THE
Summer Daily
Vol. LXXXI11, No. 44-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Friday, July 20, 1973 Ten Cents Twelve Pages
Consultation with bone specialists?
City gets
s a surprise
- visit from
. F a;
MUHAMMED ALI signs an autograph for an eager St. Joseph's hospital employe
yesterday. The former champ spent a few hours in the city, visiting St. Joseph's
hospital and the offices of two well-known"bone reconstruction doctors."
Arab holds 17,
in Greek hotel.
r-escapes
ATHENS, Greece (1) - A Palestinian
armed with a submachine gun seized 17
persons in a hotel lobby here yesterday
after failing in an attempt to shoot up an
Israeli airline office. He threatened to
kill the hostages including four Americans,
but let them go after being promised safe
conduct to the Middle East.
The gunman was escorted to Athens Air-
port by the ambassadors of Egypt, Iraq
and Libya and left aboard a flight to
Kuwait.
THE HOSTAGES, held for more than
five hours, were two young sisters from
Texas, a couple from Davenport, Iowa,
a priest, two Greek policemen and em-
ployes of the hotel.
"I am not afraid to die," the gunman
declared while standing in the hotel lobby.
He kept waving his submachine gun with
one hand and held a grenade in another.
"I have no desire to live," he said. "Af-
ter I shoot these people I will pull the
plug on a hand grenade, and kill myself
and everyone else around."
The Palestinian spoke through an Arab-
English interpreter.
HE DEMANDED that Deputy Premier
Stylianos Patakos escort him to the air-
cap ture
port for safe conduct out of the country.
The drama began a few minutes before
noon at the El Al office in central Consti-
tution Square. An El Al security guard no-
ticed a man with a submachine gun enter
the outer door of the office. The guard
triggered an automatic lock on an inner
glass door.r
The man then tried to batter in the door,
but it held and he raced away down a
side street into the Amalia Hotel. There
he rounded up 40 hostages, but soon let
all but 17 go.
POLICE SURROUNDED the hotel, plac-
ed sharpshooters in strategic locations and
then tried to negotiate with him, but
failed because of language problems.
As police entered the hotel, Inspector
Anghelos Dondos accidently wounded
himself when his pistol caught on a door
knob. The shot apparently unnerved the
gunman and he fired several rounds from
his submachine gun, chippihg the marble
in the hotel lobby. No other injuries were
reported.
A short while later the three Arab am-
bassadors arrived at the hotel and after
a long conversation left for the airport
with the Palestinian,
By CHUCK BLOOM
F o r m e r heavyweight boxing
champion Muhammed Ali breezed
through town yesterday displaying
that rare combination of wit and
style that have made him one of the
sports world's most controversial
figures.
Ali stopped at St. Joseph's Hos-
pital and later paid a visit to the
offices of two nationally known
"bone reconstruction doctors."
THE EX-CHAMP spent 15 minutes in
St. Joseph's visiting Hal O'Connor, a pa-
tient who was paralyzed following an auto
accident. Ali made the visit at the re-
quest of O'Connor's mother.
He then spent over an hour in the office
of Drs. Williams Grabb and Reed Ding-
man, both of whom are plastic surgeons
who specialize in bone reconstruction.
Ali said that he was merely accompany-
ing a friend who knew Grabb and that his
presence had nothing to do with the brok-
en jaw he recently suffered in a match
with Ken Norton in San Diego.
Ali is scheduled to meet Norton in a
rematch September 10 in the Forum in
Los Angeles.
As was to be expected, Ali oozed with
confidence when fielding questions about
the upcoming contest.
"NORTON'S IN TROUBLE!" the champ
flatly stated. "I'm ready for him."
Ali also declared that his health was
good and a doctor accompanying him in-
dicated that the jaw was "okay."
ALI IS BEGINNING the third comeback
of his illustrious and colorful career after
suffering only his second defeat at the
hands of Norton, then a relatively un-
known boxer.
After beating Sonny Liston for the,
crown, Ali was described by boxing ex-
perts as the finest heavyweight of all
time. But his unpopular resistance to the
draft led boxing bureaucrats to strip him
of his title.
The layoff, which lasted nearly three
years, kept Ali away from the ring at the
zenith of his career and he has never
regained the "Float Like a Butterfly,
Sting Like a Bee" form he once mastered.
ALI HOPES FOR a shot at the current
king of the heavyweights George Fore-
man, who defeated Frazier last January.
Foreman is now attempting to guide his
own career - an unusual course of action
for a boxer - and Ali had some encour-
aging words for him.
"I think George will have some ad-
visors," Ali stated, "but in the end, he'll
be his own boss.
"It's a good sign for a boxer to be
something other than an animal. Base-
ball players, football players do it . . .
it's good for a fighter to use his brain
other than for beating up people."
A1u: A true
"
cham pion in
every way
By CHARLES STEIN
For Hal O'Conner of Southfield, the visit
to town by boxing great Muhammed Al
meant more than just an autograph, a
brief thrill and a good story to tell some
friends.
Paralyzed for over a year as a result
of a car accident, Hal spends his days in
a single room on the third floor of St. Jo-
seph's Hospital. His day is broken up by
occasional visits from friends and rela-
tives.
YESTERDAY, HOWEVER, Hal had a
special visitor.
"Muhammed Ali was up here", Hal ex-
claimed, his face beaming with joy. "It
was such a trip. I can't really believe it
happened."
"We spent some time talking about
boxing. He told me he was going to take
care of Ken Norton (Ali's next opponent.)
He also said that I had a tough road
ahead, but that I was doing all right."
Hal's private session with Ali, a
dream come true for almost any sports
fan, was made possible by a simple re-
quest from Hal's mother, Mary O'Conner.
"I WAS IN the cafeteria just about to
take a bite of lunch when I saw him," re-
lated Ms. O'Conner. "I asked him if he
wouldn't mind coming up to see Hal.
I didn't have to ask twice. He just
jumped up and said he'd be happy to do
it. "I was shocked."
Accompanied by a friend and one of
See ALI, Page 10