1. Anthony Adamle was an American professional football player who was a linebacker and fullback in the All-America Football Conference and the National Football League.
40 Facts About Tony Adamle
1. 2.
Tony Adamle played his entire career for the Cleveland Browns before retiring to pursue a medical degree.
3.
Tony Adamle grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a star fullback on his Collinwood High School football team.
4.
Tony Adamle attended Ohio State University in 1942, but his college career was cut short by World War II.
5.
Tony Adamle soon dropped out of school and joined the Browns.
6.
Tony Adamle left the Browns after the 1951 season to pursue a medical degree, but he came out of retirement briefly in 1954 as the Browns won another NFL championship.
7.
Tony Adamle left football for good after the season, earning a medical degree from Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1956.
8.
Tony Adamle settled with his family in Kent, Ohio, where he ran a medical practice until his death in 2000.
9.
Tony Adamle was a team physician for his local high school and for Kent State University for more than 35 years.
10.
Tony Adamle was born in Fairmont, West Virginia to immigrants from Slovenia.
11.
Tony Adamle's family moved to Cleveland when he was a child, and he attended Collinwood High School on the city's east side.
12.
Tony Adamle was a standout fullback on his high school team and made a Cleveland-area All-Star squad in 1941 that matched up against a team of stars from Florida.
13.
Tony Adamle was "without question the best high school player I have ever seen," one Cleveland sports editor said after he was chosen as an all-star.
14.
Tony Adamle was named an All-Ohio player by the Associated Press and United Press International and earned three varsity letters in football in high school.
15.
Tony Adamle attended Ohio State University and was on the 1942 Ohio State Buckeyes freshman team, but left school prior to the 1943 season to fight in World War II.
16.
Tony Adamle was eligible to play for the Buckeyes again in 1947, but decided to leave school and join the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference.
17.
Tony Adamle had been selected with the 105th pick in the 1947 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, and he told Cleveland head coach Paul Brown, who coached Ohio State's varsity team between 1941 and 1943, that he would join the Bears if the Browns did not sign him.
18.
Tony Adamle may have been convinced to join the Browns by Gene Fekete, Dante Lavelli, Lou Groza and Bill Willis, four Browns players who were back at Ohio State to finish their studies after the 1946 season.
19.
Tony Adamle competed with Marion Motley at the position, and said he was "not working to be a second-stringer".
20.
Tony Adamle was a straight-talker and was not afraid to stand up to Brown, a cold disciplinarian who was the team's coach between 1946 and 1962.
21.
Tony Adamle, who was about 15 pounds lighter than Motley, started for a brief time as part of an offense led by quarterback Otto Graham, registering 23 carries for 95 yards on the season, a career-high.
22.
Tony Adamle returned to Ohio State in the offseason to continue his studies.
23.
Tony Adamle had 88 rushing yards and a touchdown that year.
24.
Tony Adamle filled in for an injured Motley at fullback for several games the following year while continuing to play as a linebacker.
25.
Tony Adamle had 64 rushing yards and made four interceptions, a career-high.
26.
Cleveland's success continued in the NFL in its 1950 season as Tony Adamle was named team captain, replacing Lou Saban following his retirement.
27.
Tony Adamle led the NFL with five fumble recoveries that year and was named a second-team All-Pro by the New York Daily News.
28.
Tony Adamle was again one of eight Browns chosen for the Pro Bowl after Cleveland's 1951 season, when the team reached the championship game but lost to the Los Angeles Rams.
29.
Tony Adamle was named a first-team All-Pro by United Press International and the New York Daily News after the season, when he had one interception and one fumble recovery.
30.
Tony Adamle finished college at Kent State University in 1950, earning a bachelor's degree, and received a master's degree in education from Western Reserve University in Cleveland in 1951.
31.
Upset by Brown's criticisms of the defense in the 1951 championship game, Tony Adamle left the Browns before the next season to enter medical school.
32.
Tony Adamle spent most of 1952 working as an orderly at Glenville Hospital in Cleveland, entering Western Reserve's medical school in September.
33.
Tony Adamle came out of retirement to play for the Browns at 30 years old in October 1954.
34.
Tony Adamle had been working as a scout for the Chicago Cardinals and was in his third year of medical school; he agreed to come back on the condition that he would only practice once a week so he could continue his studies.
35.
Tony Adamle quit football for good after the season and focused on his medical career.
36.
Tony Adamle settled in Kent, Ohio, where he ran a medical practice for the rest of his life.
37.
Tony Adamle served as the team doctor for Theodore Roosevelt High School and Kent State University for more than 35 years.
38.
Tony Adamle specialized in knee and neck injuries, and published articles about cold therapy and the use of Vitamin C in sports medicine.
39.
Tony Adamle died in 2000 after a seven-year battle with cancer.
40.
Tony Adamle's son, Mike Adamle, was a running back at Roosevelt High School and Northwestern University, and played professionally as a fullback for the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and Chicago Bears in the 1970s before becoming a sports broadcaster.