Breaking Through the LinesBreaking Through the Lines

A 1933 "gentleman's agreement" between NFL owners kept Black players out of the league for a dozen years. Marion Motley, a punishing fullback from Canton, Ohio, was one of four players who broke through that color line in 1946--a year before Jackie Robinson more famously reintegrated Major League Baseball. Among the four pioneering football players, Motley's career stood out. Over nine pro seasons, eight of them with the upstart Cleveland Browns, he was a force in the backfield as the team won four consecutive All-America Football Conference titles before making the jump to the NFL and shocking the league by winning another championship in their first season. Motley was recognized as one of the gridiron's most outstanding players in 1968 when he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his hometown of Canton. His legacy off the field helped blaze a path for Black athletes in the highest echelons of professional sports. Yet, the story of one of the sport's greatest and most impactful players remains unknown to most Americans. This book brings Marion Motley back to the forefront. Longtime Northeast Ohio journalist David Lee Morgan Jr. shares Motley's life story of adversity, personal tragedy, and triumphs using archival records as well as new interviews with historians, friends, and descendants"--Back cover.