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Mario George Tonelli (March 27, 1916 – January 7, 2003) was a professional American football player who played running back for one season for the Chicago Cardinals. He was drafted in the 21st round of the 1939 NFL Draft.

A staff 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 Davao 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.

References

1. "1939 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
2. Lukacs, John (2010). Escape From Davo: the Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War. USA: NAL Caliber, a division of Penguin Group. pp. 64, 79, 80, 102, 106, 160, 293. ISBN 978-0-7432-6278-1.

External links

• Career statistics from Pro Football Reference
• Mario Tonelli at Find a Grave

This biographical article relating to an American football running back born in the 1910s is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

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• 1916 births
• 2003 deaths
• American football running backs
• Chicago Cardinals players
• Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players
• United States Army personnel of World War II
• American prisoners of war in World War II
• Bataan Death March prisoners
• United States Army soldiers
• People from Lemont, Illinois
• American people of Italian descent
• 20th-century American sportsmen
• American football running back, 1910s birth stubs