Muhammad Ali

In February 1973, Elvis Presley gave Muhammad Ali a robe embroidered with the words, "The People's Champion. " In return, Ali presented Elvis with a set of boxing gloves inscribed "You're the Greatest. " It's been more than 33 years since "the King" passed away, but the two legends are reunited at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, as part of "Elvis and Ali: American Icons," a dual documentary exhibition. The exhibits, "Elvis at 21: Photographs by Al Wertheimer," and "Muhammad Ali: The making of an icon," chronicle the stars' rise to fame through photography, essays and film.

MUHAMMAD ALI is the Dalai Lama of the post-Sept. 11 world - the beatific sweetheart we call on to sanctify every important moment. He is always available to symbolize, well, whatever the heck you want. The Champ, who may be the world's most famous Muslim and the world's most famous American, is certainly the world's most famous Muslim-American, and he has been using that status for the good. He made news recently by pleading, in Allah's name, for the release of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Recently, I tuned in to a television program, Touched by an Angel, that I seldom watch. The attraction to the Sunday evening show was a cameo appearance by former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. Ali's role was to convey a positive message to a confused youngster. But I was hardly prepared for how much Ali's physical condition had eroded. He has become a tragic figure. Though it wasn't meant to happen, he came off as an extremely depressed version of his former self.

WASHINGTON - With the silent but still imposing Muhammad Ali at their side, the mothers of American hikers Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer on Tuesday beseeched Iran to release their sons after 22 months in prison. Against a banner bearing the words "662 Days Without Freedom," Laura Fattal of Elkins Park and Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey, of Minnesota, stood with the heavyweight boxing icon and U.S. Islamic leaders to stress the pair's innocence. They face trial on charges that they entered Iran illegally for espionage.

REMATCH IN A dinky hockey rink in Lewiston, Maine. Muhammad Ali knocks out Sonny Liston in the first round. Knocks him out with a short, swift punch that is so short, so swift, so lethal that the cynics looked at the slo-mo replay over and over and over, the way they scanned the Zapruder film frame-by-frame. And even then they weren't sure of what they hadn't seen. Ali told them the knockout right hand was an "anchor punch" and that he'd learned it from old-time movie comic Stepin Fetchit, who had learned it from the legendary heavyweight, Jack Johnson.

Jeremiah Shabazz, 70, former minister of Mosque No. 12 of the Philadelphia Nation of Islam and confidant and adviser to Muhammad Ali, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday. It was Mr. Shabazz, a family member said, who in 1960 persuaded boxer Cassius Clay to become a follower of Elijah Muhammad and to become Muhammad Ali. In the late 1970s, Mr. Shabazz joined Ali's entourage, and news accounts at the time refer to him as the boxer's "top aide," "administrative assistant" and "legal counsel," although he had no law degree.

TO MADONNA: Thanks for a great time July Fourth. You always know how to put on a really great show. Next to Muhammad Ali, you're the greatest. Joe Bascio Fairless Hills

Former heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali poses with Democratic mayoral candidate Lucien Blackwell at The Gallery yesterday. Ali gave away sample bags of his potato chips to a crowd at the shopping mall and touted one-time Army boxer and former City Councilman Blackwell as a "good man. "

Roofers Union boss Steve Traitz had a really socko idea for getting out the black vote in 1985 for Democratic district attorney candidate Robert Williams, according to transcripts of secret FBI tape recordings made in his office. He would get disc jockey Jerry Blavat to imitate the voice of former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali on a tape-recording supporting Williams and have it played from sound trucks in black neighborhoods. "I got Jerry Blavat . . . He talks like Muhammad Ali, better than Muhammad Ali," said Traitz, according to a transcript of his conversation on Oct. 17, 1985, shortly before the election.

By Matt Breen He came from simple beginnings as the son of a sharecropper in North Carolina to achieve world-wide fame. And on Monday morning, the life of the humble and reserved Joe Frazier was remembered with elegance and passion in a two-hour ceremony at North Philadelphia's Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. Mr. Frazier, who moved to Philadelphia as a teenager, died Monday of liver cancer. He was 67. Longterm adversary Muhammad Ali paid his respect to the former heavyweight champion, along with fellow boxers Bernard Hopkins, Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks, among other.

