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N.Y. woman shares cherished tape of Muhammad Ali from 1967
Back in 1967, a ninth-grader from New York with aspirations of becoming a sports reporter showed the gumption and pluck needed for that field when she tracked down Muhammad Ali to get his voice on tape.
Priscilla Konecky has treasured that tiny reel-to-reel tape ever since she made it at 14 years old. Now, as thousands gather in Kentucky to bid farewell to the champ, she is sharing the two-minute recording exclusively with Time Warner Cable News NY1.
“Testing, testing, testing,” the tape begins. “This is Muhammad Ali, speaking to you one day, March the 21st, one day before one of the greatest heavyweight title fights there will be held in the history of boxing.”
Konecky, now a dentist in Manhattan, had trekked to the old Madison Square Garden with a friend to get an interview with Ali on the eve of his now legendary bout with Zora Folley. It would turn out to be Ali’s last fight before his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War and subsequent three-year suspension from professional boxing.
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The teens were attending a junior high school in Manhattan’s East Village and wanted to land an interview for the school paper.
They were redirected to a hotel restaurant across the street, where they were told Ali might show up. Ali’s manager at the time, Angelo Dundee, told the girls that the boxer could not do an interview but could speak into the tape recorder they brought with them. Konecky asked Ali to do so when he showed up, and the champ agreed.
“I turned on the tape recorder, and of course it didn’t work,” Konecky told NY1. “He said, ‘Let me see the tape recorder.’ He took it and opened up the back of it. And he got it to work.”
He spoke into her recorder with a bit of the magic that made Ali one of the most endearing athletes of his era — a mix of arrogance, playfulness and humor.
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“This will be my ninth title defense. I plan on giving Zora Folley a good whipping,” Ali said. “Never bet against me, because I never lose.”
He then asked the girls for their names and said, “Tina and Priscilla are two of my loyal fans. I’m sure they’ve bet their last dime on me. I cannot let them down … This is Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion of the world, speaking to you from the Midtown Motor Inn motel just after a salmon sandwich.”
On Friday, Ali’s body will be laid to rest at Cave Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. He died a week ago at age 74.
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