Something for the Trophy Case

If you have $125,000 to bid, you may stand a chance of taking home the embroidered robe Muhammad Ali wore when he strode into the ring for “The Rumble in the Jungle,” the epic 1974 fight in Zaire in which Ali scored a stunning upset over then-heavyweight champ George Foreman.

If you’re not quite such a high roller, you may be able to land Ali’s 1960 national Golden Gloves trophy, valued at a mere $30,000. And for just $600 you might be able to score a poster and other mementos from an early Ali fight against the aging Archie Moore.

But in any case, you won’t make Ali any richer or happier.

The robe, the trophy and the poster are among 3,000 items of Ali memorabilia that will be auctioned off at Christie’s in Beverly Hills on Oct. 19. The former heavyweight champ doesn’t own any of the items, is not endorsing the event or participating in it and will not share in the proceeds.

On Thursday, the auction house put the items on display to drum up interest for what is being described as “the largest sports memorabilia auction in history” and “the first sports auction dedicated to one hero--Ali.” Christie’s officials expect to gross $1.2 million to $1.5 million on the sale.

“This is very unique,” said Don Flanigan, a Christie’s sports collectible expert. “There’s probably no other athlete around whom such a collection could be built. His popularity transcends boxing. He’s a citizen of the world.”

What is being put up for sale is the collection of garment industry executive Ronnie Paloger, 48, who said Ali became his hero when he stood up to the U.S. government and refused to join the Army during the Vietnam War. “I’m a product of the ‘60s,” he said.

Paloger said he started collecting baseball cards as a youngster and when he learned in the late 1980s that there was no comprehensive Ali collection, he took it as a challenge to put one together.

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The Marina del Rey resident said he went around the country to shops and swap meets, placed newspaper ads and “played detective” as he assembled the collection, which includes shoes, tickets, referees’ scorecards, dolls, letters, photos and other items.

“I didn’t do this to keep these things in storage,” Paloger said. “I felt I accomplished what I set out to do. Now other fans can have the same opportunity to own a piece of history.”

Nonetheless, some longtime Ali friends and fans are disturbed that the collection will be scattered to the winds. John J. Hooker, a Tennessee businessman, veteran Democrat activist and longtime Ali friend, said he is attempting to assemble a group of wealthy people to buy the collection en masse so that it can be housed in one place, such as an Ali museum that is due to be built in his hometown of Louisville, Ky.

“There ought to be a way to do this,” Hooker said Thursday. “Muhammad is like Princess Di, a universal character and much beloved by everyone.”

Ali is apparently not thrilled either.

His attorney, Ronald A. DiNicola, said Thursday that Ali has concerns about the sale that he has expressed to Paloger and to Christie’s. In a prepared statement, DiNicola said that Ali “has not made any attempt to verify the authenticity of the items to be auctioned or the accuracy of the representations contained in the Christie’s [auction] catalog.” DiNicola declined to elaborate when asked if the statement suggested that some of the items might be inauthentic.

The attorney stressed that “Ali still personally retains a majority of the documents pertaining to his career and activities, many of which will soon be available for public viewing at the Muhammad Ali Center.

“Only a small number of the items to be auctioned were once in Mr. Ali’s possession,” he said. “Prior to coming into Mr. Paloger’s possession, some of these items were taken from Mr. Ali under circumstances which he did not approve, without his permission or without his knowledge.”

DiNicola again declined to elaborate.

The statement came on the heels of remarks Ali made in Louisville last month when he was there for the Muhammad Ali Cup amateur boxing tournament.

“Somebody stole my stuff,” Ali said when a reporter asked him about the upcoming auction. Asked about those remarks, Flanigan of Christie’s responded that only 31 of the items that were being sold had ever been in Ali’s possession. He also stressed that Christie’s held the title to all the items that will be put up for sale.

As recently as 1990, some of the items that may be auctioned for thousands were acquired for a song. Eddie House, a Louisville auctioneer, paid a mere $500 for two boxfuls of items from the house of Ali’s father, who had recently died. Among the items were Ali’s 1957 Golden Gloves trophy--on which Christie’s has placed an estimated value of $20,000 to $30,000, and his 1960 Golden Gloves trophy, valued at $30,000 to $40,000.

“I bought everything Muhammad’s brother had for sale in the home,” House said Thursday. “I sold it less than a month later and then it was sold to Mr. Paloger. You have to remember in 1990 Muhammad Ali wasn’t that popular. A couple years later, they started having celebrity roasts and then he lit the Olympic torch and he skyrocketed.”

Controversies aside, there is a treasure trove of wonderful memorabilia to be had at the auction--including a Winston cigarette that Ali, then still using his birth name Cassius Clay, pulled out of a sportswriter’s mouth and autographed.

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Perhaps the most valuable item in the collection is the August 1966 letter Ali sent to Lewis B. Hershey, national director of the Selective Service, seeking exemption from military service on the grounds that he was “a minister of religion” with the Nation of Islam. Ali’s request was denied. The next year, he refused induction at a time when he had expressed vocal opposition to the Vietnam War, proclaiming: “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Viet Cong.”

Ali was found guilty of draft evasion, stripped of his title and barred from the ring. He went to court and after a protracted battle won vindication in a unanimous 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

By then he had become a focal point of the antiwar movement and had been transformed from a brash sports icon, known as “The Louisville Lip,” to an international symbol of political protest, who is now known simply as “The Greatest.”

The letter is estimated to be worth $100,000 to $150,000, according to Simeon Lipman of Christie’s collectibles department.

Lipman said it was difficult to set the letter’s baseline bidding value because it was a one-of-a-kind item for which there is no established market.

“You’d have to go to an important document of Abraham Lincoln,” Lipman said. “This letter is a historical piece, a piece of the ‘60s.”

To set the opening price of the Zaire robe, Christie’s looked to Hollywood, said Lipman’s colleague Paul Nelson, because there was nothing comparable in boxing or any other sport. The closest comparable item was the outfit John Travolta wore in “Saturday Night Fever,” which Christie’s sold for $145,000.