The coal mines in Northeast Pennsylvania run deep into the hillsides. Perhaps that is what makes the Anthracite region natives so unique, so different, and so much full of loyalty to its sons and daughters.

Gene "Bucko" Kilroy lost his closest, dearest and most revered friend late Friday night when "The Greatest" heavyweight boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali, passed away due to complications from Parkinson's disease at the age of 74, in Scottsdale, Ariz."I was as close to Ali as I was to my brothers," Kilroy said via phone from his home in Las Vegas, Neveda early Saturday morning.Few people know how close the Mahanoy City native truly was to the champ.Kilroy helped to launch Ali's comeback career when he was able to connect with the right people in securing a boxing license. Ali's license to box was suspended after he refused induction into the United States Military during the Vietnam War for religious reasons after his conversion to Islam.Ali had won his first world heavyweight boxing championship Feb. 25, 1964 defeating then world champion Sonny Liston in seven rounds on a TKO. He later would fight Liston a second time and knocked Liston out in the first round.Ali won his first 28 professional fights before his license was suspended and was forced to quit the boxing game, unable to secure a license to fight anywhere in the United States. That is until a coal region guy came along.Kilroy was working in New York City at MGM as director of promotions, when he befriended the late Ted Kennedy, a rising young Democratic senator from Massachusetts. He had numerous conversations with Kennedy, and broached the subject of Ali and helping to get his license back.Kilroy had met Ali during the 1960 Olympics. "I was in the service and I had the best opportunity in the world come into my lap. I met Ali, who was Cassius Clay at that time, and we formed an everlasting bond. Kennedy was able to help us out."The rest was history for the marriage between Kilroy and Ali."Ali trusted me, and we connected immediately," said Kilroy. "I watched over him, I tried to never let anyone take advantage of him."Kilroy became the business manager for Ali, and that meant he was the head of all of Ali's operations. Kilroy would meet with the great promoters in the boxing industry to be sure that Ali was going to be taken care of the proper way. That included the gate, the right places to stay, and keeping Ali in the limelight.Kilroy would always head to the city or country where Ali's next fight was being staged to lay out all of the little things that turn into big things when a fighter arrived for his bout.So it was imperative that Kilroy head to Zaire, Africa with additional support staff, nearly a year before the scheduled fight with George Foreman, who was then the heavyweight champ."We had been negotiating with Foreman's people 12 months before that fight," Kilroy said during an interview in October of 2014 - 40 years after the fight. "I took two other people with me, and I wanted to make sure that everything would be just right when it came down to the fight."We met with the bus boys, the managers of the hotel, the house cleaning people, the chefs and all the cooks. I wanted to make sure that nothing would go wrong. The country is very poor, and the workers back then hardly got paid. But I made sure they were taken care of."Nothing went uncovered during the prefight visits."I made sure that whatever he needed, I was going to get it for him," said Kilroy.Kilroy wanted to make sure the champ had little distractions during his rise in the boxing world. He had a tremendous game plan for Ali, and that included moving him into Schuylkill County, away from the bright lights of the national media."I went to Bernard Pollock and offered to buy his farm, where I wanted to have Ali train and not have to worry about the media coming in and distracting him," Kilroy said as he thought back to the early 1970s. "There was a total of 10 acres We had carpenters come in, and bought all the lumber from Flidge DiCasimirro who owned the Mahanoy City Lumber Company."The only people showing up at the camp were the locals and that was by design, too. Kilroy invited guests from all over.And Ali felt very comfortable around everyone from the coal region. He once quipped: "If you are a friend of Gene Kilroy, you are a friend of mine. Gene is the best man that I know."Kilroy, once called "The Facilitator" during a full spread on Ali in Sports Illustrated in 1976, made sure Ali had some fun time, too.He was aware that Ali fancied himself an amateur magician and that he loved eerie, spooky movies."I called the (Strand) theater in Shenandoah, and I wanted to bring everyone up to the movie. So I rented it for Ali, his kids, his wife, and all his sparring partners. They were showing a double feature, with Boris Karloff and the Mummy."I bought the whole movie out for the night. Ali loved to eat popcorn and he would kid around like he was part of the movie. He would sneak up behind his children, and everyone in the movie, and scare them. We had this coach bus parked on South Main Street, right across from the theater. People were passing by and noticed this big (luxury) bus. When the champ came out, he was mobbed. He was signing autographs. He just loved that type of attention."Ali often was noted as a fighter with extremely quick hands, and that's what made him such a special heavyweight boxer. Usually, the lightweights and featherweight boxers possess those special gifts, but it was Ali's hands, and his quick feet, that set him apart from other heavyweights.Schuylkill County swelled with pride because Ali set up shop at the former Pollock Farms in Deer Lake. Pollock was a furrier back in the day and raised minks for his furs. When Kilroy had Ali and his entourage set up camp, it was a boom to a lot of small business operators, including Roma Tailors and its owner Romolo Laureti and his brother Joe, of Pottsville, who is one of the best at making suits in the country."Gene Kilroy was the one who brought Ali to my shop," said Laureti on Saturday afternoon after hearing of Ali's passing. "Of all the famous athletes that I made garments for, Ali was one of the nicest guys you ever want to meet."Ali wanted special nylon jackets for all his fighters who were (training) at the camp, and anyone who worked there. We made the jackets with Muhammad Ali's name on the back. I will tell you something, you couldn't find a better man than Muhammad Ali… I truly mean that, it was my pleasure to work with him."Ali was a kind person," continued Laureti, who lives in Shenandoah Heights. "You know he was a jokester who loved to laugh. But on the serious side, he was very concerned about (troubled) children. Those were kids that came from poor backgrounds, but Ali would sit and talk with them. It bothered him… he really wanted to make sure that they were heard, and he wanted to help them in any way possible."Laureti said Ali called him 'Mr. Tailor.' "He would call me up, and say 'Mr. Tailor, my wife needs somethings. Can you please help her?' He respected everyone. And it was Gene Kilroy that did a lot for a lot for Schuylkill County by bringing Ali here, especially for the business people. Gene wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of by having Ali at his camp in Deer Lake."Ali wasn't just training at his camp site, he also got involved in the United Cerebral Palsy of Schuylkill County with its charitable causes, including a Walkathon. Ali was honorary chairman back in 1973 and 1974, and twice came to Cardinal Brennan High School to present the student body with a trophy for the highest dollars raised at the Walkathon."We were told there was an assembly in the gym," remembered Cathy (Milewski) Melfi, now living in Cape May, NJ, who was a freshman at the time. "In walks Ali, high-fiving kids all the way down the center aisle of the Field House to the stage. The crowd went wild! He spoke with such authenticity and passion - A heart of gold."Of course he joked and entertained like only he could … sparring with football coach Bill Kirelawich. It was great! And so cool to have this larger than life hero visit our school. I'll never forget that day. It's still fresh in my mind. Best assembly ever!"Very few people knew Ali's talents. The guy could sing, said John Sanko, who lives in the Connyngham Valley with his wife, Joanne, and is a music buff."Ali had a very good voice, so good that he appeared on the Dick Clark Show," said Sanko, who hails from Shenandoah and is a retired guidance counselor from Berwick. "I believe he made two albums, one of them, ironically, was called 'The Greatest'. Here I am watching on television on a Saturday, and I remember he was wearing this spiffy personally designed grey suit by tailor Romolo Laureti."And the song he was singing?Stand By Me - a remake of the Ben E. King song.It's a song that is so fitting for the late Muhammad Ali's dearest and closest friend - Gene Kilroy: A coal cracker from Mahanoy City who never forgot where he came from.Because Gene definitely stood by his man!