[2][3] Newell stood 5 feet, 10 inches, weighed approximately 170 pounds, and played every minute of every game for Harvard from 1890 to 1893.

In breaking through the line and nipping plays in the bud he is as good as ... Winter, with whom he will lock horns.

[6] Newell was known as "a deeply sensitive man, a compassionate fellow of heart and understanding in complete contrast to the ferocity with which he played the game of football.

When he left after a 22–0 victory over Michigan in his first year coaching at Cornell, The Syracuse Standard wrote: Marshall Newell, the Harvard man to whose coaching Cornell owes much of her success this year, left to-night for Harvard.

Newell made a short speech to the students after the game, in which he...predicted that if the present enthusiasm in football was continued Cornell would soon be ranked with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

[6] In 1928, syndicated sports writer Peg Murray recalled Newell as a "Pillar of Strength" and perhaps the greatest tackle in the history of the game: Among the great tackles of history, the name of Marshall Newell, of Harvard, stands out, not only for his fine playing, but also because of his wonderful character and the influence he exerted over those with whom he came in contact with as a player and a coach.

He was a whirlwind in action, a player of phenomenal strength, and made Walter Camp's All-American team for four years, from 1890 to '93 inclusive.

Newell, nicknamed 'Ma' back in his Phillips Exeter days, could use his hands as cleverly as Jim Driscoll, and was a master of position play ... Newell was beloved by all those that knew him, respected by his opponents as a true sportsman, and his tragic death in 1897 was mourned by thousands of friends.