the
andy polin show on esp n six thirty the sports capital
right so i'm getting a little heat about talking about all-time stuff that's
what interests me i hope it interests you and if you're listening to the show it
it probably does so i'm going all-time again and sick it's a great story
that i saw in the post the other day and uh... it hits for me
because
it happened the year that i graduated from high school and that was
mama dolly showing up at the senior prom for parkdale high school
in nineteen seventy six
i don't have a warm spot in my heart for parkdale
i went to bcc uh... wasn't wasn't enough to try out for basketball but i
went to all the games and had a couple friends on the team including a really
close friend and
daniel kaser who is a terrific player but uh... his shot at the buzzer
rimmed out and it would have sent the game to overtime and said part dale one
and they want the state championship and bcc finished second and i take that
with me as i i go through
all the disappointments in my life watching sports that's uh... that's
certainly on the list but on may first nineteen seventy six
parkdale high school held its senior prom
at a hotel in lana
and uh...
you know it's amazing to think about it now
in nineteen seventy six
hotel in lana
was where mama dolly stayed
for his fight with jimmy young at the capital center
uh... you know it's close by prince george's county uh... i don't know if
there's any kind of a tax deduction in setting up there you know seem that
he would stay at a at a first-class hotel i mean not to denigrate this hotel i
don't even know the name of it but uh... it's where parkdale held the senior prom
so uh...
the teacher who was responsible for making sure that everything was set up for
the prom was a young man by the name of leo vondis thirty four years old
and he was grabbing items from his car to help set up not knowing that the event
was taking place at the same hotel
where mama dolly was staying for his fight with jimmy young
and he was stunned
and he said quote as he talked to nicole ashbury about the story uh... in the
post he said at that point i had to figure out what was going on
he asked at the front desk and found out alleys room number
can you imagine that now
that if alley is staying or somebody of that stature alley of course is passed
away but somebody that stature
staying in a hotel you can have it's a hotel room or you hear this
and he got it
well he he walked up there
and he said about ten bodyguards were stationed outside of alleys room
uh... he walked up to one of them and said is there any
chance that i could talk to mister alley on the sponsor of the high school
class here
and we've got a big prom tonight and boy would he make a lot of kids happy if he
just passed through
the bodyguard said okay
now they knew alley and alley was like this
he was he was very very giving
to people and and this was something i think they knew that he would do
so vondis made his pitch to all eight boys as a bit nervous i know i would
have been
uh... mister alley who would you come down and meet a bunch of high school kids
uh... anyway he uh... he asked him uh... to pass through just to shake some
hands and he said that the surprise appearance would make some
wonderful kids very happy to remember where alley was in the culture at this
point
you know he was he was at that point had completed the three fights
with joe frasier but
i believe
i may be wrong about this but i'm not far off
nineteen seventy six he may have been the most famous person in the world
he he may have been because
if you think about tiger woods now
uh... he was certainly on that level and maybe a little bit higher i think
wherever he went the world
he was recognized
and uh... and alley said
can i go like i am
you thinking that like you know he might have to rent a talks
to go see these high school kids and he said no no you can come any way you want
uh... all get down there about eight thirty will go down and uh...
and will just uh... you know have you go through
and uh... they write over the next few hours fondest kept alleys appearance
a secret even from the school's administrators he knew that if word got
around the dally would be there the event which is from having hundreds of
teens to thousands become a security problem
about twelve thousand five hundred people had watched alleys about to retain the
world heavyweight championship
the night before
when i even stayed in town
you seem like you would have
jettison maybe had some appearances to do in washington but the fight it had
already happened so uh... they had twelve thousand five hundred people there
and uh... any any state over
uh... and
he wanted to you know
keep that as much of a secret at as possible said when alley walked into the
ballroom the whole crowd stood up the students rush towards the center of the
stage
uh... and alley went on the stage and spoke to the crowd he told them that it
was wonderful they were graduating from school about the importance of
education alley even turned to uh... the sponsor of vondace during the
speech and said do you box at one point alley pulled a girl up on the stage
he turned to her date and said what are you gonna do soccer
that's great
uh... alley went back to his room shortly after his appearance it's still talked
about that uh... high school reunions
and uh... and when the school people uh... get together that's great that was
great it wasn't the only appearance alley made it a problem
petered bore the coach of the dallas stars of the n h l
as recounted meeting alley during his high school prom and receiving a signed
copy of the quorin
at part dale's prom
uh... the sponsor of on this or recalled looking over at the boxer and being
amazed as a parent he'd gone through fifteen rounds
didn't have a scratch
it didn't look like jimmy young had laid
a punch on it well at that at that point you know alley really should have been
fighting anymore uh... you know it's it's it's sad that he fought until nineteen
eighty one
and the third phrase your fight which would have been
let's see this is may have seventy six of the third phrase your fight was i think
october of seventy five
and if you want to be great
sports books i've ever read
is by dave kindred
who wrote the sound in the fury
and it's about the relationship between mohammed alley
powered co-sell
and he writes about that third fight it's one of the most chilling things
that i've ever read in a in a sports book dave kindred is a is a great great
writer
and he said that uh... in that fight it was so brutal
he said that uh...
alley traded
the one thing that he had left
which was his future
that he knew
he was going to take such a brutal beating
uh... trying to beat
joe frager
that it would it would cost him later in life which it did uh... which he of
course develop parkinson syndrome and
really the last
ten years of his life really couldn't even speak and had tremors and and all
those things but in in nineteen seventy six he was
unbelievably charismatic and to think that uh... today walked in the senior
prom
and then said to one of the kids
i'm taking your girl what are you gonna do about that