Missouri State

FRED TABRON
Football and Track, 1969-73
Inducted February 16, 1991

Fred Tabron came to Missouri State from Washington, D.C., and was a four-year football letterman from 1970 to 1973 for the Bears of Coach Don Cross. Tabron was a regular from his freshman season on as he logged 630 yards on 144 carries in 1970, while scoring nine touchdowns. He had identical totals of 808 net yards rushing as both a sophomore and a junior, scoring 10 touchdowns his sophomore season and running for seven more scores as a junior in 1972. One of just three players to lead MSU football in rushing three years in a row and the only one to lead the Bears in scoring three straight seasons, Tabron suffered a knee injury early in his senior year and was slowed a substantial portion of the campaign. He wound up breaking the school career rushing record on the final day of the 1973 season, and finished his MSU playing days with 2415 yards and 28 touchdowns on 551 carries. Those totals rank him third on the career lists in all three categories and he is seventh in career scoring. Tabron's 97-yard run in 1970 against Northwest Missouri State stood as the school record for the longest run from scrimmage until the 1989 season. Tabron's top single game rushing effort came in a 184-yard game against Eastern Illinois his junior year and he wound up with an additional 276 yards on 34 pass receptions in his career. Tabron had nine 100-yard rushing games for MSU. Tabron was on the MIAA all-conference second team his first three years and was later drafted and signed by the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.