Marcus L. Dupree (born May 22, 1964) is a former American football player. He was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where his playing in high school attracted national attention. A highly touted and sought-after college football recruit, he played at Oklahoma, where he was named Football News Freshman of the Year, second team All-American and Big Eight Conference Newcomer of the Year. He left in the middle of his sophomore season and briefly attended the University of Southern Mississippi. Marcus played spring football for the Golden Eagles and finished college at the university.

High School Career

Dupree attended Philadelphia High School in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where he played for the Philadelphia Tornadoes high school football team from 1978 to 1981. He also competed in track & field, recording a 4.29 40-yard dash. As a freshman in 1978, he scored five touchdowns as wide receiver and seven more as a kickoff and punt returner, including a 75-yard kickoff return touchdown on his first play in high school. As a sophomore in 1979, he was switched to running back and rushed for 1,850 yards and scored 28 touchdowns. He also played on Philadelphia High’s basketball team, which finished the year with a 33-4 record and reached the semifinals of the Mississippi state basketball tournament, and played first base and catcher for the baseball team, hitting for a .481 average. As a junior in 1980, he rushed for 2,550 yards and scored 34 touchdowns (25 rushing, 9 by kick return). As a senior in 1981, he rushed for 2,955 yards and scored 36 touchdowns. He finished his high school career with 7,355 rushing yards with an 8.3-yards-per-carry average. Dupree scored 87 touchdowns total during his playing time in high school, breaking the national high school record (set by Herschel Walker) by one. In 1981, Marcus’s final high school football game was played on the Choctaw Indian Reservation’s tribal high school’s Warriors Stadium. Author Willie Morris described the audience at Dupree’s final high school game as “the most distinctive crowds I had ever seen … four thousand or so people seemed almost an equal of mix of whites, blacks, and Indians … After Marcus scored his touchdown, Sid Salter saw Cecil Price, Sr. (who was linked with the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Philadelphia, Miss.) who was … ‘jumping up and down and cheering as hard as anyone … ain’t that a kick in the pants?’ ” Dupree was heavily recruited by the major college football programs, and during the final month of the recruiting period, his high school coach, Joe Wood, answered more than 100 phone calls a day from colleges. Oklahoma assistant coach Lucious Selmon spent six weeks in the Downtown Motor Inn in Philadelphia, and after Dupree verbally committed to Fred Akers and the Texas Longhorns while on his visit there, OU head coach Barry Switzer sent former Oklahoma Sooner and Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims to the town by private plane to appeal to Dupree. On February 12, 1982, Dupree announced he would attend Oklahoma instead of the other finalists, Texas, UCLA, and Southern Miss.

College Career

When Dupree arrived at the University of Oklahoma in 1982, head coach Barry Switzer said, “He was the best player on the field. Earl Campbell was the only other guy I ever saw who was like that — physically ready, as a true freshman, to be the best player on a great college team. Maybe even ready for the NFL at that age.”

After the first three games of the season, Dupree had just twelve carries for 20 yards and the Sooners’ record was 1–2. For the fourth game Switzer abandoned his favored wishbone offense and made Dupree the tailback in the I formation to take advantage of his skills. Dupree scored his first college touchdown against Texas on a 63-yard fake reverse.

On October 16, 1982, he ran for 158 yards against Kansas, including a 75-yard touchdown run. As a result, he was given the starting tailback position over Stanley Wilson and was named Big Eight Offensive Player of the Week.[8] He made his first start against Oklahoma State and scored two touchdowns. Among all his other great runs, he also had a 77-yard punt return against Colorado, an 80-yard run against Kansas State, a 70-yard run against Missouri and an 86-yard run against Nebraska.

Despite not starting until the seventh game of the season, Dupree finished with 1,144 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns. He was named second team All-American, first team all-Big Eight Conference and Big Eight Newcomer of the Year.

On January 1, 1983, Dupree’s freshman season ended with a 32-21 Fiesta Bowl loss against Arizona State. Coming back from Christmas break, he was out of shape and 10–15 pounds overweight, for which Switzer publicly criticized him. He had to leave the game several times, participating in only 34 offensive plays. Even with these setbacks, he still managed to run for a Fiesta Bowl record 249 yards, a record that still stands today. Switzer told Dupree, “If you’d have been in shape, you’d have rushed for 400 yards, and we’d have won the game.”

Dupree’s much-anticipated sophomore season did not turn out as planned. He reported to campus late, missed the team photo and put on considerable weight. Although Switzer was known for running a loose ship, Dupree’s lackadaisical attitude was too much for him, and he called Dupree “lazy.” Hampered by injuries, Dupree gained 369 yards on 61 carries with three touchdowns while playing in four of the first five games of the season. After suffering a concussion in a loss against Texas, he vanished for a week. When he resurfaced in Mississippi, he announced he was leaving OU and transferring to the University of Southern Mississippi. Upon being informed that because of NCAA rules, he would have to sit out both the remainder of the 1983 season and the 1984 season, he left after three months.

Quote: For every Marcus Allen, Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith, there’s an Anthony Thompson, a Paul Palmer and a LeShon Johnson, guys who never matched their college success in the NFL. Some of the unfortunate ones were too small. Others were just a step too slow. But you’ll also find a select few individuals who had all the tools. They’re the ones who didn’t achieve NFL success for reasons of circumstance. Such was the case with Marcus Dupree, a star running back who lit the college football scene on fire as a freshman in 1982. — Marc Connolly, ABC Sports Online

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