Running with the Champ: My Forty-Year Friendship with Muhammad Ali

First-time author Shanahan shares an engrossing story of his longtime friendship with the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. The former medical technology salesman recounts the day in 1975 when he met Ali through a sports organization in Chicago for troubled teens, and chronicles the evolution of an enviable friendship that, as the book's title suggests, often included early-morning runs. Shanahan and his wife became close to Ali and his family members and traveled with his entourage to fights. He includes accounts of Ali's encounters with numerous celebrities, including Elvis Presley, John Travolta, Warren Beatty, Andy Warhol, and Bill Cosby, and portrays Ali as a generous man who regularly gave $20 bills to strangers in need. Shanahan comes off as a likable guy, too, and it's easy to understand why the fighter allowed him into his inner circle. However, Shanahan shames many of the hangers-on who took advantage of Ali, yet readers could argue that Shanahan is doing the same thing. (May)