NEW ALBANY — Muhammad Ali, Rick Pitino, Grace Naville and Mike Ricke are all connected by an infinite flame.

In 1996, the heavyweight boxing champion, the University of Louisville Men’s Basketball coach and the two Floyd County residents — one of whom is now deceased — all bore a torch carrying the Olympic flame.

The procession began in Los Angeles and winded through a good portion of the country before ending with Ali’s lighting of the Olympic torch in Atlanta. On June 5, 1996, the flame entered New Albany from Charlestown Road, and Ricke and Naville — who died in 2007 — were among the few local residents chosen to carry it with specific torches through the city.

For $275, the bearers were able to purchase the torch they were given to carry the flame. Naville bought her torch, and her family said she proudly displayed it and offered it for viewing to others as a symbol of community pride.

“She would take it to anybody, any organization that asked,” said Maralind Hess, Naville’s great niece.

After Naville’s death, the torch would eventually be donated to the Floyd County Padgett Museum. In honor of the 2012 London Olympics — with the opening ceremony scheduled for today — Naville’s family requested the torch be put on display at the New Albany Vintage Fire Museum and Education Center.

Museum officials, Hess, and two more of Naville’s great nieces, Terri Jones and Michaelle Fisher, gathered at the museum Thursday as the torch was unveiled. For at least the next three Saturdays, the torch will be on display in a case donated by Bruce Fox Inc., and the museum is offering half price admission as a result.

“We are just grateful for the fact that the people who were custodians of the torch wanted to bring it here,” said Curt Peters, president of the fire museum’s board.

After the flame has been passed on, the torches are never supposed to be lit again, Hess said. Fisher, Jones and Hess spoke about that June day when Naville, who was 83 at the time, proudly carried the torch down the middle of Charlestown Road.

“I mean we had to fight people to get to see her,” said Jones in reference to the crowd that gathered along Charlestown Road to see the relay.

Ricke clearly remembers those moments, as he was the 130th torch bearer that day. Naville was number 129, and she passed the flame along to him. He said it was the biggest example of community and national pride he’d ever encountered, with people lining the sides of the street three and four rows deep to cheer on the procession.

Ricke said he was surprised by how many people attended the event.

“Everyone of course wanted pictures, they wanted to touch the torch,” he said. “And to be able to make that many people happy, that was just an awesome feeling.”

He quickly confirmed that the crowd wasn’t cheering for him, but for the spirit of the Olympics and the fact that the U.S. was the host country. Ricke’s torch is displayed in his office, and he donated the official Olympics torch-bearer flag he received to the Floyd County branch of the YMCA of Southern Indiana. It’s exhibited on a wall near the walking track on the second floor of the YMCA.

Ricke loves to run, and still runs triathlons. But he conceded the quarter mile he carried the torch and flame through was “the slowest I’ve ran since I was 1 years old.”

“I wanted to make it last. I knew where I was running too, and it’s not everyday you get to run down Charlestown Road and there are five and six people on both sides of the street cheering wildly,” he said.

Ricke added he ran at a snail’s pace to ensure everyone had a chance to see the torch, to feel the pride of having such a symbolic and historic event occur in the heart of New Albany.

Eventually veering off on Silver Street, the relay turned onto Spring Street where it winded to Clarksville and followed the Falls of the Ohio, eventually crossing the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge into Louisville. The flame ended up being carried to the Belvedere in Louisville, escorted there by Pitino, who was the last runner of the day.

Local historian Stephen Pacciano was one of the organizers that helped arrange the torch display at the fire museum. He said the next three Saturdays will provide possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity for people to view the torch locally.

“Parents should be inspired to bring their child in here to be photographed in front of the torch,” he said.

Past Olympians and celebrities were tabbed to carry the torch in 1996, but there were about 5,000 people also chosen because of their volunteerism. Ricke and Naville were two such people picked to be torch bearers because of their community service records.

Ricke said it was an honor to represent his family, community and country. Like her relatives who praised her giving spirit and said she would be proud that the torch would be displayed at the museum, Ricke said Naville was a woman who thought of others first.

“I knew Grace, but I also knew of her kind deeds, and more importantly how much other people thought of her and how highly they thought of her,” he said.

The fire museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. It is located at 411 E. Spring St. in downtown New Albany.