The man who “murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick” and was so mean he “made medicine sick,” may no longer be with us in a physical sense, but the late, great Muhammad Ali’s spirit lives in those whose hearts and minds he touched and inspired with his larger than life personality and formidable persona.

Abergavenny man Stuart Rowlands, whose parents Joan and Leslie used used to run the Clytha Arms, and who is now a PR man in Los Angeles, first met Ali in “extraordinary circumstances” not long after he moved to America in 1971.

After working for Island records as part of the PR team behind Tom Jones and Rod Stewart, (who Stuart’s older brother Jonathan managed for nine years), the former King Henry VIII schoolboy made the leap stateside to work with one of the all-time great Hollywood publicists, Shelly Saltman.

Stuart explained, “Shelly was then publicizing Ray Stevens, the Osmond’s, Andy Williams and later on promoted the Evel Knievel Snake River Canyon jump. Andy Williams was a fight fan and his agent Jerry Perenchio persuaded Andy to invest in the first Ali/Frazier promotion. “They had no fight publicist and thereby Shelly landed the gig. Under the Saltman banner we were a trio of publicists. Shelly headed the team handling all ringside PR, my immediate boss Matt Helreich, a former writer for Variety, who had been engaged to Betty Grable, did most of the Hollywood trades and my job was to field interviews and accompany acts to TV and radio stations.”

Stuart recalls the hot summer’s day when he accompanied Shelly into a very over crowded Century Plaza Hotel to meet the champ for the first time.

“There was a sea of people at one end of the lobby with a room leading off it. Shelly kept pushing me through the crowd into the room behind. This was even more jam packed with immaculately tailored black men. In fact, it was wall to wall men – with no women in sight.

“The atmosphere was electric. It was my first big event in the USA and I was nervous and everybody seemed menacing – not surprising as Ali was receiving death threats daily. At this time, he was protected by scores of followers of Elijah Mohammed and his black Muslim movement.

“If my memory is correct – Shelly shouted ‘Champ. I want you to meet Stuart Rowlands he’s working on your campaign.’ A seemingly giant of a man tightly surrounded by other men turned slowly to look at me and said softly, “Is this the man who called me boy!”

The Abergavenny native confesses he was almost paralyzed with fear at being accused of insulting the boxer who “Wrestled with alligators, tussled with a whale, done handcuffed lightning, and thrown thunder in jail.”

Yet Stuart need not have worried, ever the gentleman with a comedian’s wit and a natural habit of putting people at ease, Ali offered his “enormous hand” over about three other people standing between the two of them and looked him straight, well, slightly down in the eyes, shook his hand gently and said, “nice to meet you - looking forward to working with you.”

Fast forward a handful of years to the Spring of 1980, and it was a different Ali, Stuart met in New York, whilst managing the publicity campaign for what he and many other fans of ‘the greatest’ hoped would be the fighter’s last fight.

Stuart told the Chronicle, “Ali’s glory days were past but some of the magic still lingered on and Ali was hoping for a last big pay day against the Easton Assassin, Larry Holmes.”

Waiting for Ali to make an appearance in a suite on the 14th Floor of the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue, Stuart recalls, “I can still remember the hot and humid, almost windowless room that greeted me. The place was packed full of not only with the media but Ali’s entourage and at least a dozen children. It was chaotic with the kids running around and the TV and Radio grips trying to set up lights and microphones. ‘Where’s Ali?’ One of the reporters shouted. ‘Right behind me,’ I lied, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t let me down.”

Stuart explained that Ali had a habit of always being late for every publicity event he was involved with, but “always eventually showed up.”

True to form the great man finally appeared. After answering questions for about an hour regarding the upcoming fight, Ali apparently fell asleep and thus ended the press conference.

Stuart explained, “Sadly, he seemed so unwell, while still trying to convince us all that he was still in his prime. Everybody knew that he was hurting for money and that reminiscent of the final days of the late, great Joe Louis he had lost most if not all of his fortune.

“The Holmes fight was almost a last gasp effort to recoup his losses. However, the life spark was almost gone from one of the best athletes the world has ever seen. To me he was a pale shadow of the fantastic human being that I worked with only a few years earlier in Los Angeles.”

Yet with a fighter’s heart to the end, Ali was always capable of surprising everyone with his joie de vivre.

Stuart revealed, “Ten minutes later the noise of the TV and radio crews wrapping up cable must have woken him up, but Ali still pretended to be asleep.

“If you looked closely you could see him peering around the room at the kids playing. After a couple of minutes, he pulled himself slowly upright as if he were an old age pensioner. He seemed to think that nobody was paying any attention to what he was doing when in reality everybody was looking at him even if they were pretending not to.

“He shuffled around close to the edges of the room before disappearing into a bedroom - only to appear minutes later carrying a small wooden box. Still seemingly trying to appear invisible, he found himself a corner, sat down and quietly dragged a little table in front of his chair.

“With his jacket now back on, he reached into his inside pocket and brought out a blue cloth that he draped over the table. Next he reached into his jacket pocket again and brought out a magic wand. With a quick tap on the table he pointed at some of the kids and they all joined him in the corner sitting on the carpet at his feet.  

“Watching Ali perform for the kids was amazing – he was suddenly alive again. He may have been puffy faced and out of shape but there was no missing the joy in his performance. He found coins behind ears, disappeared cards and re-found them in unlikely places and the kids were spellbound – as we all were. This was my final personal memory of him. He was a lovely man. God bless him.”