Several years after a 6-year-old boy in Louisville received a special Christmas gift in 1963, that gift began to take on a life of its own, especially since it was connected to the late Muhammad Ali, who at the time was known by the name he was given at birth—Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.
Billy Pfund was surprised that holiday with a pair of boxing gloves from his aunt and uncle. But that wasn’t all. One of the gloves had been autographed by the young boxer.
“My uncle Cliff worked in the hat department at Levy Brothers department store in downtown Louisville,” Pfund said. “This was before the boxer became Muhammad Ali and before he became the champ.”
Levy Brothers was an upscale department store at Third and Market from 1892 until 1980. The building now houses The Old Spaghetti Factory. As Clay’s professional boxing career began to evolve following his 1960 Olympic gold medal performance in Rome, he began to upgrade his wardrobe.
“Hats, especially Dobbs Hats, were popular for men back then,” Pfund said. “Cassius would come in the store with his dad, and my uncle struck up a friendship with him. He asked him, if he brought some boxing gloves to the store, would he sign them the next time he came in?” Clay agreed.
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The boxer, who became known as “The Louisville Lip,” was true to his word. The next time he visited the store, he took one of the gloves and signed it—plus a little bit more.
“To Billy from Cassius Clay, the next heavyweight champion of the world, 1963,” he wrote.
Pfund’s mom and dad sweetened the boxing gloves Christmas gift that year with a Joe Palooka stand-up punching bag. It was an ideal gift for Pfund, an only child, since it was an activity he could do by himself while burning off energy at the same time.
“With two pairs [of gloves], some of us in the neighborhood would box in the basement or backyard,” Pfund said. “And for the next several years, I continued to spar with the autographed gloves.”
Even though he was young, Pfund was well aware of the future “greatest of all time.”
“He was a big deal. Every kid in Louisville knew who he was,” he said. “It was a few years later that I realized what I had in my possession.”
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In March 1964, soon after he had defeated Sonny Liston, Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Never again would Louisville’s greatest celebrity sign the name Cassius Clay.
For years, the boxing gloves hung in Pfund’s room—always there, a keepsake from his childhood. By now, they had become a part of his family. For the most part, the boxing gloves were out of sight, out of mind, but as Pfund grew older and got married, the gloves stayed with him.
“They became a conversation piece,” he said. “Whenever anyone came to our house, they wanted to see them.”
With the gloves, however, something was missing. It was the name Muhammad Ali.
In the early 1980s, Ali’s public appearances began to decline, particularly after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Getting another autograph from the famous athlete would be difficult, if not impossible.
Pfund and his wife, Laura, found out that Ali was going to be honored at the Louisville Gardens. “It was the mid-’90s, and we took the gloves, just hoping we could get him to sign them,” Pfund recalled. “By chance, we sat near Ali’s brother, Rahman. I showed him the gloves and told him the story.”
Pfund made it a point to let Rahman Ali know he was not there to make money from the autograph but to add to what he already had.
Rahman took the Pfunds to where his brother was sitting and quickly introduced them, while Billy showed him the boxing gloves he had had since 1963. The illness had taken its toll on the champ. Now shaky and walking with a shuffle, he graciously signed the other boxing glove, “Muhammad Ali.”
Billy’s Christmas gift from decades ago was now complete. The boxing gloves are not for sale, but it is understandable to wonder what they might be worth.
“My dad several years ago took the gloves to the Antiques Roadshow that came to Louisville one time,” Pfund said of the traveling public television show on which experts assess the value of antiques. “I was out of town at the time, so he wanted to do it.”
The Sportcraft junior-size, red-and-tan, lace-up gloves were one of the items selected to be televised in the April 2008 episode.
“I don’t remember the exact value they placed on the gloves, but I think it was several thousand dollars,” Pfund said. “But I do know one thing for certain: They are not for sale.”
Over his career, the boxer made a habit of predicting his future matches, even to the exact round in which he would win. Signing the glove back in 1963 as the “next heavyweight champion,” he did not disappoint.