As a star linebacker for the Cleveland Browns in the 1940s and 1950s, Marion Motley invented the modern concept of the fullback. In 1946, he and three other players broke professional football's color barrier, helping set the stage for Jackie Robinson's desegregation of Major League baseball in 1947. Retiring with five championships and the universal respect of his peers, Motley returned to ordinary life as a black man in pre-Civil Rights Act America. Because his career pre-dated nationally televised football, Motley's name is largely unknown today, when a figure of his stature would enjoy celebrity as a coach or owner. This first ever biography tells the story of the football player Sports Illustrated's Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman described as the greatest ever to take the field.
- ISBN10 1476689121
- ISBN13 9781476689128
- Publish Date 16 September 2022
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country US
- Imprint McFarland & Co Inc
- Format Paperback
- Pages 277
- Language English