonna change, and I could make (it into) more papers, because you’re always fighting a deadline.’ 

“She said, ‘Jerry, I don’t even know if he’s going to be there,” Izenberg recalled. 

“He’s had an asthma attack.” 

Talk about a fly in the ointment for a columnist on deadline. 

“She’s lying to me. OK,” Izenberg said, “because of a nondisclosure thing.” 

Fast forward to the Opening Ceremony. 

“So I look up and I see him and he’s doing it,” Izenberg said, “and I’m so fuckin’ mad, because now I’ve got to work. I could’ve had an easy night, right? 

“So the next morning I get a phone call — this is how our relationship is — (and) I’m staying at the Holiday Inn, which is about 15 miles outside of town. I get a phone call and this voice says, ‘Fooled you, didn’t I?’

“And I said, ‘Who is this?’ I know who it was, of course. 

“Muhammad.” 

“And I said, ‘Muhammad Who?’ 

“He said, ‘Muhammad Ali, the greatest of all time.’ 

“I said, ‘The Muhammad Ali who told me he never tells a lie because he can’t go to paradise if he does. That Muhammad Ali?’ 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Well, Kim said you were in the hospital,” Izenberg replied. 

“He said, ‘Well, Kim ain’t no Muslim. She can lie.’ 

“And then he says, ‘Come over here.’ 

“Where are you?” 

Ali informed his friend he didn’t know where he was. So his wife, Lonnie, got on the phone. She told Izenberg to stop by the Omni Hotel. 

“We were registered under such-and-such a name,” Izenberg recalled Lonnie Ali saying. 

“Come up, knock on the door and we’ll let you in.” 

He arrives at the hotel. A while later, the two old friends were alone. 

Ali lies down on the bed to rest and they begin talking. 

“Now you can still understand him but you’ve got to a) know who he is; and b) if you know him, get accustomed to his voice,” Izenberg stated. “It always takes you a while to readjust. And he’s going to say about five words, and you are going to have to translate that into a full paragraph.

“And he’s talking to me and he’s talking about the closet, and I think he’s saying someone’s in the closet. I didn’t know what the hell he sees, and he’s mumbling, so I go and open it up. In the closet is the Olympic torch. 

“I bring it back and I hand it to him. He looks at me and he puts it in my hands because he thinks he’s doing a great thing … because he thinks it’s a great thing for me to hold the torch. So I thanked him and I handed the torch back and put it back in the closet. 

“And he shows me he burned his arm lighting the torch. Nobody knew that.” 

Seeing the Opening Ceremony on TV — because of the vast size of the Olympic Stadium while there —Izenberg recalled seeing “sweat coming down his face, and it was hot. But I realize what it is; you know, when he would go to fights at that point, he’d put his hands in his pockets to hide the tremor. But he had no pockets in his sweats. …

“So he’s got his left arm pressed against his body so hard, trying not to shake. And in that concentration, he burned his arm. But he told me about it.”

This excerpt appears in “Going 15 Rounds With Jerry Izenberg.”