Sports Illustrated’s July 13, 1998 issue features a cover photo featuring two smiling men. It asks the question, “Who’s that Guy with Howard Bingham?”. A subhead replies the question, “You don’t know Muhammad Ali until your best friend knows him.” Another better question is: Who was Howard Bingham? The first thing to learn is that he was a Mississippian, born in Jackson, and the son of a railroad worker who also doubled as a preacher. He was one of eight siblings in his family. Howard Bingham, who was 77 years old, died in Los Angeles on Dec. 15. He was best known as Ali’s friend and as his personal photographer. Bingham was more than just that. Bingham was a self-taught free lance photographer whose work appeared in Sports Illustrated, Ebony and Look magazines, as well as in his books. Kevin Bingham, a Ridgeland investment advisor and Howard’s first cousin, said that Howard was a big-family guy who never met anyone. He was a member of a large family and loved his family. He also loved Muhammad Ali. They were like brothers.” “They really were as close to brothers.” Kevin Bingham’s childhood memory of a large family gathering at his grandmother on Florence Street, near Jackson State is one of his favorite. Howard Bingham took his best friend, who was the world’s heavyweight champion. Kevin Bingham relates that he was 16, and Muhammad Ali was there. He started sparring with him, then he began to spew poetry, his own poems. He had poems on a variety of subjects memorized. It was amazing. He would bring up another topic and just write a poem. It would be perfectly timed. Howard Bingham was 4 years old when his family moved from Jackson, Mississippi to Los Angeles. Bingham attended Compton Junior College, Los Angeles. There he studied photography and was disqualified. He was still able to secure a job at the Los Angeles Sentinel as a photographer. He was there in 1962, when he was assigned to cover the boxing match of a young fighter from Louisville called Cassius Clay. Howard Bingham said that he covered the incident at a news conference in 1991. His brother and him were watching the girls as they passed by while I drove by the corner Broadway and 5th. “I asked them if we could take them on a ride,” Bingham said. He took them to the Dodge Dart to go to a bowling alley, his photo dark room, and then to his mother’s house for dinner. This was the beginning of a friendship that would last 54 years, until Ali’s passing in June. Howard Bingham covered Ali’s rise to prominence in boxing in the 1960s and his conversion to Islam. He also reported on his refusal to serve as an Army soldier during the Viet Nam War. He covered Ali’s return into the ring, all of his fights around world, and his visits to world leaders. He took literally hundreds of thousands photos of Ali. They were close friends throughout Ali’s four marriages, and through Ali’s fight with Parkinson’s. Howard Bingham thought Ali’s best photos were the behind-the scenes images and not the action shots. In 2002, Bingham stated that he didn’t think he took the right photos at the right time during fights. “When he was hit quite hard, I could not just keep taking pictures because I felt for him. Their friendship was so strong that he got hit and I got hit. Howard Bingham was, as you should know, a stutterer both as a child, and throughout adulthood. As we all know Ali was the smooth-talking, loquacious one. He never liked a microphone. Howard Bingham was almost Ali’s spokesperson later on in his life. Sports Illustrated reported that George Jackson, a former chief executive at Motown Records, said that their relationship was transcendental and almost metaphysical. The story of the evolution of these men’s lives is a fascinating one. It’s Howard moving into sunlight, and Ali cannot be understood. But Howard, his great friend, can. Howard was able to speak for Ali. “I think we became close friends because I didn’t want anything from him,” Bingham said to the Boston Globe in 2004. Howard Bingham was the one who coordinated Ali’s touching 1996 appearance at the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Games, Atlanta. Ali, shaking, raised a torch to ignite the Olympic flame. Jeffrey Wright played Bingham in the 2001 movie, “Ali”. He was also a producer. Although his work is most associated with Ali’s, Bingham has many other photography credits that are equally acclaimed. He spent weeks documenting people’s lives in Mound Bayou in 1969. The resulting spread in Life, which he published in 1969, is considered a classic. Howard Bingham was the antithesis of paparazzi who interfere in the lives stars. Stars like Paul McCartney and John Lennon, James Brown and Marvin Gaye, as well as Robert Redford and Richard Pryor were keen for Bingham’s permission to take their pictures. The legacy that Jackson’s preacher son left behind will be remembered most for is his long-lasting bond with Ali. To be remembered as a trusted friend and good friend. Mississippi Today’s sports columnist is Rick Cleveland. Check out his columns as well as his Sports Daily blog. Reach Rick at rcleveland@mississippitoday.org.