Pro Football- Marion Motley

When Mr. Marion Motley was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at Canton, Ohio in 1968, it was a homecoming for him. The powerful fullback grew in Canton and learned his early football at McKinley High School there. Mr. Motley spent one year at South Carolina State and then transferred to the University of Nevada. He had played some football at the Great Lakes Naval Station eariler. When Mr. Motley joined Cleveland in 1946 , the team was playing in the All- America Conference. In four years in that league, Mr. Motley was the AAC’s leading rusher , gaining  3, 024 yards. He also scored 26 touchdowns and provided quarterback  Mr. Otto Graham with excellent pass protection.  Cleveland moved into the NFL in 1950, and the league’s rushing champion that season was Mr. Motley , who averaged 5.8  yards per carry and rushed  for 810 yards. For four seasons in the NFL, Mr. Motley averaged 5.0 yards per carry , an impressive figure. But he did even better than that in the AAC, averaging 6.2 yards  per carry  for his career there and a remarable 8.2  his rookie season, when he gained 601 yards in just 73 attempts. The 6-1, 238 pound  Mr. Motley’s  greatest game  came on October 29, 1950 , during the Browns’  first year in the NFL . Cleveland played Pittsburgh that day and the big fullback carried the ball just 11 times but gained 188 yards. The average of 17.09  yards per attempt remains an NFL record  for a single game by a running back. For his NFL career , Mr. Motley gained 1, 696 yards. That increased his pro production to 4, 720 yards. Earlry in his career, Mr. Motley was a standout linebacker and Cleveland  often used him on their goal-line defensive . It was on offensive , however, that Mr. Motley found his way back home to Canton, Ohio. God Bless Marion Motley !