Boxers still lean on Gene Kilroy. He has looked after them for most of his life and the three who need him these days are Jesse, Frank and Little Girl.
Kilroy is ‘knocking on heaven’s gate’ but has never been married. He vowed not to tie the knot until he found a woman who welcomes him home like dogs do. So Jesse, Frank and Little Girl are his ‘greeting committee’. His ‘family’.
For many years, however, Kilroy devoted himself to another breed of boxer. The Greatest of them all. Few knew Muhammad Ali better than his business manager and right-hand man. Kilroy was known as the ‘Facilitator’.
They first met in 1960, when an 18-year-old Cassius Clay was fighting in the Rome Olympics and Kilroy was playing sports in the armed services. They last saw each other in Las Vegas, a couple of years before Ali’s death in 2016 – but well after Parkinson’s had ravaged the former heavyweight champion. ‘It broke my heart,’ says Kilroy.
By then, though, they had stitched together a tapestry of tales involving ‘kings, queens, presidents (and) emperors.’ Many memories are framed on the wall of his home, around a dozen miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.Â
Among those pictured? Bobby Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Buzz Aldrin, Joe Louis, Tom Jones, James Brown, and Pele. Plenty of others didn’t make the cut including the Beatles, the Queen, and Frank Sinatra.
Gene Kilroy, at his Las Vegas home, stands in front of a wall of pictures from his remarkable life
Kilroy worked as Muhammad Ali’s right-hand man and became known as the ‘Facilitator’
The boxing legend is pictured with his three boxer dogs Jesse, Frank and Little Girl
‘I’m from a poor family,’ says Kilroy, who grew up north of Philadelphia. ‘My dad died, he was 31 years old. My mother was left with three little boys. She raised them… (and) people ask me: “Do you have any fear?”
‘I say I’m afraid my mom’s going to wake me up. “Come on, get up. It’s time to go to school”,’ Kilroy says. ‘My life’s been a dream.’
He hired someone to put this wall of memories together. They ‘f****d up’ the order but they did get one bit right.
Right at the center of the display are two pictures from 1974. Kilroy took one. It shows Ali at his Deer Lake training camp – standing on a rock, arms raised. It was one of Ali’s favorite photos.Â
The other is from a few weeks later. Ali is standing over George Foreman, who lies on the canvas after a Rumble in the Jungle.
The picture was signed 50 years ago this week. ‘To Gene, my boy,’ it reads. ‘We did it. Thanks, Muhammad Ali.’
That night in Zaire, Ali recaptured the heavyweight title at the age of 32 – a decade on from first reaching the top of the mountain. On Saturday, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fight for the same crown in Saudi Arabia.
Over the past five decades, Kilroy has watched as boxing slid into ‘the toilet’.
They first met in 1960, when an 18-year-old Cassius Clay was fighting in the Rome Olympics
Kilroy was alongside Ali when he met the rich and famous, including the late Queen ElizabethÂ
Kilroy ‘put together’ the iconic photo of the Beatles being ‘punched’ by Ali at his gym
But he remains a wanted man, even in retirement. ‘In a hurry not to be in a hurry,’ is his mantra. ‘I’m happy with my dogs. I’m happy with my life.’
A couple of times a week, he heads to a nearby restaurant, Egg Works. Kilroy knows a little shortcut and most of the staff, too. He normally orders oatmeal but on the menu today? French toast, a muffin and a few of the finest stories from his extraordinary life.
‘I travel and people want pictures with me,’ Kilroy says. ‘Then they want a phone number or email. I give them wrong numbers. I don’t need a best friend. Or a new friend.’
He is busy enough.
‘If Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to town, I have dinner with him,’ Kilroy says. ‘Mike Tyson took me down to his fight.’ When the 58-year-old was beaten by Jake Paul. ‘I was disappointed the way it turned out.’
He was rarely let down after meeting Ali in Munich.
‘A nice kid,’ says Kilroy. ‘We were walking down the street, I had someone come up begging for money. He had $8, he gave the guy $3.’
Ali’s response to Kilroy’s protests? ‘If he lied to me, he’s going to answer to God.’
Kilroy adds: ‘The Russians told him, “You can’t go back and eat in your restaurants.”‘ Not in the segregated South. ‘That’s okay,’ Ali told them. ‘We’re going to change it.’ The words of his mother Odessa ringing in his ear.
It has been 50 years since ‘The Greatest’ beat George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle
This picture, taken by Kilroy, was one of Ali’s favorite photos from his incredible careerÂ
Ali, known as ‘The Greatest’, was described by his business manager as a ‘momma’s boy’
‘(She) always told him: make the world a little better than you found it,’ Kilroy recalls. ‘He did. He made it a lot better.’
Within a few years of winning Olympic gold, Ali was world heavyweight champion and Kilroy was tasked with managing one of the world’s most intoxicating personalities.
‘We were in London, I was with Ali, and he met the Queen,’ Kilroy recalls. ‘Everybody was talking to him. Nobody spoke to her. He said, “I’m more powerful!” I had to explain to him – the only way you talk to her if is she speaks to you. He couldn’t understand that.’ But it didn’t matter too much.
‘She liked him,’ Kilroy adds. ‘He’s a charmer.’ The King was a fan, too.
