Forty years later, Frazier's win over Ali stands the test of time

JOE HAND remembers the ferocious left hook Joe Frazier launched in the 15th round. Remembers it thundering into Muhammad Ali's jaw. Remembers Ali toppling backward, hitting the canvas with a thud.

"I was shocked that Ali got back up," Hand recalled the other day, sitting by the pool in Belleair Beach, Fla. "I remember the tassels on Ali's shoes. I remember thinking, 'Everybody's got an angle' and that Ali must have thought the tassels made him look faster."

Ali was faster than Frazier, tassels or no tassels. Just not fast enough in the final round of a brutal, primitive fight to avoid that lethal left hook, the one Frazier said he "reached down home" for.

It is 40 years to the day and Hand has vivid memories of what he calls "the greatest sporting event of all time."

He was a cop back then, one of the original investors in Cloverlay, the syndicate of local businessmen who owned shares in Frazier. He looks back in awe, at the furor the fight generated, at the gaudy crowd the fight attracted to Madison Square Garden, at the damage the fight inflicted on both fighters.

"I had a train, an Amtrak train, eight cars," Hand recalled. "To take the Cloverlay people to New York. All the men in tuxedos. Ringside was formal. I had 500 tickets to distribute.

"I remember charging $25 round trip and I still made a fistful of money. I hired two detectives to provide security that night. Told 'em they had to wear suits. Stuffed all the money in their pockets.

"You looked around that night . . . Burt Lancaster, a terrific movie star, was doing color commentary on the broadcast. Frank Sinatra was taking pictures for "Life" magazine. The Kennedys were there. Nixon was there.

"Ringside tickets were $150. I had a ticket for [mayor] Frank Rizzo, ringside. And three more for his staff, not ringside. Rizzo said, 'I can't sit in front of my friends.' He wanted three more ringside seats. There was no way I could get 'em. He handed back his ticket and said there were no hard feelings.

"And then I heard from a Cadillac dealer in Delaware. He wanted two ringside tickets. Get 'em, plus $2,000 and I could come to his showroom and pick out any Cadillac I wanted. Never could get that other ticket.

"Last minute I hear that Leonard Tose and John Taxin need tickets. I come up with two tickets. Tose said, 'Any time you wanna see an Eagles game, call me.' I never went to an Eagles game where I didn't pay my way in. Taxin said, 'Any time you want to eat at Bookbinders it's on me.' I never ate at Bookbinders where I didn't pick up the tab."

Hand remembers Frazier's dark mood leading up to the fight. "He got mean, he got nasty," he said. "I was the guy who showed up bearing bad news.

"He goes to training camp and his phone bill the first month is $500. The Cloverlay people go nuts. They pick me to tell him he can't do that. Here, we were gonna make all this money, and they were worried about a $500 phone bill.

"Then there was the motorcycle, which he loved to ride. They want me to tell him he can't ride it. He gives me the name of a Chevrolet dealer, tells me if he can have a Corvette he'll trade in the motorcycle. He got a $4,000 car for a $600 motorcycle.

"That night, you just knew Frazier would win. All that anger he'd built up from Ali's insults. There was no way in the world Ali could beat him that night.

"When it was over, back in Joe's dressing room, two guys came in and took everything Joe had worn, the green and gold robe, the boxing trunks, the gloves. Left him with a jockstrap and socks. I don't know what happened to all that gear."

He does know what happened to Frazier in the days that followed. "Got home, checked into St. Luke's Hospital," Hand said sadly.

"His blood pressure was sky-high. If it got any higher they said it would cause a stroke.

"I stayed with him through the night. Yank Durham went off on a trip to Europe. Bruce Wright, the attorney, he had someplace to go. I was the only one. He was my friend. It hurt to see him so beat up.

"Both fighters were never the same after that night. I don't see much of Joe but they tell me he's limping, walking with a cane."

There was one more memory, one I'd never heard before. "Cloverlay wanted to build a playground in Beaufort [S.C.] to honor Joe," Hand said. "I talked to the mayor, told him what we had in mind, flew down there.

"I call the mayor, they tell me he'll meet me at Howard Johnson's. He walks in, walks out. I was sitting there with two of Joe's sisters and I figure out later he did not want to sit in a restaurant with two black people.

"I start asking around about how they'll organize the teams to play on the ballfield. They tell me they'll drive around town with a loudspeaker and tell kids when and where to sign up. I ask 'em how many black kids will be on these teams. I don't get a real answer.

"And that day I get a phone call saying maybe I'd better leave town and forget about the playground. I get in my rental car, I see two guys parked nearby. I'm carrying a gun and glad of it because I've got to drive down a dirt road to get to the airport.

"Nothing happened, but the playground never got built."

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