Muhammad Ali's hometown of Louisville mourns its favorite son

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A newborn arrived on a cold Louisville day in January 1942. His parents named him Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.

"Imagine that day," Mayor Greg Fischer marveled on Saturday. "That little boy, eyes wide open, looking up, looking around the room at the old Louisville General Hospital, not knowing the life that awaited him, the life he would make, the world he would shake up, and the people he would inspire."

As the world mourned Muhammad Ali, his death held special meaning in his hometown, where the boxing great was the city's favorite son.

A makeshift memorial grew outside the Muhammad Ali Center, a museum built in tribute to Ali's core values: respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, charity, spirituality. A candle burned. Flowers piled up. Fans left hand-written signs: "Rest in Power, Champ," one read.

"Muhammad Ali belongs to the world," the mayor said at a memorial. "But he only has one hometown."

Ali grew up in a little house on Grand Avenue in the city's west end, Fischer recounted. He liked to eat hotdogs. When he was 12 years old, his bicycle was stolen and he told a police officer he wanted to "whoop" whoever took it. The officer told him he'd have to learn how to box first.

As a teenager, he'd call boxing coaches to tell them that one day he would be their world champion. And, indeed, in 1964 - at the age of 22 - he defeated big Sonny Liston to become the world heavyweight champion, the youngest boxer ever to hold the title.

It was in this spotlight that Cassius Clay announced he was changing his name and converting to Islam because he said the religion simply appealed to him.

He became the most famous man in the world, the Louisville Lip, celebrated as much for his grace and his words as his lightning-fast feet and knockout punch. He never forgot where he came from.

Ruby Hyde arrived at the memorial service holding an old black-and-white framed photo of a young Ali. She'd been a water girl at his amateur bouts as a teenager in Louisville, and seen even then that there was something special, something cerebral, about the way he fought.

Years later, he came back to the old neighborhood as a heavyweight champion, driving a Cadillac with the top down.

"All the kids jumped in and he rode them around the block," she remembered.

Kitt Liston's voice trembled as she recounted how she grew up in Louisville idolizing Ali. She ran into him at a baseball game a few years ago.

"I got to tell him how much I cared about him. He put that big ol' paw out and just shook my hand," she said. "He had time for everybody."

The mayor ordered the city's flags at half-staff, and urged residents to carry on with Ali's message of "peace, love and compassion."

A line started forming outside the Ali Center before it even opened. They were young and old, black and white, rich and poor.

Outside Metro Hall, Fischer pointed west, toward Ali's childhood home, about three miles away in one of the city's poorest zip codes.

"There can only be one Muhammad Ali, but his journey from Grand Avenue to global icon serves as a reminder that there are young people with the potential for greatness in the houses and neighborhoods all over our city, our nation, our world," he said.

"There is no limit to what our kids can do if we help them realize their full human potential and there is no excuse to do anything less the our best to help them find that greatness in themselves. That's how we become champions. Muhammad Ali has shown us the way."

But for all the good feelings of today, writer Thomas Hauser points out that, when Ali grew up here, Louisville -- like other areas of the South -- was riddled with racism.

"When he won the gold medal at the 1960 World Olympics, he was hailed as a conquering hero," he said. "...but there were also restaurants that he couldn't eat in, rest rooms that he couldn't use because Louisville was a Jim Crow city."

Hauser got to know Ali when writing what some consider the definitive biography on the boxer back in 1991. He says Ali's charisma and stance against racism was polarizing but it was also uplifting and changed what it meant to be African-American.

"Every time he looked in the mirror and said 'I'm so pretty,' what he was saying before it became fashionable was 'black is beautiful,' he changed how people of color felt about themselves and, over time, he changed the way white people thought of people of color," Hauser said. "Ali was a beacon of hope for oppressed people all over the world."

"One of the things Muhammad is famous for is the ability to unite people. So one of the things we want to do here is be a place people can come and be united and find those things they have in common, as opposed to those things that keep them apart," said Donald Lassere, the director of Ali Center.

Asked what his last conversation like with Mr. Ali was like, Lassere told CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan, " he was here at the center and as Muhammad normally does, he welcomes people to come and talk to him, and there was this man who was battling leukemia and when he saw Muhammad you can see his spirits were uplifted ... and the last thing he said was, 'I'm going to continue fighting, just like you did champ. and I'm going to beat this disease.'"

On Friday, in a public service being hailed as a celebration, Muhammad Ali's casket will travel down the boulevard that bears his name to give the people of Louisville one last chance to say goodbye to their hometown hero. The funeral, featuring eulogies by Billy Crystal and former President Bill Clinton, will be broadcast to fans around the world.