Grace Community Center Gym, Louisville Kentucky

Grace Community Center Gym

Some gyms inspire from a distance. Some transcend the tides of time. Grace Community Center Gym holds on through history, though its doors have long since closed, because of one of the Greatest boxers of all time.
Ali.

Once a young Cassius Clay dedicated himself to boxing, it was about all he would do outside of school. Grace Community Center Gym offered him an opportunity to train from 8pm until midnight nearly every day of the week.

Muhammad Ali trained with Fred Stoner in Grace Community Center Gym and credited Fred Stoner with teaching him “all I know” within this gym.

While the ghosts of legends past keep Grace Community Center Gym alive today, much of its history has been lost for the ages. The sounds of men pounding bags and sparring, sweating and toiling for their dreams of a better tomorrow still echo throughout the Louisville, Kentucky air. If you listen close, you may be able to hear to heartbeat of this place still live on.

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3 thoughts on “Grace Community Center Gym, Louisville Kentucky

  1. wallace williams says:

    I remember Grace Gym…when I was a youngster Fred Stoner was my basketball coach in the league at Grace Gym. He told us that he was the boxing trainer for Cassius Clay. This was in 1965…in 1970 I crossed paths with Ali at Ohare airport…he confirmed that indeed Fred was his first trainer in his pro career…that he was in his corner for the Sonny Liston fight,

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