When it comes to organizing an event — athletic or otherwise — there are those who volunteer to help and those who actually do the work.

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Bill Motto is a doer … He’s been organizing, coordinating, doing the heavy lifting for community events in the greater Syracuse area for over four decades.  Few, if any, have done it as well as Bill.  He has chaired countless committees, not simply organizing, but personally getting things done.  Just to list a few of the organizations and events he’s been associated with since the 1980s:  Syracuse Sports Corporation — he was president for more than 20 years, helping to bring the National Sr. Olympics and many other national and regional competitions to town … MONY Syracuse Seniors Pro Golf Classic — chairing tournament operations, overseeing 700 volunteers, 22 committees, 35 chair people annually … Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau Advisory Board… Chair of Chamber of Commerce’s Sports Advisory Committee … And our Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame — serving as president, as a member of the Executive Committee, not to mention the time-consuming task of Dinner Chairm for more than a dozen years.

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As owner of Bill Motto Consulting, he was Tournament Director of the Alliance Bank FUTURES Golf Classic.  And as partner in Motto LaGuardia Events with the late Joe LaGuardia, Bill was Tournament Director of the LPGA Symetra Tour’s Credit Union Classic.  MLE also coordinated aspects of various concerts, including Dave Matthews Band, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan.

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Somehow Bill Motto found time to be a tenured assistant professor at Cazenovia College, directing and teaching in the Sports Management program, while coaching the women’s basketball team to postseason play each of his four years as head coach and was the chairman of the NEAC Women’s Basketball Coaches.  Previously, he was an assistant at SUNY-Oneonta, where the 1977 men’s team reached the NCAA Division III championship game.  Recently, he was a 10-year assistant to Onondaga Community College’s women’s basketball coach Mike Wheeler.  Winning 84 percent (276-52) of their games, the OCC women’s teams captured nine conference titles, earning three National Jr. College Tournament berths.

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Motto even wrote a weekly sports and community affairs column for Brown Newspapers in the early ‘80s and later coached youth league sports in Skaneateles.

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Bill has also had his moments as an athlete.  At Solvay High in 1968, he led the county in hitting (.468), was first team All-County in baseball, and Honorable Mention All-County in basketball.  In 1967, he received the Cornell Award for a scholastic-athlete.  He played college baseball and basketball at UAlbany.  Over the years, Motto has been a single-digit golfer — a club champion at Foxfire, Sr. club champ at Links at Erie Village and 15-time Interclub team member at various courses.  He started the Radisson Greens Invitational with Bob Braunitzer, later initiating that event at Erie Village. 

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Bill and his wife, Kathy, have four children and six grandchildren.

A member of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce’s Volunteer Wall of Fame and Oneonta State’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Bill Motto now becomes a member of the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 2022.