What would Bill Willis think?
What would Marion Motley think?
And what does Mike Brown think?
That’s immediately what I thought when I heard that the Browns on Thursday were the recipient of the first John Wooten Award, designed to recognize and honor NFL teams that embody workplace diversity, equity and inclusion across their hierarchy.
The recognition came from the Fritz Pollard Alliance, a nonprofit organization comprised of scouts, coaches and front-office personnel in the NFL as well as other sports professionals committed to equal opportunity in the industry.
Wooten, a member of the Cleveland Browns Legends after a career as an offensive guard from 1959-67, served as chairman of the Alliance until retiring in 2019.
Willis, from Columbus East High School and Ohio State, where he played on the Buckeyes’ first national championship team in 1942, was a member of the Browns from 1946-53 as a middle guard. He played in Cleveland for head coach Paul Brown, his college coach, and, along with fullback Marion Motley, a Canton McKinley High product who played for the Browns during those same eight seasons, permanently broke the color barrier not just in football but in all pro sports coming out of World War II when they first took the field for the Browns in that first game on Sept. 6, 1946. Both men, along with Brown, are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
I had the opportunity, honor and privilege to meet Willis when I was working for the Browns. It was 2006 and the club invited him — and his two sons — to come to a Downtown Cleveland hotel where, in a small conference room, we filmed a question-and-answer session with him talking about his Browns career and the tremendous racism he faced.
It was the coolest interview I ever had while working with the Browns. With Willis having done something to push race inclusivity forward that was well beyond just football-related, it was as if I was in the Smithsonian and a statue of a famous person suddenly came to life, stepped down off the display area, sat down next to me and began talking. I was so nervous that my knees were actually knocking together. Most of the other Browns interviews I did, didn’t cause suh nervousness and awe. But they weren’t with someone with the life that Willis lived.
That Willis was a perfect gentleman, and as classy of a person as you could ever meet, simply added to the experience.
Willis passed away a little over a year later, at the end of November 2007, and I was part of a small contingent representing the Browns at his funeral at a big church in Downtown Columbus. None of the Browns hierarchy bothered to show up, which did not set with me, especially considering who Willis was and what he was. Then Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, who was getting his team ready to play in the national championship game a month later, also didn’t show, which annoyed me as well.
But Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown, the son of Paul Brown, made it a point to show up for the 10 a.m. funeral, even though he had to get up extra early and drive to Columbus from Pittsburgh, where his team had played a Monday Night Football game against the Steelers that ended only 12 hours earlier. I was extremely impressed by that. What a class move.
And Brown didn’t just come, but rather he provided the best comments of any of the eulogists. He attended Shaker Heights High School while his dad was coaching those early, great Browns teams, and told of hanging around the club’s locker room and getting to meet the many great players.
“I looked up to all of those guys. I idolized them,” Brown said. “But my biggest heroes were Bill Willis and Marion Motley. They were tremendous to me.”
Today’s Browns, with all of the inclusivity and diversity, are merely continuing the efforts started by Paul Brown, who was signing African American players when most other teams in pro sports weren’t even considering it. In fact, Branch Rickey, the owner of baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers, looked at what Paul Brown did with Willis and Motley and it gave him the impetus to sign Jackie Robinson — but not until a full eight months later — as that sport’s first African American player.
Mike Brown is one of the last strong connections to Paul Brown. Once he is gone, then those stories will go away, many of them forever.
So, while Brown, a Massillon native who is 86, is still here to enjoy it, I hope the Bengals defeat the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 56 on Sunday night. In fact, it is one of many reasons — but perhaps the strongest — I’m pulling for them.
By Steve King
