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enjoyed the ESPN story last night on "the best who never was". Couldn't help but wonder when SMU dropped out of the bidding war. I think we had Reggie Dupard and Jeff Atkins in that same time frame

Anyways, I had it on the calendar that Pone Excess was originally scheduled for that time slot. When is Thad's story now scheduled?

Dec. 11th .... right after The Heisman, baby.

Marcus DuPree piece was excellent. I thought the presentation was fair, balanced and did a very good job in recounting the whole story. A great athlete who never realized his potential and still is proud of his success and accepting of his life.

if you get a chance see this 30 30. excellent.

I was really impresssed by the Marcus Dupree story. Also saw the one on Vlade Divac and Drezen Petrozivic (sp?). Anyway the qualtity of the shows has been outstanding and the stories have been even better. Thad, you have your work cut out for you, but I know yours will blow the rest away.

Thad has the best story to tell.

The Best That Never Was (Marcus Dupree story) is on tonight ESPN2 9pm CST

At the beginning of this thread CP wondered how hard SMU went after Marcus Dupree and noted that we did pick up Atkins and Dupard in the same time frame.

I have no answer about Dupree. Those were the days when Texas Football sent those newsletters between the big issues with updates on recruiting and so on. I don't remember Dupree being mentioned. However, I recall SMU evidently was said to be in the finals for Stanley "The Steamer" Wilson from LA Banning who eventually went to Oklahoma and then a pro career that ended with drug involvement.

The WIKI article says that Dupree put Wilson on the bench at OU before dropping out.

So long as we are remembering the "almosts" and "might have beens" I'll raise a glass to Waggoner who entered SMU with the players who made Pony Express I. As a freshman he outperformed Dickerson and James before a career ending neck injury. I'd liketo know that life turned out at least okay for "Wagons" as he was called but am not sure that happened.

for what it is worth I don't remember SMU being in the Marcus Dupree Derby-but there was a lot less information back then and most recruiting information outside Texas was very sketchy. I mean everyone knew about Dupree but I just don't remember any mention of SMU. There was one guy named Joe Terranova from Michigan that did national lists but really the Sport of College Recruiting was invented in Texas because all the schools went after the same players which was uncommon back then. I think Dave Campbell and the DMN Blue Chip List really is where the phenomenon started. Jeff Atkins was like the No. 2 or 3 RB in the Country and Dupard was a Top 10 National RB recruit too

Go to Around the hilltop board, 30 for 30 thread...Thad talks directly that we were very close to landing Dupree...

I know-I just don't remember that to be true or at least publically disclosed by any recruiting or media source. I'm reasonably sure he never made an official visit. Now I believe his Senior year may have been Ron Meyer's last year. Recruiting was very different back then. There was no early recruiting back then. All visits and almost alll commitments happened between the end of the season and the February signing date. It could be that Meyer was out the door to the NFL before we could get him to Dallas for a visit or maybe we had made preliminary contact in his Junior and Senior year but I don't think that we really in the race during the visit stage in that December to February signing date period. Perhaps if Meyer had stayed SMU might have been a bigger player in Dupree's recruiting.

Now I do know that SMU was very close to signing both Brian Bosworth and Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Brown. Brown has publically commented on illegal recruiting inducements by SMU-may have even been part of one of the several NCAA investigations. Bosworth actually committed to SMU minutes after SMU tied Arkansas to clinch the SWC championship.

I found an excerpt from the book "The Courting of Marcus Dupree" that explains it pretty much as I remember it. Meyer did have contact him but in the transition from Meyer to Collins we were not really one of his favorites and didn't make his final 4. He never visited SMU. Marcus Dupree's interest in Southern Miss-one of his favorites-goes back to when Bobby Collins was the Head Coach at Southern Miss


http://books.google.com/books?id=W6nE9Q ... MU&f=false

Stallion wrote:I know-I just don't remember that to be true or at least publically disclosed by any recruiting or media source. I'm reasonably sure he never made an official visit. Now I believe his Senior year may have been Ron Meyer's last year. Recruiting was very different back then. There was no early recruiting back then. All visits and almost alll commitments happened between the end of the season and the February signing date. It could be that Meyer was out the door to the NFL before we could get him to Dallas for a visit or maybe we had made preliminary contact in his Junior and Senior year but I don't think that we really in the race during the visit stage in that December to February signing date period. Perhaps if Meyer had stayed SMU might have been a bigger player in Dupree's recruiting.

Now I do know that SMU was very close to signing both Brian Bosworth and Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Brown. Brown has publically commented on illegal recruiting inducements by SMU-may have even been part of one of the several NCAA investigations. Bosworth actually committed to SMU minutes after SMU tied Arkansas to clinch the SWC championship.

The very same Tim Brown that wore a full length fur coat when he was at Notre Dame?.....ND must have offered more.