Motley, Football Pioneer, Dies After Battling Cancer

Marion Motley, a bruising fullback for the Cleveland Browns and one of the first black players of the modern era of pro football, died Sunday morning. He was 79.

Motley, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, had been fighting prostate cancer for at least a year. He died at his son’s Cleveland home, Hall of Fame spokesman Joe Horrigan said.

Motley, a 6-foot-1, 240-pounder who was one of the first “big backs,” rushed for 4,720 yards in nine pro seasons.

He led the NFL in rushing with 810 yards in 1950, the Browns’ first season in the league, and was also the All-America Football Conference’s leading career rusher with 3,024 yards. The Browns won the AAFC championship all four years the league existed.

Before Motley, pro teams in the modern era didn’t have black players. The Browns made history in 1946 when they signed Motley and teammate Bill Willis. That same season Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, who also were black, signed with the Cleveland Rams of the NFL.

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Angelo B. Bertelli, the first of Notre Dame’s seven Heisman Trophy winners and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, died of brain cancer at his home in Clifton, N.J. He was 78.

Bertelli won college football’s highest honor during a 1943 season shortened by service in the U.S. Marine Corps. He played six games for the Fighting Irish before being called to active duty in World War II.

Notre Dame went undefeated during Bertelli’s shortened season, outscoring opponents, 261-31. Bertelli completed 70% of his passes, 25 of 36 for 512 yards and 10 touchdowns with four interceptions.

Basketball

Vickie Johnson scored 14 points to lead the New York Liberty to a 72-58 WNBA victory over the Charlotte Sting before 13,337 at Madison Square Garden. . . . Yugoslavia and Lithuania, the favorites to win the gold medal, advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Championship of basketball with impressive victories over Spain and Croatia in France.

Boxing

Portions of boxing promoter J. Russell Peltz’s $1-million collection of boxing artifacts, ranked among the best in the world, were destroyed by a firebomb early Friday in Philadelphia. Witnesses told police that three men in a light-colored pickup truck stopped at Peltz’s office, and two of them tossed two Molotov cocktails through the front window.

Miscellany

Former tennis great Arthur Ashe and former presidents George Bush and Gerald Ford were among 20 inductees into the new International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame on the campus of Rhode Island. . . . Pat Barnes and Andy McCullough connected on three touchdown pass plays as the Frankfurt Galaxy defeated the Barcelona Dragons, 38-24, in the World Bowl at Dusseldorf, Germany.

Former NHL defenseman Bryan Fogarty was arrested at Brantford, Canada, and charged with drug possession after a break-in at a local school, police said.

Fogarty, who battled alcohol dependence when he played in the NHL from 1989-1995, signed with the Chicago Blackhawks in September as a free agent, but spent the season in the minor leagues.

Mike Whitmarsh of San Diego and David Swatik of Manhattan Beach defeated Canyon Ceman and Brian Lewis, 15-6, in the finals of the Belmar Open beach volleyball tournament at Belmar, N.J.

Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie won easily at the British Grand Prix at Gateshead, England, winning the Emsley Carr Mile in three minutes 52.39 seconds, more than three seconds ahead of Britain’s John Maycock. . . . French colt and 13-8 favorite Montjeu stormed home from the back of the field to win the $1.12 million Irish Derby at Curragh, Ireland.

Tom Wilkens set a meet record by winning the men’s 200 breast in 2:15.51 on the final day of the Santa Clara International Invitational swim meet.

Five-time Olympic champion Jenny Thompson also won two events for a total of five victories in the meet.

Japan’s college all-stars defeated the United States, 8-5, in Game 4 of the U.S.-Japan collegiate baseball championship series at Hirosaki, Japan.