Relatives, friends, boxers – including Ali – pay tribute to Angelo Dundee

As projectors flashed photographs on three screens inside the massive Countryside Christian Center, a familiar voice sang out.

It was Muhammad Ali's voice – from a 1963 recording of the song 'Stand By Me.'

To those gathered Friday in memory of Angelo Dundee, longtime trainer, mentor and friend of Ali and many other boxers, the recording struck a fitting note.

Dundee, who lived in Palm Harbor, died Feb. 1 of a heart attack. He was 90.

"No, I won't be afraid; no, I won't be afraid... Just as long as you stand by me."

Dundee stood by Ali for two decades, as the boxer solidified himself as a three-time heavyweight champion and arguably the best ever to set foot inside a ring.

On Friday, relatives and friends – including Ali – were on hand to offer and hear recollections of Dundee, who was born Angelo Mirena Jr. in Philadelphia in 1921. He wasn't just a master motivator in the boxing ring, training and inspiring champions such as Ali, Carmen Basilio, "Sugar" Ray Leonard and George Foreman.

He also was a wildly successful family man.

Dundee is survived by son Jimmy and daughter Terri. His wife, Helen, died in 2010.

"Dad was a great family man," Jimmy Dundee said. "A perfect example: Dad traveled his whole life and he was gone a great deal. When he came back, he always had this kind of guilty feeling that he didn't spend enough time."

That meant, upon returning to the family's Miami home, Saturday and Sundays were for his kids. He took them to a gym to play around, and to games at the Miami Beach Auditorium, next to Jackie Gleason's office.

"We used to play back there with all the props," Jimmy Dundee said, laughing at the memory. "That was our camp with dad. We'd have lunch with Muhammad or lunch with Jimmy Ellis.

"Dad was a great guy. He cared about stuff like that."

Mel Dick stood at a podium at the front of the church, just behind his longtime friend's closed casket. He squeezed shut his eyes and held out both hands, recounting his first meeting with Dundee.

"I can see it," Dick said. "I'm still there in Stillman's Gym."

That day in 1948, 12-year-old Dick was determined to meet boxers, so he went to the gym on Eighth Avenue in New York City. His initial attempts at autographs, photos and handshakes brought shoos and terse looks. Until he met a guy everyone called "Angie".

Dundee whisked him upstairs to watch a group of fighters train. Tony Genaro, Archie Moore and Rocky Graziano were among the boxers he met that day.

"I am certain that when God created Angelo Dundee," Dick said, "He took a little extra pain and a lot of extra time to make a very special man."

That's how Lonnie Ali remembers the man who played an essential role in her husband's life and career.

"When I think about Angelo, I will always think about how wonderful he was, how giving he was [and] to the end how much he loved Muhammad," Lonnie Ali said.

"He always loved Muhammad. He would call him and send little notes and I would always get little notes in the mail to me, 'Lonnie, show this to Muhammad.' It would be a picture of Muhammad and some fighters. He never forgot him and that was Angie."

In 2008, Dundee told The Tampa Tribune, "I could teach a dead rat to be deader."

Or, more accurately, Dundee could teach a good boxer how to be a champion. Even better, he could turn a stranger into a friend.