Sheldon Arthur "Shelly" Saltman (August 17, 1931, in Boston – February 16, 2019, in Los Angeles) was a promoter of major sports and entertainment events including the worldwide promotion of the Muhammad Ali / Joe Frazier heavyweight championship boxing matches, creating the Andy Williams San Diego Golf Classic and helped to arrange the independent NFL Players Association games during the 1982 NFL season strike.
Saltman created, wrote, and produced shows for television such as Pro-Fan, Challenge of the NFL Cheerleaders (an early "reality" show), and the film Ring of Passion about the fights between American boxer Joe Louis and German champion Max Schmeling in the years leading up to World War II.
Shelly Saltman grew up during the Great Depression years as the child of Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Jewish parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
[citation needed] Saltman handled the worldwide promotion of the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier boxing championships, was co-creator of the 1970s "Challenge of the Sexes" TV shows, a key promoter and business partner in the failed Snake River Canyon rocket-cycle jump by motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, and for a time managed the careers of such sports stars as Canadian NHL hockey player Wayne Gretzky and American boxing champion Thomas Hearns.
[1] In 2007, Saltman released a second book, Fear No Evel: An Insider's Look at Hollywood, in which he told his side of the Knievel attack and chronicled his involvement in American sports and media.
[citation needed] After Knievel's death in late 2007, Saltman announced he would be suing the estate for the unpaid award from the civil suit, which he said amounted to over $100 million with interest.
[1] Saltman was married for almost 51 years to Mollie Heifetz, who died on July 1, 2007, after suffering from cancer and kidney disease.