Brush with HOF fame...

[Orions father]

My very first and most memorable to me was meeting Muhammad Ali as a young kid in the late 70's. My father is a big time boxing fan. He was a Golden Gloves referee and always went to the big fights in Vegas. Muhammad Ali in my house was like Babe Ruth or Mickey Mantle in most others. It was 1979 or 1980 and my mom, sister and I were staying in San Diego for the weekend. We went down one morning for breakfast at the motels restaurant. After a few minutes my mom told me to look two tables over, there was The Champ. He was eating breakfast with 3 other people. My mom took us over to his table to get an autograph. After we got to his table, he looked at my and said "Do you want to box kid?" It was a mixture of fear and jubilation to the young me. I didnt wash my hand for a week after calming down and shaking his hand. Altough the napkin which I got his auto on has been destroyed from showing it off and keeping in my drawer, the memory will always stay. Looking back, he could have not been nicer. We interupted his meal and he was nothing but a class act.