Aug
07
Muhammad Ali waves to cheering crowd in the Bronx, site of his 1976 title defense against Ken Norton
“The Greatest” was back at Yankee Stadium Thursday night, and we’re not talking about the 1927 Yankees or the even the ‘98 team.
Muhammad Ali, who defended his heavyweight title at the old Yankee Stadium by beating Ken Norton in 1976, presented two hospitality awards to Hal Steinbrenner and the Yanks in a ceremony before their series- opening victory against Boston.
The 67-year-old former champ, wearing a blue shirt and sporting sunglasses, also posed for pictures flanked by Yankee players and rode around the field in a golf cart, waving to cheering fans as music blared and highlights of his fights played on the scoreboard. A cluster of fans chanted, “Ali, Ali” and he smiled and waved. Near home plate, Ali, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, sat on a stool.
“It doesn’t get much better than that,” Steinbrenner said of meeting Ali. “His legacy just transcends generations and that was proof. It’s great to have him here, an honor. The man was a legend in so many ways, in and out of the ring.”
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Mar
14
Brother Benedict, the youth minister at St. Augustine Catholic Church here in the South Bronx, had some bad news and some good news the other day.
The bad news, he told me, was that the Baltimore Province of his religious order, the Redemptorists, had lost most of its endowment in the Madoff Ponzi scheme.
The good news was that this may not be bad news.
“For years we’ve been rolling in money,” said Benedict, a 26-year-old African-American who grew up in the Holiness Church on Chicago’s South Side, converted to Catholicism in high school, and entered the Redemptorists at 18. “The order gave us credit cards and paid them from the provincial office. The superiors didn’t much look at what you racked up as long as it wasn’t too crazy. The brethren bought nice clothes and shoes, went out to eat at good restaurants. Now the superiors are checking every expense. It’s not like it used to be.”
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Feb
26
Teacher Michael Loeb at work at his Bronx school
To reach Michael Loeb’s grade 6 special needs class, visitors must first check in with the armed security guard who sits at the head of the school’s cavernous and windowless ground-floor lobby.
The school’s hallways, also starved of natural light, are a sickly olive green. But Mr Loeb’s fourth-floor classroom explodes with colour - the blue and yellow of his alma mater, George Washington University, forms the backdrop to displays of student work and exhortations to achieve. “Every student will grow a year and a half in reading,” declares one mission statement.
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Feb
14
THE REV. WENDELL FOSTER, who was born 85 years ago in a small town in Alabama, came to New York as a 13-year-old with no parents and no money, only the hope that life “up North” would be different.
In 1978, he became the first black elected city official in the Bronx, where he served for 24 years as a councilman. His daughter, Helen Foster, currently holds his old seat, representing the 16th District, which includes Highbridge, Morrisania and the South Bronx.
A veteran of the civil rights movement, Mr. Foster is sometimes called upon to memorialize his former compatriots. On the occasion of Black History Month, Mr. Foster sat down for a conversation in a small office at Christ Church in Morrisania, where he has been a pastor for 42 years. Dressed in a suit and tie, he spoke about life as it once was in the Bronx and reflected on two old friends. Read more..
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