Even though running back Marcus Dupree’s football career was far shorter than it should have been, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame is making the right decision to include the Philadelphia native as a member of its 2017 class.
Although Dupree lacks a length of achievement, his raw athletic abilities, not to mention the mythic stories that are still told about him, easily qualify him for Hall of Fame membership.
Dupree was the most highly recruited football player in America in 1982, and as a freshman at Oklahoma, coach Barry Switzer ditched the wishbone for the I-formation to use Dupree to maximum advantage. Unfortunately, that was Dupree’s peak. Injuries hampered him in 1983, and he left Oklahoma for Southern Mississippi. In 1984, he played for the USFL’s New Orleans franchise before more injuries forced him out of the game.
Football gave Marcus Dupree a lot of bad breaks. The Hall of Fame is giving him a good one, and rightly so.
