was unlikely for Willis when he graduated from Ohio State in 1945. While the exclusion of black players was not a written rule, no African-American had played in the National Football League since 1933. The gentlemen's agreement had been in effect ever since segregationist George Preston Marshall entered the league as owner of the Boston Redskins. In his physical prime but with no real prospect of playing professionally, Willis took a job as the head football coach at Kentucky State College in the fall of 1945. Kentucky State, an historically black school, played against other small black schools near its campus in Frankfort. Willis, however, still wanted to play football. "My heart was not really in coaching", he later said. He read that Paul Brown was coaching a team in the newly formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC), and he gave Brown a call. Brown said he would get back to Willis on a possible tryout. In the meantime, Willis was recruited by the Montreal Alouettes, a team in the Canadian Football League. Not hearing back from Brown, he planned to go play in Canada. Willis was about to leave for Montreal when Paul Hornung, a sportswriter for the Columbus Dispatch, called with a message from Brown. Hornung told Willis to go for a tryout in Bowling Green, Ohio, where the new team, the Cleveland Browns, was holding its training camp. Willis went to the camp and impressed Brown with his speed and reflexes, as he had at Ohio State. Brown lined him up against center Mo Scarry in practice on his first day. Willis beat him every time. Scarry complained that Willis was coming across the line before he snapped the ball. On one snap, Scarry stepped on quarterback Otto Graham's foot as he backpedaled to handle Willis. Brown took a look himself: Willis was not offside. He was getting a jump by watching for the center's fingers to tighten on the ball. "He was quick", said Alex Agase, who later joined the Browns as a guard. "I don't think there was anybody as quick at that position, or any position for that matter. He came off that ball with that ball as quick as anything you would want to see." Willis made the team, and 10 days later the Browns signed a second African-American player, fullback Marion Motley. Willis played middle guard for the Browns, lining up opposite the