Marcus Dupree

Marcus Dupree is a former football player whose career story has garnered great publicity.  Due to injuries and strange circumstances his extraordinary talent would never be fully realized.  The Philadelphia, Mississippi native ran for 7,355 yards and 87 touchdowns in his high school career and was hotly recruited.  In his freshman year at Oklahoma, Dupree ran 1,144 yards and 13 touchdowns.  He set a Fiesta Bowl record with 249 yards.  Nagging injuries and particularly a concussion against Texas would derail his sophomore season.  Dupree decided to transfer to Southern Miss, but NCAA rules were going to keep him off the field too long.  The pros were calling, but he would only have marginal success while dealing with injuries in two USFL seasons.  Dupree had a five and a half year football layoff, but dropped 100 pounds in order to try out for the NFL in 1990.  He would actually play two years with the Los Angeles Rams.  Dupree’s unusual path was chronicled in the 2010 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, The Best That Never Was.  A book related to his high school recruitment called, The Courting of Marcus Dupree, was also published.  Dupree is a prostate cancer survivor and currently runs his energy company while also working as a rancher.