{"id":1311160,"date":"2019-06-08T11:16:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T17:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/its-the-greatest-alis-training-camp-opens-to-the-public\/"},"modified":"2019-06-08T11:16:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T17:16:01","slug":"its-the-greatest-alis-training-camp-opens-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/its-the-greatest-alis-training-camp-opens-to-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the greatest: Ali\u2019s training camp opens to the public"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Benny Quiles-Rosa punches the heavy bag in the gym at Fighter\u2019s Heaven, Muhammad Ali\u2019s training camp in Deer Lake, Pa., Saturday June 8, 2019. The newly renovated camp is open to the public on weekends. (AP Photo\/Michael Rubinkam)<\/strong>
AP | ap<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DEER LAKE, Pa. \u2014 The rustic Pennsylvania training camp where Muhammad Ali prepared for some of his most famous fights has undergone an elaborate restoration, opening to the public Saturday as a shrine to the heavyweight icon\u2019s life and career.<\/p>\n

The famed Deer Lake camp was in disrepair when California real estate investor Mike Madden bought it shortly after Ali died in June 2016 at age 74. Madden, son of retired broadcaster and NFL Hall of Fame coach John Madden, said his aim was to save an important part of Ali\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will always be a monument to the guy who created it,\u201d said Madden, 55. \u201cIt\u2019s about preserving a piece of sports history, American history and probably world history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali bought the wooded, out-of-the-way property about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Philadelphia in 1972 and installed 18 primarily log buildings, including a gym, dining hall, small mosque, visitors\u2019 cabins and a horse barn. It was at Deer Lake where Ali prepared for his epic bouts against George Foreman and Joe Frazier, attracting crowds who watched him work. Ali once proclaimed he was \u201cmore at home with my log cabins than I am in my house in Cherry Hill,\u201d New Jersey.<\/p>\n

He trained at the camp until his last fight in 1981.<\/p>\n

\u201cAli loved it up there,\u201d said his longtime business manager, Gene Kilroy, an area native who brought Ali to Deer Lake. \u201cHe built it the way he wanted to build it, and he credited that camp with helping him win his biggest fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ty Benner, whose father brought him to see Ali train every time he was at Deer Lake, returned Saturday for the first time in nearly 40 years, donating a T-shirt he got at the camp as a kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was a big Ali fan,\u201d said Benner, 48, of Beaver Springs, which is about two hours away. \u201cI pretty much grew up here.\u201d He said Madden had done an \u201camazing\u201d job restoring it.<\/p>\n

Visiting from the Philadelphia area, Karen Hauck was also impressed. \u201cI love this,\u201d she said as her kids and their friend, 11-year-old Benny Quiles-Rosa, took turns at the heavy bag. Benny, an aspiring boxer, gave it quite a beating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait till I\u2019m allowed to spar,\u201d he said. Seeing where Al trained, he said, \u201cis a really big deal for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time Madden bought the camp, the exteriors of the log buildings were deteriorating and needed extensive repair.<\/p>\n

Inside, the gym sports a new ring and a sleek display of blown-up photos that show Ali living and working at the camp, slugging it out with opponents inside the ring and clowning around with other famous faces like The Beatles. A video retrospective of Ali\u2019s career, narrated by Howard Cosell, plays on a flat screen, and some of Ali\u2019s famous quotes (\u201cFloat like a butterfly, sting like a bee\u201d) adorn the walls.<\/p>\n

In an adjoining room, you can see where Ali kept track of his weight while training for a 1978 championship rematch with Leon Spinks. The actual notations are still there on the wall, in pencil.<\/p>\n

Madden, a lifelong fight fan like his father, was listening to sports talk radio after Ali\u2019s death and said he became supremely irritated by the misinformation he was hearing about his boyhood idol, whom he had met as a teen. It was the same when Madden turned to the internet \u2014 some of the stories about Ali\u2019s life got the details wrong, he said. He stifled an impulse to comment.<\/p>\n

Then Madden read a piece that mentioned Deer Lake, Googled it, and found out the camp was for sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally had an \u2018Animal House\u2019 moment. I had an angel and a devil on my shoulders. Are you going to be the bitter guy who blogs anonymously when it comes to Ali? Every room you\u2019re in, \u2018They don\u2019t have the story right.\u2019 Are you going to be that guy?\u201d Madden recalled thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s an opportunity to have a hand in maybe not writing history, but preserving some,\u201d he added. \u201cI looked at it as a calling. This found me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madden paid $520,000 for the property and spent at least $650,000 on renovations.<\/p>\n

Other buildings open to the public include the mosque, dining hall and Ali\u2019s sleeping quarters, complete with coal stove, hand-operated water pump and a video of Ali giving TV host Dick Cavett a tour of the same cabin 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

The hilltop camp, dubbed \u201cFighter\u2019s Heaven,\u201d is open to the public on weekends. Admission is free, though visitors may donate to charities designated by the camp. It\u2019s also available for corporate retreats.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benny Quiles-Rosa punches the heavy bag in the gym at Fighter\u2019s Heaven, Muhammad Ali\u2019s training camp in Deer Lake, Pa., Saturday June 8, 2019. The newly renovated camp is open to the public on weekends. (AP Photo\/Michael Rubinkam)AP | ap DEER LAKE, Pa. \u2014 The rustic Pennsylvania training camp where Muhammad Ali prepared for some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 19:22:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}