By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Longtime Chicago broadcaster Chet Coppock is remembering the late Muhammad Ali, who died this past Friday at the age of 74.
Coppock knew Ali and interview him several times throughout his career. Coppock, the host of Notre Dame football pre and post game shows on WLS, told “The Big John Howell Show” that Ali had deep Chicago ties.
MORE: Listen to Chet’s conversation with Big John Howell here.
“Ali was very much a Chicagoan. He lived here, he studied the Islamic faith here, he embraced Elijah Muhammad here in Chicago, he married at least one of his wives I know here in Chicago.”
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons.
He moved to Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood after converting to Islam and affiliating himself with the Chicago based Nation of Islam, but he later split from that group, which was know for it’s anti-white rhetoric.
Chet Coppock also bemoaned the fact that former Mayor Richard J. Daley refused to let Ali fight then heavyweight champion Ernie Terrell in Chicago in 1966, after Ali refused to be drafted during the VIet Nam war.
Coppock told WLS that the late famed Chicago boxing promoter Ben Bentley, tried desperately to get the Terrell fight held at the old International Ampitheater at 43rd and Halsted.
“Ben Bentley, the late Ben Bentley, who later became PR man for the Bulls, tried like the DIckens to have Muhammad fight Terrell at the Ampitheater and he just couldn’t get to first base. He ran into such enormous political opposition. It’s a shame.”
Eventually Daley changed his tune on Ali and actually honored him in a City Hall ceremony in 1974.
Coppock also remembered seeing Ali at a downtown nightclub.
”1973. I’m over the the London House on Wacker Drive. Right by 360 N. Michigan, to see of all people, Chubby Checker perform. About half way through his set, who walks in, unannounced, Muhammad Ali. He gets up on the stage and does the twist with Chubby. Just brought the house down.”
Now that Ali has passed away, Coppock says he deserves to be honored in the city he called home for so many years.
“I would like to see Rahm Emanuel declare a Muhammad Ali day here in Chicago, for a man who at one time was the single most recognized figure on God’s earth.”
@ 2016 WLS-AM News
