This is "Actual Factual Gwinnett," a regular column in which I, Tyler Estep, answer reader questions about Gwinnett happenings and history. Read previous editions — like this one explaining that statue on top of the Mall of Georgia — by clicking the hyperlinks at the bottom of this column, where you'll also find information for submitting your own questions.
All three regular readers of this column know that it usually features — and attempts to answer — a burning question from a curious Gwinnettian. In this edition, however, we're taking a break from that to reflect on a brief, special moment in Gwinnett history: the day Muhammad Ali came to town.
It was Feb. 25, 1997, nearly 20 years before his death last week and seven months or so after he'd captivated the world while lighting Atlanta's Olympic torch. The Greatest visited Lawrenceville's Richards Middle School (and Atlanta's Douglass High School, too) as part of a tour promoting what was then his latest book: "Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding."
He was greeted by staff and students, including bowl-cutted athletes and smiling cheerleaders. Already battling the Parkinson's that ultimately claimed his life, Ali was steady but assisted greatly by his wife, Lonnie.
Then-AJC staffer Sarah Zimmerman described the champ's visit to Richards like this, in part:
Ali remained seated while his wife, Lonnie, stood at a podium and fielded questions from 1,300 students sitting on the gym floor. Ali's answers were audible only to those sitting closest to him. His wife repeated his answers for the crowd.
Too young to remember Ali as a heavyweight boxing champion, the students know him as the man who lit the Olympic caldron in Atlanta.
"How did it feel to light the flame?" one student asked.
"Nervous, but very proud, " he replied.
Another student wanted to know which fight was Ali's hardest. Ali's first response was Smokin' Joe Frazier. Then he added, "My first wife."
Ali lived a momentous, often tumultuous life, and his visit to metro Atlanta that day was but a blip. But he left an impact, as only he could. Steve Hummer, another esteemed AJC colleague, ended his poignant dispatch from the day with a quote from Thomas Hauser, who co-authored Ali's book.
"When Muhammad smiles, " Hauser said, "he makes you happy."
Ali will be buried Friday in his hometown of Louisivlle, Kentucky.
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I, Tyler Estep, am a staff writer with the AJC and a Gwinnett County native. To submit “Actual Factual Gwinnett” questions, contact me at tyler.estep@coxinc.com, @ByTylerEstep on Twitter or via the form below.
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