Mario Tonelli
Date of birth | March 27, 1916 |
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Place of birth | Chicago, Illinois |
Date of death | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. |
Career information | |
Position(s) | Running back |
College | University of Notre Dame |
Career history | |
As player | |
1940 | Chicago Cardinals |
Mario Tonelli (March 27, 1916 – January 7, 2003) was a professional American football player who played running back for one season for the Chicago Cardinals
A sergeant in the US Army 200th Coast Artillery who survived the Bataan Death March. During the Death March his Notre Dame class ring was stolen by a Japanese guard. Miraculously it was returned by an English speaking Japanese Officer who had been educated at the University of Southern California and had seen Tonelli score the winning touchdown in the 1937 game between the two schools. Tonelli later buried the ring in a metal soap dish beneath his prison barracks to confound would be thieves. Later he was transferred to Davo Penal Colony "Dapecol." Of the 2,009 estimated total number of POWs that were in Dapecol during its existence from October 1942- June 1944 only 805 would survive the war. He had the nickname "Motts" while in the Army and as a Prisoner of war.[1]
References
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External links
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- 1916 births
- 2003 deaths
- American football running backs
- Chicago Cardinals players
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players
- American military personnel of World War II
- American prisoners of war in World War II
- Bataan Death March prisoners
- United States Army personnel
- People from Lemont, Illinois
- American people of Italian descent
- American football running back, 1910s birth stubs