30 years ago today... Spinks, Ali and Mr. T

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Muhammad Ali on Sept. 15, 1978 won the heavyweight title for the third time, regaining it from Leon Spinks in New Orleans. Spinks had upset Ali in February and was still celebrating in September when he realized it was time to fight. Or maybe he never realized it.

I covered the fight for the Chicago Sun-Times and one of my most lingering memories from the week leading up to it is that Spinks had a bodygyard named Lawrence Tero.

Yes, Mr. T.

All Mr. T was famous for at the time was winning a bar bouncer contest in Chicago.

But he latched onto the opportunity in New Orleans for a lot of media attention and got it by talking about how difficult it was to be a bodyguard for Spinks, who didn’t much like returning to his hotel room at night. Mr. T lost him several times and pretty much gave up by the end of the week.

No one dared make fun of Tero, though. Ed Schulyer, the AP boxing writer at the time, warned: ‘If you cross Mr. T, he’ll dot your eyes.’’

--Randy Harvey