Book Review: The Courting of Marcus Dupree



A fascinating book that tells the story of the grueling and sometimes unorthodox recruiting process of young athletes is The Courting of Marcus Dupree by Willie Morris. We get to see the side of recruiting that most non-athletic people never see, but only hear a little about on radio or television sports shows. It shows that sports are just like the rest of life, with possibilities, self-doubts and triumphs.  This is real life with all the “what if’s” or “what was I thinking?” or “I can’t believe I just did that.”  

Marcus Dupree grew up in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was a town torn apart by racial tensions during the nineteen-sixties. It was the town where three civil rights workers were murdered. This terrible incident had neighbors of all races wary of each other. Only time could heal the deep wounds in the town, but Marcus Dupree was the one who helped make the process go much faster. Being black, he proved that black people could play sports just as well as white people. Everyone in Philadelphia was rooting for Marcus because he was representing the town. He made the town look so much better and they were proud of him and what he could do. Marcus was such a nice guy that he made people want to root him on.

Soon you learn that Marcus is going after Hershel Walker’s high school career touchdown record of eighty-six touchdowns. It would be a big feat to beat that record and would put the icing on his high school football career if he could do it. It would also make the scouts and coaches want to get him on their teams even more. After all, that record-breaker would mean he is better than the out-standing Hershel Walker, who at the time was having a big year at Georgia.

While under this pressure to break that record and to impress the scouts, Marcus also had to keep up his good grades in school and pick a college where he could play football. A lot of colleges were interested in recruiting him even before his senior year in high school began. There were NCAA rules for the college scouts and coaches to follow but they liked to find loopholes around them.

For example, they would try to find an alumnus of their college in the area and ask them to talk to the recruit about going to their college. They did this so they would not use one of their official visits and get in trouble. If caught, the college and coach would have to be punished. The punishment would be determined based on how serious the recruitment infraction was. For example, if a coach gave a recruit some money or jewelry as a gift for going to their college, the college would be suspended for one to two years and wouldn't be allowed to play any Bowl games. This would hurt the college program but the coach could leave that college and not be punished. That is how screwy the rules are in the NCAA, but that is not the focus of the book. The real story was what the college recruitment system is like and the effect of the system on the recruits.


After the football season, the real fun begins. Instead of just sending letters to Marcus’ house asking him to think about going to their college, coaches and scouts can actually have a one-on-one conversation with the most sought after recruit in the country. The coaches compete until “signing day”, which is the first official day recruits can sign with their college of choice. This puts a lot of pressure on someone who is not even eighteen years old yet.

A second story goes on as well. The author, Willie Morris,  writes about the background of Marcus' hometown. This is the story of the author, Willie Morris who grew up in the state of Mississippi and is white. The reader learns that Morris knows a lot about Mississippi’s geography and history so it helps him describe very well the background from where Marcus is coming. Morris is a neutral observer in the recruitment of Marcus, so he can hang around with the coaches and scouts and get their opinions on Marcus.
Morris does get his points across to the reader of why it is very hard to be a top college recruit. The book also shows that it sometimes some one could be unstoppable in one level of competition and but not very productive in the next rank. One thing is for sure; that there were will be more kids like Marcus Dupree in the coming years, as sports get more even competitive.