Marion Motley
Marion Motley was one of the first four Black men to play professional football in the modern era. Motley grew up in Canton, Ohio and played in high school at Canton McKinley then at South Carolina State and Nevada before enlisting in the military during World War II. While training in the U.S. Navy in 1944, he played for a service team coached by Paul Brown. Following the war, he went back to work in Canton before Brown invited him to try out for the Cleveland Browns, a team he was coaching in the newly formed AAFC. Motley made the team in 1946 and became a cornerstone of Cleveland’s success in the late 1940s.
Breaking the color barrier along with teammate Bill Willis in September 1946, the two played their first game for the Cleveland Browns of the new All-America Football Conference. Marion Motley was the forerunner of the modern fullback. At a time when there were still 180-pounders running the ball, and 220-pound linemen were commonplace, Motley was a solid 6-foot-1, 232 pounds, and he had a sprinter’s speed. Motley was the AAFC’s leading rusher in 1948 with 964 yards in 14 games.
The team won four AAFC championships before the league dissolved and the Browns were absorbed by the more established NFL in 1950. That season Motley led the league in rushing with 810 yards on 140 carries (5.8 per rush), averaging less than a dozen carries per game in 12 games. With Motley, quarterback Otto Graham, receivers Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie and offensive lineman/kicker Lou Groza, the Browns had a potent offense. The Browns won the NFL Championship in 1950, the same year he led the league in rushing.
Cleveland Brown’s coach Paul Brown recognized Marion Motley’s talent early on and gave him the opportunity to excel in football. “Motley became our greatest fullback ever,” Brown would later write in his autobiography, “because not only was he a great runner, but also no one ever blocked better.” Motley and fellow Black teammate Bill Willis contended with racism throughout their careers. Although the color barrier was broken in all major American sports by 1950, the men endured shouted insults on the field and racial discrimination off of it. After retiring Marion Motley scouted players for the Browns, and wanted to coach.
At the time, racism frequently prevented minorities from obtaining coaching jobs and he was turned down on most offers. In 1968, Motley became the second Black player voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the first being Emelen Tunnel in 1967. Having played successfully as a fullback and pass blocker on offense and as a linebacker on defense, he is seen as one of the best all-around players in football history. He was a leading pass-blocker and rusher in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was a two-time Pro-Bowler as he averaged 5.7 yards per carry, a record for running backs that still stands.
Slowed by knee injuries, Motley left the Browns after the 1953 season. He attempted a comeback in 1955 as a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers but was released before the end of the year. Marion then pursued a coaching career, but was turned away by the Browns and other teams he approached. He attributed his trouble finding a job in football to racial discrimination, questioning whether teams were ready to hire a Black coach. A versatile player who possessed both quickness and size, Motley was a force on both offense and defense. Fellow Hall of Fame running back Joe Perry once called Motley “the greatest all-around football player there ever was“.