Mario Tonelli
Running back, American football player
1916 – 2003
Who was Mario Tonelli?
Mario Tonelli 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.
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- Born
- Mar 27, 1916
Lemont - Education
- University of Notre Dame
- Lived in
- Lemont
- Died
- Jan 7, 2003
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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"Mario Tonelli." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 Jun 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/biography/mario-tonelli/m/0crdkh4>.
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