The day Muhammad Ali made magic in Cedar Rapids

On Sunday June 6, 1982, less than 48 hours after Muhammad Ali had a private audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, Ali came to Cedar Rapids for a far-less publicized appearance.

He accepted an invitation to try to help a local non-profit group called the Advisory Committee for Economic Growth, which was trying to raise money for a cultural achievement center for underprivileged youth.

Ali and his exhausted entourage arrived with relatively little fanfare. The event featuring him was hastily assembled and not particularly well-promoted, and no more than 500 people attended at the then-Five Seasons Center.

As part of what was billed the 'Ali Extravaganza”, the sports/cultural legend had a two-round sparring session with Steve Eden. Both had recently retired from boxing. Eden had just begun a career as a Realtor in Cedar Rapids that has continued to this day. He was the National Golden Gloves 178-pound champion in 1980 and had his chance at fighting in that year's Olympics taken by the U.S.' boycott of that year's Games in Moscow.

Ali wore street clothes in the ring. Eden, then 27, got in some shots. But then Ali began taking it a bit more seriously.

'Ali's boxing skills were still intact,” Eden said Saturday. 'He picked me off the ground in the second round with a three- or four-punch combination.”

Before the exhibition, Ali bellowed 'I want Steve!” from his corner, shaking a fist in Eden's direction. But the two became fast friends afterward.

While on his way out of the arena, Ali saw Eden and commanded his traveling party to stop and wait. He talked privately with Eden for a few minutes, then autographed a photo, adding the inscription 'Steve, the next time I'll get you.”

'I still have that picture hanging on my wall in my office,” Eden said Saturday.

Said Ali to then-Gazette sports editor Mike Chapman: 'He's good. I don't know if he ever thought about turning pro, but he could have done pretty good.”

Eden said he didn't harbor a desire for a pro career, and was delighted his last time in a boxing ring was with the man commonly called 'The Greatest” who died Friday at age 74.

'It was one of those days I was thinking ‘Is this real?' ” Eden said. 'Somebody called me and told me I was the last person he ever sparred with. so that could have been the last time in the ring for both of us.”

But there was more to Ali's trip than just a quick boxing exhibition. Chapman served as Ali's corner man for the exhibition, but remembers a softer side of Ali away from the ring just as vividly.

'He went to a local hotel where he was going to do some magic tricks for kids,” Chapman said Saturday.

'He said he would do an hour with the kids and it ended up being like two-and-a-half hours. He was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, doing magic tricks. He wouldn't leave.

'As he was getting ready to go up to his room for a well-deserved rest, one little girl gripped his hand. He looked down at her, a white child perhaps 3 or 4, and she said, ‘Hi, Muhammad' in a very sweet voice.

'He gaped at her, smiled widely, then bent over and picked her up. She hugged him and he giggled, looking at me. ‘Hey, Mr. Newspaperman,' he said, ‘Where is your photographer now? You need to get a picture of this.'

'He held her cheek to cheek. What a lot of people didn't realize about Ali was his generosity and the niceness of the man.”

Chapman is a wrestling historian who has written many books about the sport and other subjects. He is including his encounter with Ali in a book of memoirs he is writing. He said he remembered asking Ali if he knew fellow Olympic gold-medalist Dan Gable.

'The greatest wrestler of alllll time,” Ali said in his throaty voice.

Chapman rode with Ali to the Cedar Rapids airport the next day. He said Ali asked the organizing committee people how they had done financially.

'When Ali was informed they had just about broken even, he asked why they didn't make a profit,” said Chapman. 'They explained they had spent a lot on publicity, tickets for underprivileged kids, and his expenses. He looked at them for a moment … and then he took out the check they had just given him and tore it up. We were all stunned.

'One of the women gasped, and exclaimed, 'Muhammad, you can't do that!”

'Yes I can,' he said. 'It's my way of giving back.”