‘I introduced him to Elvis,’ Kilroy says. Whenever Ali was in Vegas, he enjoyed the big shows – Diana Ross, for instance. Or rock and roll.
‘Ali was so nervous,’ Kilroy begins. ‘Out comes Elvis on stage… he sang “C.C. Rider” and then he said: “Stop! There’s a gentleman in the audience I admire the most. He said he’s The Greatest. He is The Greatest. Stand up, Muhammad Ali!”‘
They met backstage and they are both pictured on the wall of Kilroy’s living room. As business manager, he captured some of the most intimate moments of Ali’s life.
His parents cooking for the team at his training base, ‘Fighter’s Heaven’; Ali kissing his mother; Ali alongside Elijah Muhammad – the Nation of Islam leader without whom, Kilroy says, the boxer would have been ‘cleaning buses in Louisville’. Oh, and Ali ‘punching’ The Beatles.
Ali’s mother, Odessa Clay, and his aunt, Coretta (R), cooking at the fighter’s training base
Away from all the noise and all the cameras, Kilroy says, Ali was ‘shy and sensitive’
‘I put that together,’ says Kilroy, who met the Fab Four in the green room of at TV show in Miami. Ali was training nearby. ‘We want to go,’ John Lennon said.
‘So I called the next day and his manager was taking the call, Brian Epstein,’ Kilroy continues. ‘They’re not going anywhere,’ he was told. Lennon had other ideas and soon all four Beatles were in the ring with Ali.
‘When they split up, people would write letters to Ali to get them back together,’ Kilroy explains.
Unfortunately, he was too busy – visiting children’s hospitals, protesting against the Vietnam war, helping Marlon Brando fight for the rights of indigenous people. NBA great Karl Malone once told Kilroy that Ali made everyone feel like his best friend.
‘My favorite quote? If Ali weighed 218lbs, his heart weighed 216,’ says the ‘Facilitator’, who recalls the time they visited an old folks’ home.
‘There was a guy there, about 95 years old.’ When he saw Ali, he exclaimed: ‘Joe Louis!’ Everyone laughed, except The Greatest. ‘That’s right,’ he said before hugging the man – and reprimanding his team. ‘Don’t ever do that,’ Ali later said. ‘He doesn’t know Muhammad Ali… let him realize he’s going to meet God and let him know that Joe Louis came to see him.’
Away from all the noise and all the cameras, Kilroy says, Ali was ‘shy and sensitive’. He would do magic tricks and he would watch the news.
‘The Greatest’ stands over Sonny Liston after retaining his heavyweight championship in 1965
‘I’m afraid my mom’s going to wake me up,’ Kilroy says, ‘my life has been a dream’Â
‘The Greatest’ is pictured alongside Elvis Presley – Kilroy introduced them to each other
Few events made headlines like his fights with Foreman and Joe Frazier. In Kilroy’s mind, nothing tops that trip to Zaire. Over there, for once, Ali was left alone to prepare in peace.
‘Kirk Kerkorian owned MGM. So I called him and he sent us movies over. And I hired a young kid.’ His dad worked at the embassy and his job was to run the projector.
‘We watched movies all the time. The latest movies,’ Kilroy continues. ‘(Ali) liked westerns and scary movies.’
They did occasionally leave camp.
‘I asked the government to take us on a safari,’ Kilroy explains. Ali’s mom and dad wanted to go. ‘We went out there… and there were native people there. They didn’t know who the president was.’ Of Zaire, or any country.Â
‘They didn’t give a s*** either,’ Kilroy says. ‘But they all knew “Ali, bomaye!” It meant “Ali, kill him!” It was a chant that became the soundtrack to his victory over Foreman.
‘George had an excuse – we loosened the ropes, the mattress was so soft… he got his a** beat.’
Kilroy’s journey to Africa began aged 12, when he was bat boy for the Mahanoy City Brewers baseball team. ‘Bucko’ negotiated with a local laundromat so they would clean the towels and he didn’t have to. ‘That was my first business deal,’ he says.
Either side of managing Ali’s career, he worked as an executive for the Philadelphia Eagles and Vegas casinos. While with MGM movies, he would occasionally pitch at batting practice for the Yankees. He was a pallbearer for both of Ali’s parents.
Kilroy, who became known as the ‘Facilitator’, was a pallbearer for both of Ali’s parents
Ali’s former business manager opened the doors of his Las Vegas home to DailyMail.com
He knew the Kennedys after organizing athletes to support both JFK and RFK’s run for president.
He met Tiger Woods and Tom Brady and he took Ali to see Pele in 1977. It was the Brazilian’s final game with the New York Cosmos; Pele asked security to fetch his father. ‘I want him to meet The Greatest,’ he said.
He was there when Tom Jones came to spar with Ali. Kilroy met Aldrin ‘when he walked off the moon’.
‘He told me that when they got back on the capsule, (they said) “Houston, we have a problem”,’ Kilroy recalls. ‘(But) the relay wasn’t picking up. They had seven seconds and he hit it, and it took off.’
The astronaut has a place on his wall but Kilroy’s most prized possession sits elsewhere. It’s a small statue of a man and his dog. It was a gift from his grandmother and it went everywhere Kilroy did.
Treat people right and you can have a dog and be a success, she told him.
‘I’ve been blessed,’ Kilroy says before tucking into his French toast and heading home. Jesse, Frank and Little Girl are waiting at the door.
