LOUISVILLE, Ky.: The Greatest was laid to rest in his hometown Friday after an all-day send-off that was a lot like Muhammad Ali himself — serious at times, but also exuberant, bracingly political, and funny.
Ali made one final journey through the city he adored via a fist-pumping funeral procession through the streets of Louisville. The burial was followed by a star-studded memorial service where the boxing great was eulogized as a brash and wildly charismatic breaker of racial barriers.
“He was a tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air, a fantastic combination of power and beauty,” comedian Billy Crystal said in an address that had the crowd of about 15,000 laughing.
The more than three-hour memorial capped nearly a full day of mourning in Louisville for Ali, the three-time heavyweight champion of the world who died last week at 74 after battling Parkinson’s disease.
An estimated 100,000 people holding signs and chanting, “Ali! Ali!” lined the streets as a hearse carrying his cherry-red casket made its way past his childhood home to Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery, where a private burial was held.
“He stood up for himself and for us, even when it wasn’t popular,” said Ashia Powell, waiting to catch a glimpse of the funeral procession for the man the city once knew as Cassius Clay, before he converted to Islam and shed what he called his slave name.
The public memorial at the KFC Yum! Center was packed with celebrities, athletes and politicians, including former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Orrin Hatch, director Spike Lee, Browns icon Jim Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger, soccer star David Beckham, Whoopi Goldberg and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
In eulogies that were sometimes laced with political barbs in this presidential campaign season, speaker after speaker paid tribute to Ali as a fearless man of principle, someone who went from being one of the most polarizing figures of the 20th century to one of the most beloved, a source of black pride and symbol of professional excellence.
“I can just hear Muhammad say now, ‘Well, I thought I should be eulogized by at least one president,’ ” Clinton said.
Crystal cracked everyone up with his career-making impersonation of a boastful, fast-talking Ali — and Ali’s foil, sportscaster Howard Cosell — and rhapsodized about the fighter’s charisma, outspokenness and talent in a way that brought the crowd to its feet.
“We’ve seen still photographs of lightning at the moment of impact, ferocious in its strength, magnificent in its elegance. And at the moment of impact, it lights up everything around it so you can see everything clearly,” Crystal said. “Muhammad Ali struck us in the middle of America’s darkest night.”
He added: “Ali forced us to take a look at ourselves. This brash young man thrilled us, angered us, confused us, challenged us, ultimately became a silent messenger of peace and taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people and not walls.”
Kevin Cosby, pastor of a Louisville church, told the crowd that Ali “dared to affirm the power and capacity of African-Americans” and infused them with a “sense of somebodiness.”
Earlier in the day, Ali’s casket, draped with an Islamic tapestry, was loaded into a hearse outside a funeral home. The pallbearers included former boxers Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and actor Will Smith, who played Ali in the movies.