Muhammad Ali's Surprise Visit To Brixton School
Forty years on from the Rumble in the Jungle, a former school governor tells how he cornered Ali as he passed through London.
Thursday 6 November 2014 13:40, UK
Forty years ago this month, Muhammad Ali checked in to the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane.
He had just regained his heavyweight title from George Foreman in the epic Rumble in the Jungle, but in the lobby, a fresh challenger awaited.
Paul Stephenson has spent his life campaigning for equality. A former member of the Commission for Racial Equality and the Sports Council, in 1974 he had recently been made a governor of Tulse Hill School in Brixton.
His audacious plan was to persuade Ali to pay it a visit.
Now in his 70s, Mr Stephenson told Sky News what happened next.
"I shook his hand and said congratulations Muhammad, and then I thought it might be worth asking if I could get him to come to my school.
"So I asked him, 'now you are in London would you be able to come and let the boys share their congratulations?'
"He looked at me and said, 'I'm tired, and I'm a busy man. How much are you going to pay me?'
"I said 'I haven’t got a dollar'. He said, 'What about a dime'. I said 'I haven't got a dime either'.
"'Man,' he said, 'You've got more nerve than (Joe) Frazier'.
"He said he couldn’t do it straight away, but I should come back tomorrow and we’ll see. So I went back the next day and he was ready to go.
"I had to persuade the school headmaster, who was worried they had never had the whole school together in the hall at one time before.
"I told him, 'you’ve never had Muhammad Ali before'.
"So the whole school was out of lessons, about 1,000 of them, mainly boys, and they were all wondering what was going on.
"I got on stage and said, I've got here a young man who has made a great impact in Africa, he's on his way home to Chicago but he's agreed to come and see you, and wish you the best for what you are doing with your lives.
"When Muhammad walked out from behind the curtains the school erupted, the roof nearly came off. I'd never seen anything like it.
"He stayed for around half an hour, he invited some of the boys on to stage and sparred with them, and then he spoke to the boys about the importance of completing your studies, of having respect for your teachers.
"Then he read out a poem.
"I like your school Mr Stephenson,
"I admire your style,
"But your pay is so low,
"I won’t be back for a while.
"The kids fell about. And to be remembered in verse by Muhammad Ali, well, that was quite something."
On the way back to the Hilton Mr Stephenson gave the champion a tour of the sights, including Buckingham Palace - Ali wanted to meet the Queen - and asked if he would lend his name to a sports association aimed at increasing opportunities for children from the inner city.
Ali agreed, and the Muhammad Ali Sports Development Association was born.
It soon counted Brian Clough, Luther Blissett and John Barnes among its supporters, and offered unprecedented access to sport to children from south London. But Mr Stephenson is in no doubt as to who was the greatest inspiration.
"Muhammad had so much feeling for the dispossessed, the poor and the stricken and he wanted to do something for humanity. I regard him as one of the great humanitarians the world has ever known.
"And for young black poor children, he was like a god, a Roman god. He gave them the will to work hard, to get educated, to meet the world as it stands, and to do what he can to change it for the better."