It’s a name synonymous with Gopher football. Former University of Minnesota running back Marion Barber III was found dead in his apartment in Dallas on Wednesday. Barber was 38, and the cause of death is still unknown.
Barber, who is the son of a Gopher star, is from Plymouth and played in high school at Wayzata. His college coach at the University of Minnesota was Glen Mason who remembered his recruitment of Barber with Tom Hauser on the WCCO Morning News Thursday.
“He was not highly recruited,” Mason, now an analyst with the Big Ten Network, remembers. “In fact, for most of the recruiting season, we weren’t recruiting him. I eventually brought him up at a recruiting meeting and said ‘what about Marion Barber?’ The coach recruiting that area said he’s a really good player, but he’s undersized, he’s this, he’s that. Let’s recruit him as a defensive back. Initially he wasn’t interested in defensive back and he passed on the scholarship.”
Eventually he came back to Mason and the University and took the scholarship, and then asked Mason for a favor.
“That spring he came to see me, he was still in high school, and he said 'Coach, I’m here to ask a favor,'” says Mason. “'I know you don’t think I can play running back, just give me a chance. Just one year, and if I’m not good enough I’ll play any position.' He came in and the first day of practice, the coaches said we missed on this kid. This kid is good. He ended up rushing for 1,000 yards as a freshman, and the rest is history.”
Barber would go on to be one of the greatest running backs in program history, ranking fifth all-time in rushing yardage. He ended up playing seven seasons in the NFL, primarily in Dallas.
Mason says Barber was always very upbeat and extremely confident while at the U of M. Despite all of his success, Barber struggled with mental health issues, according to Mason.
“He was a hard guy to track down. He had some issues there that concerned a lot, a lot of people,” says Mason. “I probably had more contact with former players that were very concerned about him, we’d talk and we couldn’t figure out a way to get to him.”
It was around five years ago that Mason said he spent significant time with Barber. Mason said he was very happy with life and Barber was planning to come back to the Twins Cities area. He eventually decided to go back to Dallas, where Mason says Barber became more of a recluse.
“There were a number of times I had conversations with (former Gopher) Thomas Tapeh, and he was one of those guys who was always very mature for his age, always very concerned about people,” Mason said. “He was very concerned about Marion, rightfully so, and even more concerned he couldn’t get to him. Couldn’t always make contact with him. A very tragic situation.”
WCCO’s Mike Max adds that Barber’s friends and former teammates knew he wasn’t in the best place, but they still didn’t see this coming.
"It takes your breath away when you heard the news,” Max said. “I spent a lot of time last night talking to his former teammates and coaches. His father obviously had a great career at the U. They gave him a shot and he never looked back.”
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