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Minnesota Author Remembers Special Friendship With 'The Champ'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Throughout his life time, Muhammad Ali had many friends. But, perhaps none were better than Minnesota's Harvey Mackay.

Mackay spent the final hours of Ali's life, and a whirlwind week, with the family in Louisville.

Since Ali's passing, Mackay has been thinking a lot about his good friend, and after Friday's service he is very reflective on his friend's life.

"When you're around him all the time, with Lonnie and the family in the final hours, it really doesn't hit you until you pick up the paper, until you see the whole world," Mackay said. "Then it really hits."

Mackay attended the memorial service in Louisville. It brought back memories of personal time spent with the Champ.

"Brilliant whit. Loved children. To the airports we'd go private and commercial to pick up those kids, and he'd hug them to death. He loved people. He just wanted to be with people. He wanted people to be with him," Mackay said.

The Ali Mackay new was a draw to everyone around him.

"Washington D.C., we're in a limousine [and] we're in bumper-to-bumper traffic. He says, 'Watch this.' And he all of a sudden rolls down the window and there of course was an African American cab driver across from us. And they just go nuts when they see him. They jump out of their cars, they want to get a picture, anything," Mackay said.

But there were times when Mackay had the last laugh. Such as a lunch the pair had with Larry King.

"She looks at Larry King and the Champ, 'Oh, Mr. Mackay, I've read all of your books. May I have your autograph?' King and the Champ went nuts. Her name was Alice. She walks away. King yells, 'Mam, would you please come back here?' Which she does. 'Don't you know who this is? This is Muhammad Ali,' King is screaming. 'Don't you want his autograph?' [I] Looked at Larry and said 'Larry, you bit it hook line and sinker. I paid her $50 an hour ago to come and ask for my autograph.' She was the catering manager at the Ritz Carlton hotel," Mackay recalls.

That was the kind of relationship Mackay enjoyed with the man he simply referred to as "The Champ"

Over the past two decades they had spent much time together. Mackay, himself a world class author speaker and entrepreneur, understands talent when he sees it.

"He personified, as you know, courage. You could go on with 50 adjectives and describe Muhammad ali, as far as his mind. The trickster, the passion the courage the persistence," he said.

And at the end of this chapter, he knows he was lucky to call Ali a friend.

"I was extraordinarily fortunate. It comes with great gratitude to be able to spend all that time with someone like Muhammad Ali."

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