The gift that Muhammad Ali gave Hamilton's Peter DeBoer
DeBoer was attending his high school prom at the Royal Connaught Hotel when Ali walked in
San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer isn't much of a memorabilia collector. A signed Qur'an he got as a 17-year-old from Muhammad Ali is one of the few items to make the cut.
DeBoer on Saturday recalled that chance meeting with the former heavyweight champion. He was attending his high school prom at the Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton some 30 years ago when he saw Ali enter.
DeBoer asked a member of Ali's entourage if he could meet the champ and was told to come to Ali's room with his friends in five minutes.
"He got out a Qur'an for each of us," DeBoer said before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. "He wasn't preaching or trying to convert us, he just personalized each one for us, asked us some questions about what we were doing. It was an unbelievable life experience for me."
DeBoer said the only other memorabilia he has in his basement is a Wayne Gretzky stick, a Bobby Orr print and a Mike Weir Masters print.