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Now as prom season gets underway at high schools around the D.C. metro area and beyond, attendees at the 1976 Parkdale High prom are remembering the unforgettable visit from the champ.
The then-34-year-old Ali had been staying at a hotel in Lanham after the fight when he’d been spotted by Leo Vondas, who had been teaching at Parkdale High School in Riverdale for about two years. Vondas was grabbing items from his car to help set up for prom — not knowing that the event was taking place at the same hotel — when the boxer walked through the front door that morning. Vondas was stunned, he recalled.
“At that point, I had to figure out what was going on,” Vondas said Thursday. He asked the front desk and found out Ali’s room number.
Vondas, who was the class of 1976 sponsor, realized he had the opportunity to make prom an event the teens would never forget. So, he got in the elevator and prepared to invite Ali to prom.
About 10 bodyguards were stationed outside Ali’s hotel room, Vondas said. He walked up to them and asked, “Is there any possibility I could talk to Mr. Ali? I’m the sponsor of the high school class here, and we’ve got a big prom tonight. And boy, he could make a lot of kids happy if he just passed through.” The bodyguards waved him in.
When Vondas made the pitch to Ali, he only asked for him to pass through and shake some hands. He explained that the surprise appearance “would make some wonderful kids very happy.”
Ali asked, “Can I go? Can I go like I am?”
“He thought I wanted him to get dressed up and wear his tux and all that,” Vondas, 76, explained. “I said, ‘No, no, you come any way you desire. I’ll come get you at 8:30, we’ll go down and you’re going to blow this place out of here.’”
Over the next few hours, Vondas kept Ali’s appearance a secret, even from the school’s administrators. He knew that if word got around that Ali would be there, the event would shift from having hundreds of teens to thousands and become a security problem. About 12,500 people had watched Ali’s bout to retain the world heavyweight championship the night before. A few students, though, knew what was about to happen.
Patrick Yohe, the senior class vice president, was part of a group of students recruited by Vondas to ask Ali to the room where the prom was being held. Yohe, now 65, said he remembers being struck by how tall and chiseled the fighter was.
“His hands were so big that when he shook my hand, my hand was, like, gone,” Yohe said. “It was unbelievable.”
Then, at 8:30 p.m., it was time to get Ali.
When Ali walked into the ballroom, the whole crowd stood up, Vondas said. Students rushed toward the center of the stage, mesmerized.
Yohe remembered looking over at his prom date to see the surprised look on her face. Several students looked shocked that Ali walked through the door. “One of my friends gave me a bunch of crap because I didn’t tell him,” Yohe said.
Ali went on the stage and spoke to the crowd of teens. He told them that it was wonderful they were graduating from school and about the importance of education, as Vondas recalled. Ali even turned to Vondas during his speech and asked, “Do you box?”
At one point, Ali pulled a girl up on the stage, Yohe said. He turned to her date and said, “What are you going to do, sucker?” and the whole crowd laughed.
“I was amazed at the charisma that this man had,” Vondas said.
Ali went back up to his room shortly after, but his appearance is still talked about during Parkdale High reunions and among the school’s alumni.
It wasn’t the only appearance Ali made at a prom. Peter DeBoer, the coach of the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League, has previously recounted meeting Ali during his high school prom and receiving a signed copy of the Quran.
At Parkdale’s prom, Vondas recalled looking at the boxer and being amazed at his appearance. Ali had gone through 15 rounds and “he didn’t have a scratch on him.”
Yohe added: “It didn’t look like Jimmy Young laid a punch on him.”
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