THERE ARE A FEW things about the late, great heavyweight champion, Joe Frazier, that everyone seemingly can agree upon. He was a humble and decent man, a fierce competitor and, oh, yeah, about as deserving of having a statue of his likeness placed in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia as any athlete who ever represented the city. In a Daily News survey of readers last June, Frazier - who was 67 when he died of liver cancer on Nov. 7 - placed second behind only Flyers legend Bob Clarke on any to-do list of Philly sports figures worthy of being immortalized in bronze.

You never had to ask Angelo Dundee where he was from. Through all his long life, the countless hours spent in perspiration-scented gyms, the globetrotting glory days with Muhammad Ali, the twilight years as an ambassador for a sport that badly needed one, he never shed South Philly. He never lost the accent, the street savvy, the playfulness and toughness he'd developed growing up near Eighth and Morris Streets. Mr. Dundee, who became nearly as great a boxing legend as the fighters he trained, died Wednesday at 90 in Florida.

Here's what they're saying about the passing Angelo Dundee:   "He had a ball. He lived his life and had a great time. " - Jimmy Dundee, son "To me, he was the greatest ambassador for boxing, the greatest goodwill ambassador in a sport where there's so much animosity and enemies. The guy didn't have an enemy in the world. " - Bruce Trampler, longtime boxing matchmaker "Another great passed yesterday. Angelo Dundee. Your memory lives on. I can only dream to live to 90 years old. " - Mike Tyson, boxer, on Twitter "Angelo Dundee RIP - all time great boxing trainer and a tremendous person.

Angelo Dundee, 90, the brilliant motivator from South Philadelphia who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout, died Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. The genial Dundee, born Angelo Mirena on Aug. 30, 1921, was best known for being in Ali's corner for almost his entire career. But those in boxing also knew him as an ambassador for boxing and a figure of integrity in a sport that often lacked it. He died with his family surrounding him, said his son Jimmy Dundee, but not before attending Ali's 70th birthday bash in Louisville, Ky., last month.

A RECENT editorial deservedly praised the citywide billboard installation of Zoe Strauss' photographs, as part of her exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The article also cited the importance of "non-mural" public art, and specifically questioned the level of city support for the Mural Arts Program. Since my office oversees the city's Percent for Art program and is responsible for conserving and maintaining the vast array of city-owned public art, as well as advocating for and coordinating public-art efforts in general, I would be the first to agree that we need more investment in our public-art collection and new, innovative public-art projects.

Stewardess, crisply: "Fasten your seat belt, Mr. Ali. " Muhammad Ali, eyes twinkling: "Superman don't need no seat belt. " Stewardess, sweetly: "Superman don't need no airplane, either. "   He just turned 70. And what were the odds of that? All those punches, those cruel left hooks, those sledgehammer rights, the awful toll taken by rope-a-dope, that thunderous trilogy with Joe Frazier, and then Parkinson's syndrome to boot.

On the back page of the Nov. 8 Daily News was a picture of Joe Frazier with the headline "Smokin' Joe, 1944-2011. " Eugene Whitaker, then a prisoner at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on State Road, saw the elegant tribute and decided to do even better. Using a bedsheet, Whitaker produced a portrait of the boxing icon that was so meticulous in its detail, it even included a drawing of Frazier's most devastating punch. "I had to have him throw a left hook," said Whitaker, who is now housed at Eagleville Hospital, a rehab facility in Montgomery County.

A spokesman for Muhammad Ali said the former heavyweight champion is "well, happy and carrying on with his daily routine" after being treated for dehydration last month. Spokesman Craig Bankey said in a statement released Friday that Ali was treated Nov. 19, five days after the funeral of Joe Frazier , whom he fought in three epic fights. Bankey said Ali is home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He added that "early reports were blown out of proportion. " Star magazine reported Ali had been hospitalized last month.

Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland ended the United States' 11-year drought in golf's World Cup by shooting a 5-under 67 on Sunday to win by 2 strokes in Hainan, China. The American pair fired six birdies in the alternate-shot final round at Mission Hills Blackstone course to finish at 24-under 264, notching the 24th U.S. win in the history of the tournament. The American victory was the first since Tiger Woods and David Duval claimed the title 11 years ago. The event was annual up until 2009, and this year's tournament was the first in the new biennial format.