adminGENEVA. — Nearly half a century ago, a six-foot-three (1.91-metre) black man walked into a shoe store in the overwhelmingly white Swiss city Zurich and asked for size-47 boots.
The shopkeeper at the Schoebachler store looked baffled, as an amazed crowd built outside to catch a glimpse of this extraordinary customer.
It was Muhammad Ali, who needed new boots after his old pair got drenched while training in the snow on Zurich’s Uetliberg mountain.
The man who drove Ali to the shoe store was Swiss photographer Eric Bachmann, who followed the man he repeatedly called “The Champ” ahead of his December 26, 1971 victory over Germany’s Jurgen Blin.
In a telephone interview with AFP from his Zurich home, Bachmann described a series of entirely spontaneous events that led Ali to the Shoebachler.
That was typical of the boxing legend, who died on Friday aged 74, and whose openness including with reporters through his career was stunning, especially compared the guarded approach of today’s top athletes.
Zurich was transfixed by Ali – and race played a role in that fascination, recalled Bachmann, who photographed the visit for Ringier magazine.
At one point, a tram had to stop its route because the crowd of autograph-seekers had swelled from the sidewalk onto the tracks, in a rare disruption for Swiss public transport, the photographer said.
Bachmann skipped Ali’s landing in Zurich because all the Swiss news agencies were at the airport, leaving no chance of getting exclusive material.
The next day, December 17, Bachmann went to the Atlantis hotel, hoping to capture the fighter having breakfast.
The brash and provocative heavyweight was nearly two years removed from his suspension from boxing, which was linked to his refusal to fight in Vietnam.
Ali entered the lobby in his training gear, spotted Bachmann taking pictures and asked the photographer if he could recommend a place to run.
“I said ‘no problem, follow me. I will show you a nice place where you can run,’” Bachmann recalled telling the fighter, whom many call “The Greatest.”
They headed to the Uetliberg mountain overlooking Zurich.
Bachmann’s pictures of Ali training that morning – assembled in a book called “Muhammad Ali, Zurich” – show a youthful man with a wide smile striding down a mountain path, surrounded by leafless trees with light snow on the slopes. — AFP.
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