center but often dropping back into coverage to defend the pass. He had a playing style and physique similar to that of the modern-day linebacker. For Brown, signing Willis and Motley was nothing unusual. Brown had black players on his teams from the time he coached at Massillon Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio. The coach did not care about race one way or the other; he wanted to field the best team he could. "I never considered football players black or white, nor did I keep or cut a player just because of his color", Brown wrote in his autobiography. In joining the Browns in 1946, Willis and Motley were two of four professional football players who broke the color barrier in 1946, a year before Jackie Robinson became Major League Baseball's first black player in the modern era. Brown later added other black players to the team, including Horace Gillom and Len Ford. With the Browns, Willis became an anchor on defense as the team dominated the AAFC. The team won each of the league's four championship games before the AAFC folded and the Browns, along with two other teams, were absorbed by the National Football League (NFL) following the 1949 season. Willis was named to all-AAFC teams in every year of its existence. While the team was a success, Willis and Motley contended with their share of racism. They were taunted, stepped on and insulted on the field. Off-the-field incidents also occurred. In their first season in 1946, Willis and Motley did not travel to a game against the Miami Seahawks after they received threatening letters and Miami officials said they would invoke a Florida law that forbade black players from competing against whites. Another time, a hotel where the team was staying asked Willis and Motley to leave. Brown threatened to move the entire team, and the hotel's management backed down. Willis and Motley were forced to stay in a separate hotel for a 1949 AAFC all-star game in Houston, Texas. The Browns' success continued when the team entered the NFL in 1950. In a playoff game that year against the New York Giants, Willis caught up with running back Gene "Choo-Choo" Roberts on a breakaway reception in the fourth quarter to prevent the touchdown and ensure a Browns victory. "I knew it meant the ball game", he said. "I just had to catch him." The