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<p>After the world is finished saying goodbye to one of the sportsworld&#8217;s outstanding icons, Kington&#8217;s Ken VanScoy will quietly turn on his TiVo to the 3-hour funeral and commemorate the man that started his boxing career as a teenager.</p><p>As a teenager, VanScoy was personally recruited by Muhammad Ali to join the boxing legend&#8217;s amateur team. He transferred out of Wyoming Valley West before his senior year to join a dozen other fighters at Ali&#8217;s training facility in Santa Monica, California, where he attended school, trained vigorously and competed against some of the top amateur boxers in the country.</p><p>Ali&#8217;s death late Friday night left VanScoy saddened and shocked.</p><p>&#8220;When I went to bed on Friday, I knew he was hospitalized,&#8221; VanScoy said. &#8220;It&#8217;s part of life. I know he was going to go someday. The world has lost a great person and ambassador.</p><p>&#8220;He had no enemies. He wasn&#8217;t judgmental &#8211; just caring and compassionate.&#8221;</p><p>In 1980, the 16-year-old VanScoy only trained for a year at Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s Tobin Lane Gym before a moment of audacity suddenly gave him a chance to learn the sport from arguably its greatest figure. He saw on Disney&#8217;s Wide World of Sports that Ali had an amateur team. He drove down to Ali&#8217;s Deer Lake camp in Schuylkill County and spent weekends at the facility. VanScoy impressed the boxer, his trainers and coaches &#8212; who offered him an invitation to the team.</p><p>&#8220;He should be admired,&#8221; Van Scoy&#8217;s father Tommy, owner of the diamond jewelry chain stores, told Times Leader in 1980. &#8220;He gave up his van, his friends, everything to go out on his own.&#8221;</p><p>VanScoy spent one year with the Muhammad Ali Sports Inc. Amateur Team. A winner of the Central Pennsylvania Golden Gloves, he fought in 165 fights and amassed a career 157-8 (.951) record in the 119-to-165 weight classes. He often sparred in front of thousands and competed against several future Olympians.</p><p>His fondest memories of The Greatest was the 1980 summer spent at the Deer Lake camp with him and visiting his house in Los Angeles.</p><p>&#8220;He was bigger than boxing,&#8221; VanScoy said. &#8220;He was the same type of person that everyone always says he was outside of the ring. His kindness still reflects on me today.&#8221;</p><p>Ali&#8217;s battle with Parkinson&#8217;s Disease resonated with VanScoy, whose sister Betsy passed away due to a neurological disease (Lou Gehrig&#8217;s Disease) in 2007. VanScoy said he last spoke to the Ali family three years ago when he called his wife to tell her of Finnish research he read about on a possible cure for Parkinson&#8217;s, Multiple Sclerosis and ALS.</p><p>VanScoy anticipated that many of Friday&#8217;s speeches will focus on his philanthropic contributions and larger-than-life persona.</p><p>&#8220;A lot has been said in the media about the type of person he was out of the ring,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And really, as impressive as he was in the sport, his accomplishments outside of the ring are his greatest achievements. He was one of a kind.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">As a teenager, area boxer Tommy Van Scoy was recruited by Muhammad Ali to join the heavyweight champion&#8217;s amateur team and spent a summer training under the boxer who became known as &#8220;The Greatest.&#8221; Van Scoy, who did not attend Ali&#8217;s memorial Friday, vowed to watch the three-hour remembrance on television. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_van-scoy.jpg</photo0><caption0>As a teenager, area boxer Tommy Van Scoy was recruited by Muhammad Ali to join the heavyweight champion&#8217;s amateur team and spent a summer training under the boxer who became known as &#8220;The Greatest.&#8221; Van Scoy, who did not attend Ali&#8217;s memorial Friday, vowed to watch the three-hour remembrance on television. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Jay Monahan</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @ TLSports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Tommy Van Scoy remembers being touched by “The Greatest”