Archive: When Muhammad Ali lived in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill

Note: This is an archived story originally published Sept. 12, 2000. 

To find a house with as many celebrated residents, one might need to travel to Hollywood. The address is 1835 N. 72nd Street in the Green Hill Farms section of Philadelphia, a short distance from the corner of City Line and Haverford avenues. And if the walls could talk . . .

Don't fault John Cox Jr. and his wife of almost 47 years, Mildred, if they seem only mildly interested in discussing the fact that perhaps the world's most famous athlete ever, Muhammad Ali, once lived within. After all, Kobe Bryant, budding superstar of the world champion Los Angeles Lakers, also has called it home.

"When I look out there," Cox said recently, sitting on a deck and pointing to the 20x40-foot swimming pool, "I don't think about Ali and his kids. I think of Kobe and everyone else. They spent many enjoyable days in there. "

John and Mildred are the parents of Pam Bryant, Kobe's mother. While Pam's husband, Joe Bryant, a product of John Bartram High (class of 1972) and La Salle University, was playing pro basketball in Italy after eight seasons in the NBA, the family would come home each summer and spend it with the Coxes.

Pam's brother, John "Chubby" Cox, also a prominent basketball player (Villanova, University of San Francisco, brief NBA stint), was a senior at Roxborough High in 1973 when his parents purchased the home from Ali's father, Cassius Clay Sr.

Ali had lived in the home, a contemporary split-level, for a little more than a year, beginning in early 1970, before moving to Cherry Hill, N.J.

"We had lived in Parkside," "Chubby" Cox said. "It was nice there, but then to go to that place, phew. . . A guy as famous as him? It was cool to be living in his old house.

"I liked to keep it quiet, though. My closest friends knew I lived there, but that was it. "

John Jr. declined to say how much he paid for the home, but he did say he's been offered as much as $400,000. And it's not even for sale.

"If it was up to me, I would have been out in LA so long ago," he said, smiling. "But my wife, she won't relocate. This is her home. She loves it here. Can't blame her, really, because she has put so much work into it. "

Cox said it was just last year that Ali, a big Lakers fan, was told by Kobe that it was his grandparents who'd bought his home so many years ago. Twice, Cox said, in the years shortly after leaving Philly, Ali had come back to the house to visit.

"By that time, he was married to Veronica Porche," he said. "Back then, we still had some of his furniture here; the house came furnished. But it's all been given away. "

"There was some extravagant stuff," "Chubby" chuckled.

When Ali bought the home, he said he liked its proximity to New York and that his then-wife, Belinda, was very comfortable with it. Some suggested that a side benefit for Ali was that, being in Philly, he'd be better able to torment chief rival Joe Frazier.

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At the time Ali moved from Philly to Jersey, he said he needed a bigger house for Belinda and his kids. He found it at 1121 Winding Drive, off Kresson Road in the Voken Tract section of Cherry Hill.

Ali paid $108,000 for the home. In 1974, a self-made millionaire named Anthony J. Micale, owner of numerous McDonald's restaurants, bought it for $175,000. For the last year he's been trying to sell the 10,000-square-foot, Spanish-style home, set on two wooded acres. The asking price is $1.4 million.

"It's an absolutely gorgeous property," said Patricia Friedrichs of Prudential Fox & Roach Realtors. "It'll always be Muhammad Ali 's house. Ali was great to the kids in the neighborhood, and the people who still live here from that time have wonderful memories of him. "

One is Joyce Conrad, a Winding Drive resident for 40 years.

"We didn't see him that often, but when we did he was very nice and friendly," she said. "If he was out playing basketball, he'd invite the neighborhood kids to join in. I knew of people who'd have out-of-town guests and call Ali. If he was there, he'd tell them all to come over so they could meet him. He was very gracious that way.

"He had a car, a miniature model-T, that he'd drive around the neighborhood with his wife and kids. If my daughter was out there, he'd stop and say, 'C'mon, hop in! '

"The neighborhood would get pretty busy. People would keep driving by, wanting to see the house. Tour buses would come through sometimes. It's much quieter now. "

Ali put the Winding Drive home up for sale not long after his friend, Major B. Coxson, was executed gangland style in his home down the street.

Coxson, a flamboyant ex-con and reputed heroin dealer, befriended Ali in the summer of 1968. Coxson earlier lived in the house on 72nd Street, complete with a reported 22 telephones, and subsequently sold it to Ali, although the process was slightly delayed when it came out that Coxson was not the actual owner.

In 1973, Coxson was one of four ex-cons (among nine candidates total) to run for mayor of Camden. To make himself eligible, he bought a house there and, despite campaigning by Ali, failed in his bid. That June he was murdered inside 1146-A Barbara Drive, which he was renting.

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Ali also owned a third "home" in the area. It was located in Deer Lake, Pa., a mountainous area about eight miles southeast of Pottsville, and it served as a combination training center/retreat/tourist attraction.

He bought the property in 1972 from Bernie Pollack, a wealthy mink farmer who dabbled in managing lesser-known boxers and invited them to use his newly installed training facilities.

Ali trained in Deer Lake (the mailing address is Orwigsburg) for the rest of his career, which ended Dec. 11, 1981, with a loss to Trevor Berbick.

The place is now the Butterfly and Bee Bed and Breakfast, and the owner/proprietor is George Dillman. A karate instructor, Dillman worked with Ali for 3 1/2 years in the mid-'70s, helping him to incorporate karate's discipline into his training sessions.

Ali was incredibly hospitable at Deer Lake. He allowed people - encouraged them, even - to attend his workouts and roam the grounds, and he fed off their energy.

In a visit to the compound in 1978, a reporter found cars with license plates from 17 states in the parking lot. He also saw underlings selling souvenir T-shirts reading " Muhammad Ali Fights Mr. Tooth Decay" and heard Ali roar, "Want to hear the greatest short poem of alllll times?. . .Spinks Stinks! "

At times, the crowds at Deer Lake would grow to such large proportions that Ali would check into a nearby motel in search of peace and quiet. Often, he'd head out for his early-morning jog and find 20 people in sweat suits, wanting to tag along.

Sammy Davis Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, Redd Foxx and Frank Sinatra were among Deer Lake's visitors. So was Elvis.

"People still talk about that up here," Dillman said. "The day Ali and Elvis went antiquing. "

Dillman bought the place from Ali in '97. Abandoned several times over, it had been a home for unwed mothers, a site for church services, a football camp. . .

The B&B has nine individual cabins, and several other cabins are being refurbished into two-bedroom suites. Ali's own living quarters, a three-bedroom cabin, also are being redone.

Dillman has put up a shrine to Ali, which he later will expand, and around the property one still can see some of the huge boulders on which Ali's father painted the names of various boxing immortals.

"I talk with Ali fans all the time," Dillman said. "They like to tell me about the Ali shoes they have or the Ali gloves they have. I probably have the best piece of memorabilia possible - the place where he trained."