Ali Was A Hero Inside And Outside The Ring: Recalling The Day “The Greatest” Prevented A Suicide By Talking Down A Would-Be Jumper

Hardcore Muhammad Ali fans, as well as others beside, may know, or may at least have an inkling about, the story of how the former three-time world heavyweight king, with the sheer force of his personality combined with his at times seemingly uncommon ability to actually care about the nobodies of the world, the regular people, managed to prevent an unfortunate soul from taking his own life.

The story, one of many attached to the Ali legend, tells of how the former champ, at this stage of his life already battling the terrifying forces raging inside his brain and body, namely Parkinson’s symptoms that would only prove more debilitating, managed to talk down a would-be “jumper.”

A man who wanted to commit suicide in what might have been, for whatever crazy reason, the most “popular” way to do so in the 1970s and 1980s (remember the scene in the Clint Eastwood classic ‘Dirty Harry,’ when cop Callahan is called in to try and do what Ali would do in real life a decade later, and persuade an individual to come down in, well, in one piece?)

According to The New York Times, 39 year old Ali was informed by his lifelong friend, Howard Bingham, that a young black man was perched on the edge of a tall building that was a veritable stone’s throw from Ali’s home in Los Angeles, the tortured person, apparently a Vietnam vet, threatening to throw himself off because he was “no good.”

Ali, listening to Bingham, jumped into his Rolls Royce, and he roared to the scene, Ali driving his car down the wrong side of the road, to boot. Now, with his voice being perhaps laboured due to his battle with Parkinson’s and the effect of all the head shots he took (so, so bravely) in the ring, much of what Ali said to the suicidal fellow, named only to this day as “Joe,” may have been almost inaudible. But Ali’s sincerity, his ability to connect with the average man, saw to it that his message got through.

Ali wanted to save the man who had served in the unjust war he himself had defied, with Ali being stripped of his title and the right to earn a living after he had resisted the draft back in the 1960s. And Ali’s compassion saved a fellow human being.

The man came back inside the building, and Ali then drove him to a hospital. Ask yourself, would any current sporting superstar take the time to do what Ali did? Would such an act even be allowed today?

So, what of “Joe” today, and what happened to him? Well, as with so many beautifully moving stories, not all that is written is 100-percent accurate, sadly. Apparently, “Joe” was just 21 in January of 1981, therefore too young to have served in ‘Nam. It’s also unclear whether or not Ali followed through with his vow to meet up with “Joe” again and travel with him to his hometown, where he would buy him clothes and other things.

But Ali’s act was nothing of the kind. It was no act; it was real. Ali genuinely cared about his fellow man. Had the chance that came to him to save someone on January 19, 1981, approached him each and every day of his adult life, Ali, if he was at all able to do so, would have repeated his caring move again and again and again. It’s true, that’s just the way Ali was.

And not only the writers with rose tinted glasses tell it that way. Ali was the truth. Some fans on this site recently made it quite clear, mystifyingly so, that they are more than a little tired of Ali, of reading about him, even of watching his epic fights. Why, I cannot for one second comprehend. Nor, I bet, can “Joe.” If he’s still here. And if he is still alive, this average “Joe” has the man born Cassius Marcellus Clay to thank for the privilege.