Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 3, 2010
Are we there yet?
The kid from Philadelphia (Part 2)
Jay Edwards
Marcus Dupree had finished his freshman year as an Oklahoma Sooner and headed back to his home in Philadelphia, Miss., to spend Christmas with his family. It was a welcome relief for the 18-year old phenomenon who was already being called the best running back that ever was.
Dupree had chosen Okla-homa over Texas and Southern Mississippi, and really every other major college program in the United States. He was named as a second team All American after that first year and being hailed as the second coming of Jim Brown. But he wasn’t happy. His head coach, Barry Switzer, rode Marcus hard, believing that he needed to treat him the same as any other player.
“I didn’t handle Marcus right. I would handle him differently today,” Switzer says in the ESPN documentary, “30 for 30 – The best that never was.”
In the show, Switzer is interviewed in his home office/trophy room. Sitting in a leather wing back chair, with dark oak paneled walls behind him, Switzer admits that his handling of Dupree was his worst mistake made as a head football coach. We are given a tour of the room and its memorabilia; a lifetime of awards lauded on a man who has reached the pinnacle of college football three times; and once in the NFL. Diamond-studded, bulky gold rings fill a velvet-lined case and gold trophies stand in dark wooden bookshelves, reminding the owner and his visitors that for many years he was the best at what he did.
“I recruited a lot of big-time, blue-chip players, but not like Marcus,” Switzer said. “The first day he joined our team, he was the best player on the field.”
Dupree had two weeks between the end of his freshman regular season and then he was due back on campus to prepare for the Sooner’s Fiesta Bowl game on New Year’s Day against Arizona State. When he returned to Norman he had gained ten pounds and was out of shape. His coaches, particularly Switzer, weren’t happy.
They were playing the team that had led the nation in defense against the run, giving up only 63 yards a game. The overweight Dupree had runs of 56, 56 and 48 yards and set a Fiesta Bowl record of 239 yards that still stands. He carried the ball only 17 times and had to go to the dressing room three times for treatment to a hamstring. Oklahoma lost 32-21 and Dupree was named MVP. Afterwards Switzer said that if he’d been in better shape he would have had 400 yards and they’d have won.
Things only got worse the next year. Injury-prone, Dupree suffered a concussion in the Texas game and disappeared for a week. When he showed up back in Philadelphia he said he was through with Oklahoma. He enrolled at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, but when he found out it would be two years before he’d be eligible he left there and signed a contract with the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL. The team agreed to pay him six million dollars. He was 20 years old.
His first year with the team was mediocre at best due mainly to injuries. He earned a starting spot for the opening game in his second season against the Arizona Outlaws. Early in the second half he was hit and his knee buckled, ending his career with the Breakers.
He moved back to Phila-delphia and soon found out from his trusted adviser, who was in charge of the money that there was nothing left. Lawsuits followed but Dupree wasn’t able to collect anything and he ended up working odd jobs. His weight shot up to over 300 pounds and it seemed at such an early age that his life was over.
But the human heart is a funny thing. Being given up on or forgotten by most, Marcus Dupree decided to try again. Through sweat and hard work he got back in shape and earned a tryout with the LA Rams, five years after his career-ending injury. He made the team and played for two years.
Before the 1992 season, Du-pree’s third, he led the Rams in rushing in the preseason, which included a 212-yard game in the final preseason game against the Los Angeles Raiders, but was one of the 14 players cut by coach Chuck Knox to trim the team down to the 47 player regular season roster, and retired shortly afterward.
The ESPN documentary
ends with Dupree digging through piles of clutter in his deceased mama’s house. He finds an old dusty, high school championship cup and a weathered football he got as the Fiesta Bowl MVP. It is a stark contrast to Switzer’s immaculate trophy room.
Today, Dupree is working as a supervisor for BP in the Miss-issippi Gulf oil spill cleanup.
|
|