Not about the time Ali stopped George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle, or the time Ali fought a brutal fight with Joe Frazier in Manilla, though Kilroy was at both fights. He wanted to talk about Ali, the man. It was 40 years ago Wednesday that Ali won the heavyweight title with an improbable upset of the feared Sonny Liston in Miami. The years have gone by too fast, and the once brash, mouthy young champion now trembles with age and disease and talks sparingly in whispers.

But the memories are fresh for Kilroy, who was at Ali's side for much of his career as his trusted confidante and pal.

His love for Ali is as fresh as the day they met.

"If I was to die today and go to heaven it would be a step down," Kilroy said. "Because my heaven was being with Ali."

That heaven stretched from the jungles of Zaire to the mountains of Pennsylvania, from Ali's triumphant reign as champion to his sad final title fight with Larry Holmes. Kilroy was there most of the way, working as Ali's business manager and enjoying the ride of a lifetime.

"Everyone who was around Muhammad, who was a part of his group, would have taken a bullet for him," Kilroy said. "I felt the same way."

His stories sound bigger than life, because the man he was with was bigger than life. That they are all true only makes them better.

There was the flight to Zaire, where Ali was going to take on the dreaded Foreman in a fight most thought he had little chance of winning. There were several thousand people waiting in the early morning darkness for the plane and, as it landed, Ali turned to Kilroy and asked him who the people of Zaire disliked most.

"I told him white people. He said, 'I can't tell them George Foreman is white,"' Kilroy recalled. "Then I said, 'They don't like the Belgians, who used to rule Zaire."'

Ali stepped out on the tarmac to greet a crowd buzzing with excitement. Calling for quiet, he yelled out:

"George Foreman's a Belgian!"

The crowd erupted, chanting "Ali boma ye, Ali boma ye (Ali, kill him)."

Zaire was now his, and soon Foreman would be, too.

Then there was the time Ali bought a converted bus and drove with his brother, Rahaman, and Kilroy from his training camp in the Poconos to Las Vegas for a fight with Jerry Quarry.

Along the way, Ali pulled over to help a stranded motorist.

"The man looks up and sees Ali and can't believe who it is," Kilroy said. "After Muhammad helped him, he asked where he was going."

"I'm going to Las Vegas to whip Jerry Quarry," Ali thundered.

One February morning in 1978, Ali was in Las Vegas getting ready for what he figured would be an easy title defence against an inexperienced and awkward Leon Spinks. Ali and Kilroy were getting off an elevator at about 4:30 a.m. so Ali could go running at a nearby golf course when they ran into Spinks coming in from a night out on the town, a woman on each arm.

"Champ! How's it going?" Spinks slurred.

Ali wasn't happy with getting up so early to begin with. Now, he headed straight for the hotel coffee shop, planted himself in a booth and refused to go train.

"I'm an Olympic champion, a two-time heavyweight champion, and I have to go through this for him?" Ali said.

Spinks, of course, upset Ali to win the title.

Other stories didn't have happy endings.

Ali was training at his camp in the Poconos for the Foreman fight when a father and son asked if they could meet him. The boy had a skull cap on, and Ali asked him why he was wearing it.

"Ali, I got cancer and lost all my hair," the boy told him.

"Well you're going to beat cancer and I'm going to beat George Foreman," Ali said. "Remember that."

Kilroy took a picture of the boy and Ali, who signed it with the same inscription. A few weeks later, the father called to thank Kilroy and said his son was now in the University of Pennsylvania hospital.

Ali didn't hesitate. He and Kilroy got in the car and drove to the hospital, where Ali went to the boy's bedside and told him again he would beat the cancer.

"He said, 'No champ, I'm going to meet God and tell him I know you and you're my friend,"' Kilroy said.

Three days later, the boy died. Kilroy went to the funeral, and lying next to the boy in the casket was the picture Ali signed.

"He'd go to hospitals from the goodness of his heart," Kilroy said. "He didn't do it for the publicity. He didn't even want anyone to make a fuss over him while he was there. It was just the kind of person he was."

Kilroy saw that kind of thoughtfulness every day. He saw the impact Ali had on people, whether it was stopping traffic while crossing a street in New York or filling hotels in Las Vegas.

"He won his titles with his fists, but he won the world with his heart," Kilroy said.

Kilroy and Ali still talk regularly, and he says Ali is doing well despite the Parkinson's disease that limits his speech and makes his body tremble uncontrollably at times. He worries that Ali travels too much.

It's been 40 years since Ali won the title against Liston, 30 years since he beat Foreman. To some, the memories are as distant as a black-and-white film clip.

Not to Kilroy, who treasures the time he had with his friend.

"He always said, 'Did we have fun?"' Kilroy said. "I'd say, 'Muhammad, we sure did."'

© Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press