Bill Clinton and Orrin Hatch Among Speakers at Muhammad Ali’s Memorial

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/11/us/bill-clinton-orrin-hatch-muhammed-ali.html

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Among the dignitaries who will speak on Friday at Muhammad Ali’s memorial service in Louisville, Ky., such as former President Bill Clinton and the comedian Billy Crystal, is one Washington figure who might be something of a surprise: Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah.

Mr. Ali, the former heavyweight champion, showed up in Mr. Hatch’s office in the Senate one day in 1988, apparently impressed by Mr. Hatch’s performance at some high-profile hearings. A deep friendship was born.

Mr. Ali campaigned in Utah for Mr. Hatch’s re-election in 1988 and attended the Republican National Convention that year at his invitation. The former champion was a participant in golf fund-raising events for a charity organized by Mr. Hatch, and the pair were in frequent contact over the years; Mr. Hatch once had one of the fighter’s championship rings, but he returned it on the advice of the ethics committee.

“I like Orrin,” Mr. Ali told Insight Magazine in 1988. “He’s a nice fella. He’s a capable man and he’s an honest man. And he fights for what he believes in.”

Mr. Hatch, a former Mormon bishop, will be representing the Mormon Church at the interfaith service.

“Muhammad Ali was the toughest of the tough, yet he was also gentle and kind,” Mr. Hatch said upon Mr. Ali’s death. “He could spar with the best of them in the ring, but outside the spotlight, he was meek and mild.”

Mr. Clinton had long called Mr. Ali a friend, a bond first forged when Mr. Clinton was president. After he left the White House, the relationship developed over meals, at awards ceremonies and during other special events.

At a White House party in 2000, Mr. Clinton wrapped the retired champion in a bear hug. In 2005, the former president traveled to Louisville for the dedication of the Muhammad Ali Center, a museum and multicultural venue; three years later, Mr. Ali attended the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

Campaigning for his wife in California last week, Mr. Clinton recalled Mr. Ali’s exuberance in the ring (“Is this guy a boxer or a ballerina?” Mr. Clinton remembered thinking as a boy) and the quiet dignity of his later years, most memorably as the final torchbearer at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

“Once the most graceful, powerful athlete in the world, with his hands shaking, holding on,” Mr. Clinton said. “He did his job.”

In excerpts from his planned eulogy, Mr. Hatch said that, although his friendship with Mr. Ali may have been “puzzling” to some, “where others saw difference, Ali and I saw kinship.”

He added: “We were both dedicated to our families and deeply devoted to our faiths,” and “were both products of humble backgrounds and hardscrabble youth.” But, he continued, “our differences fortified our friendship; they did not define it.”