I used to be one of the writers of That's Incredible! One day, we booked a very special guest star…a man who according to surveys was then the most famous living human being on the face of this planet and also, I believe, the most admired. It was Muhammad Ali.
I don't know if I can possibly convey, in this short a space, how admired this man was and is…how much more important he has been to lives and to history than your average, garden-variety World Heavyweight Champion. I am not even sure I fully understand it, myself. Suffice it to say no other athlete will probably ever be held in the awe and reverence that a generation or two reserves for Muhammad Ali. The day he appeared on our show, everyone was excited. Everyone was concerned that it go well. We always cared about that but we cared a lot more since it was Ali.
During the afternoon rehearsals before he arrived, a little question came up, namely, "How do you address him?" "Muhammad?" "Mr. Ali?" What? (When someone asked me this, I answered, "Sir." It didn't get a laugh and it didn't satisfy anyone.) There had recently been some sort of incident on the news where Ali had snapped at a reporter who addressed him by his first name, as if they were bosom buddies. Everyone, obviously, wanted to avoid a similar situation on our stage.
Our show was hosted by John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton and Cathy Lee Crosby. Fran is no small figure in the Sports Hall of Fame himself. Many of the records he racked up as a Quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings may never be broken. He may not be as singularly-honored in football as Ali has been in boxing but Fran is and was certainly a super-sports star in his own right. He had met our guest on several occasions and always addressed him as a peer, as "Muhammad."
Cathy Lee Crosby had a not-undistinguished sports career of her own in the tennis world. I'm not sure if she said it or if one of her associates said it but it came down to this: If Fran was going to address our guest by his first name, she would, too. Naturally then, John Davidson didn't want to be the only one addressing our guest as Mr. Ali.
I know this sounds trivial but…well, welcome to Television. On the other hand, if you're doing a show, getting someone like Muhammad Ali to drop in and tape an appearance is a major coup and no one wanted to be the one to muck it up. Some members of the crew — like the make-up lady and the Stage Manager — also approached me and asked how they should address the former Heavyweight Champion of the World.
I went for a little walk to try and think of a solution. Outside the studio, I ran into Ali's advance man, whom I had met earlier, and I asked him how people addressed his boss. He gave me a wonderful, brilliant answer…
You just call him, "Champ."
Who could object to that? What man who had ever stepped into a boxing ring and won could be offended at being called "Champ?" I ran back in and told everyone, "Call him Champ!" Everyone liked the notion.
That evening, a limo pulled up and Muhammad Ali got out, looking every inch The Greatest. The man who opened the door for him said, "Good evening, Champ!"
Our producer ran up to greet him: "Great to have you here, Champ!"
John, Fran and Cathy Lee hurried over and welcomed him: "Thanks for coming, Champ!" "It's an honor to have you here, Champ." "Hey, you look great, Champ." Ali seemed pleased but we couldn't be sure.
I spent some time with him going over what he'd be doing on the show and I called him "Champ." He asked, by the way, that he not be too prepped. He said, "It's better if it's spontaneous."
Everyone wanted to meet him and everyone treated him like a superstar. I've been around some pretty famous, successful people and I can't think of one who matched him in sheer luminance. You just felt you were around someone very, very important. Maybe "significant" would be a better word.
I should have thought to keep count of how many times he was called "Champ" but I'm sure it was at least once a minute, maybe twice. All the way out of the building, across the street for dinner at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles and then back to the limo, it was "Champ This" and "Champ That." The only two times his real name was heard during his visit were (a) when the hosts introduced him on the show and (b) when an Associate Producer noted for her huge chest ran over to meet him and I muttered something about the mountains going to Muhammad.
The next day, Ali's advance man came around to pass out some autographed photos that The Champ had promised folks. I asked him if Ali had any reaction to everyone calling him "Champ" like that so abundantly.
"It's funny," Ali's man said. "He was a little touched by it…he took it as everyone's way of saying that even though someone else currently has the belt, as far as we're concerned, you'll always be The Champ."
"That's nice," I said. "Don't ever tell him that everyone called him that because we didn't know what else to call him."
"Hell, no," the guy said. "I want to keep my job and my teeth."