Muhammad Ali, known as “The Louisville Lip” as he began his ascension to boxing greatness, will be celebrated in his Kentucky hometown with ceremonies on Thursday and Friday, a family spokesman said.
A public memorial is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. ET at the Yum Center, a basketball arena in the city where Ali grew up and began his amateur career as a 12-year-old. Information on tickets will be released later. The Yum Center has just more than 22,000 seats.
The service will be streamed live on the website for the Muhammad Ali Center.
All about Muhammad Ali
Spokesman Bob Gunnell said former President Bill Clinton, longtime sportscaster Bryant Gumbel and comedian and close Ali friend Billy Crystal will be among those delivering eulogies.
The immediate family will have a private gathering Thursday. They released a statement Saturday afternoon.
“Muhammad Ali was truly the people’s champion and the celebration will reflect his devotion to people of all races, religions and backgrounds. Muhammad’s extraordinary boxing career only encompassed half of his life. The other half was committed to sharing a message of peace and inclusion with the world. Following his wishes, his funeral will reflect those principles, and be a celebration open to everyone.”
Before the service, Ali’s body will be driven through the streets of Louisville. He will be interred at Cave Hill Cemetery.
Ali, 74, died Friday night at 9:10 MT, the result of septic shock due to unspecified natural causes, Gunnell said.
The three-time heavyweight champion had been at HonorHealth Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, with what Gunnell initially had described as a respiratory issue.
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Ali’s daughter Hana Ali said his children surrounded Ali in his final moments, holding his hands, hugging and kissing him and chanting Islamic prayer. She wrote that some whispered in his ear, “You can go now. We will be okay. We love you. Thank you. You can go back to God now.”
After Ali’s organs failed, his daughter wrote in the tweet, his heart continued to beat for another 30 minutes: “A true testament to the strength of his Spirit and Will!”
Longtime Ali friend John Ramsey, who works for WAVE in Louisville, Kentucky – Ali’s hometown – and who has a radio show on ESPN, was at the hospital with Ali’s family when the boxing legend died.
“When he came into the hospital, we thought, ‘OK, it will be a brief stay’… I think it took a turn for the worse,” he told CNN’s Dan Simon. “But it was unexpected.”
Ramsey said Ali’s wife, Lonnie, called him Friday morning, saying Ali’s health was deteriorating.
“She said, ‘You might want to come out,’ which I decided to do,” he said.
Tributes from around the world
While touching tributes to Ali were pouring in from world leaders, fellow athletes and just regular folk, the boxing great had already addressed how he wanted the world to think about him after his death.
In his book “The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life’s Journey,” Ali said he wanted to be remembered as “a man who won the heavyweight title three times, who was humorous, and who treated everyone right. As a man who never looked down on those who looked up to him, and who helped as many people as he could. As a man who stood up for his beliefs no matter what. As a man who tried to unite all humankind through faith and love.”
All about Muhammad Ali
He added, ” And if all that’s too much, then I guess I’d settle for being remembered only as a great boxer who became a leader and a champion of his people, And I wouldn’t even mind if folks forgot how pretty I was.”
President Barack Obama said he and first lady Michelle Obama mourn Ali’s passing.
“But we’re also grateful to God for how fortunate we are to have known him, if just for a while; for how fortunate we all are that The Greatest chose to grace our time,” the Obamas said in a statement.
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His hometown pauses to reflect
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, at a ceremony honoring Ali on Saturday, said the boxer “lived a life so big and bold, it’s hard to believe that any one man could do everything he did, could be all the things that he became in the course of just one lifetime.”
Fischer added, “Muhammad Ali belongs to the world, but he only has one hometown. The ‘Louisville Lip’ spoke to everyone, but we heard him in a way no one else could – as our brother, our uncle, and our inspiration.”
People started lining up at 2 a.m. Saturday to see his childhood home, which opened as a museum in early May. Memorials piled up on the front steps and guests paid their respects inside to Ali’s brother, Rahaman Ali.
In an interview with CNN, Rahaman Ali said he was very sad because “I won’t see my brother in the flesh anymore. It’s traumatic, I can’t see him anymore. Consolation is that I’ll see him in heaven.”
Rahaman Ali said his last words to his brother, in a phone conversation, were: “‘I will see you tomorrow, Champ. Take care of yourself.’”
Don King, the boxing promoter who was every bit as brash as Ali, told CNN that in his mind Ali will never die.
“His spirit will go on forever,” he said. “He’s just a great human being, a champion of the people, the greatest of all time.”
Even as the former champ battled Parkinson’s disease for his final 32 years, he had the same love for life and people, King said. Parkinson’s, which primarily affects a patient’s movement, is a “progressive disorder of the nervous system,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
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Hours before her famed father passed away, Laila Ali posted a throwback photo of him with her daughter, Sydney, who was born in 2011.
“I love this photo of my father and my daughter Sydney when she was a baby! Thanks for all the love and well wishes. I feel your love and appreciate it!!” Laila Ali, herself a former world champion boxer, wrote.
George Foreman, who Ali defeated in 1974 for the world heavyweight title, wrote on Twitter, “It’s been said it was rope a dope Ali beat me with. (N)o (it was) his beauty that beat me. Most beauty I’ve know(n). loved him.”
Famed promoter Bob Arum wrote on Twitter: “A true great has left us. @MuhammadAli transformed this country and impacted the world with his spirit.”
Mike Tyson, the youngest heavyweight champion in history, said, “God came for his champion. So long great one. @MuhammadAli #TheGreatest #RIP.”
Champion for Parkinson’s families
In recent years, Ali had largely stayed out of the public spotlight. In his last known appearance, he appeared at a Parkinson’s fundraiser April 9 in Phoenix, according to the Arizona Republic. A photo posted by the newspaper showed Ali wearing dark sunglasses.
On the website of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the actor – who also has Parkinson’s – said: “Muhammad was a true legend – a champion in the boxing ring, and a champion for millions of Parkinson’s families. We looked up to him as an example of grace and courage in the face of great challenges.”
Ali was known not only for his athletic prowess but also for his social activism.
He was born in January 1942 as Cassius Clay. He began boxing as an amateur after his bicycle was stolen and a police officer offered to train him. Clay won a gold medal as a light heavyweight at the 1960 Olympics then turned pro, fighting his bout in his hometown.
In 1964 he became heavyweight champion (the youngest ever at the time) with a surprising knockout of Sonny Liston. That year he joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name.
Ali’s sparkling career was interrupted for 3½ years in the 1960s when he refused induction into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and was convicted of draft evasion. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
Ali was prepared to go to prison, King said.
He stood his ground on who he was,” King said. “He’d rather go to jail than break what he believed in.”
During his boxing hiatus, Ali spoke frequently about racism in America.
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NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called Ali a friend and a mentor.
“At a time when blacks who spoke up about injustice were labeled uppity and often arrested under one pretext or another, Muhammad willingly sacrificed the best years of his career to stand tall and fight for what he believed was right,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote on Facebook. “In doing so, he made all Americans, black and white, stand taller. I may be 7’2” but I never felt taller than when standing in his shadow.”
Ali went on to win the heavyweight title twice more before retiring for good in 1981 with a record of 56-5.
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CNN’s Ray Sanchez, Joe Sutton, Madison Park and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.
