Because he was my son Duion’s friend and classmate at Saint Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky and spent many hours in our Illinois Avenue home, I came to consider Frank Sadlo to be my Fourth son.
Frank’s father was a Louisville lawyer and one in the group of investors who sponsored Muhammad Ali’s career. Muhammad was a frequent visitor to the Piper Court address where the Sadlo Family resided.
Frank was proud to be Muhammad’s devoted fan and in later years he found himself planning special events to honor the celebrated athlete.
Since he had seen some of my miniature sculpture works, Frank suggested in 1994, that I create a tribute to present for the boxer’s Thirtieth Anniversary of winning the World’s Heavyweight Championship in Boxing.
Thinking of Muhammad’s life, it was difficult to capture one moment to address. He had won the “Golden Gloves” as a teen, the Championship as an adult and then became a businessman and a philanthropist.
I decided to sculpt a ten-inch high work with three figures standing against a flat background The shortest teen figure wore golden gloves. The adult boxer stood behind him with a boxing glove on the young boy’s shoulder. Beside the adult boxer stood a gentleman in a business suit with a briefcase placed beside his foot.
Muhammad would go on to light a torch for the whole world to witness, but for those who knew and respected him, his torch had always been a blazing Louisville legend.