Golden Boy

Some of Marcus Houston’s talents are easy to recognize. The moves that made him one of the top prep recruits in the nation last season. The quick feet that propelled him to 98 yards and a touchdown in his first college game last week.

These are the talents people might see if they watch him and his Colorado Buffaloes play USC Saturday at the Coliseum.

But there is plenty about Houston that will not be so readily apparent.

People will not see what he did a few years ago when he realized 12 players on his high school team in Denver were failing classes.

They will not see what he risked after police confronted his friends at a school dance.

They will not get the chance to talk to Houston, who can be as upbeat and breezy as any teenager, then shift gears to discuss urban blight or explain how he became chief of a Ghanaian tribe.

No football game can display these qualities or show the way he has used his athleticism to strive for more than first downs.

“I’m in a spotlight position,” he says. “If I can make things better, I need to take advantage of that.”

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This is not a story about sports. This is a story about sports as a means to an end. As a piece of life’s puzzle.

So when Houston’s father, Herman, talks about his athletic background, he does not mention playing football at Washington. Instead, he recalls Little League.

“I was horrible,” Herman says. “I wouldn’t have come to watch me play. But my father worked at the post office and he never missed a practice.”

Sports as a symbol of family. After Herman and his wife, Patricia, settled in Denver, they poured such devotion into raising their children.

All of the Houston kids--Marcus, his older brothers Polica and Lovell, his younger sister Nicole--would become athletes. But their parents wanted more.

They gave each child a tape recorder with instructions to keep an oral diary. On Sundays, the family gathered to listen. In this way, the children learned to express themselves.

Later, when they reached middle school, the Houstons were expected to run for office.

“It made them aware of their school and the needs of their schoolmates,” Herman says. “They didn’t have to win, but they had to develop a platform.”

The Houston kids did win. They won school elections, speech contests and essay contests. When work needed to be done at church or in the neighborhood, the Houstons showed up.

People in the community got to know them, says Janice Alexander, who works for the city and volunteers with a local business association.

“You saw the Houstons everywhere,” she says. “They reminded you of ‘Father Knows Best.’ ”

As far back as Marcus can recall, there was always something to do, someone to help. He was being prepared for bigger things, though no one realized it. No one guessed he would become an athlete.

Like his father, Marcus got off to a rocky start in youth sports.

“He was horrible,” Herman says. “His main goal was to be first in line for snacks after the game, to get his Twinkies.”

Over the years, however, Marcus grew to be 6 feet 2 and fast. He grew to love football. Around Denver, people assumed he would follow in the footsteps of his older brothers.

Polica plays at Northern Colorado. Lovell played defensive back at UCLA but has left with plans to transfer to Colorado.

The Houstons like to say that sport does not define them, it complements them. Maybe this explains what happened when Marcus, after becoming a star at Thomas Jefferson High, noticed his teammates failing classes.

“You can talk about the epidemic failure of inner-city schools,” he says. “But unless you’re doing something about it, you can’t point any fingers.”

Sports was a vehicle for change. Marcus knew that younger students looked up to him because he was an All-City player. He designed a presentation called “Just Say Know.”

Visiting middle schools throughout the Denver area, he showed a brief highlight film of his games--”to captivate their attention,” he says--then spoke at length about the importance of school.

Students were encouraged to enter his contest, writing about what success meant to them and how they might achieve it. The winner received $50, a pizza party and a limousine ride to a Thomas Jefferson game.

Marcus paid for the prizes with money he earned mowing lawns and shoveling snow.

“When you hear these things about him, you think, golly, nobody can be that good,” says Len Ashford, an assistant principal at Thomas Jefferson. “I’ve been in education 32 years and I’ve never met someone who matches these qualities.”

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Success and a desire to help have not come without a price.

Marcus was always busy in school, Ashford recalls, often leaving evening events early because he had work to do. More important, there came a time when the young man was challenged to risk his reputation.

In the spring of 1996, a fistfight broke out during a dance at Thomas Jefferson attended by 400 or so youths, most of them black. According to media accounts, as many as 70 policemen responded. Witnesses have alleged that police uttered racial epithets and used excessive force.

Marcus was in attendance and decided to take action. He spoke with police and lawyers. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit that has yet to be resolved.

“Marcus knew that he would come under some scrutiny but he stood up for what he thought was right,” Ashford says. “You have to applaud him for that.”

His efforts attracted the attention of Amnesty International, which invited Marcus to Amsterdam to speak at a conference. He was 17 years old and only a junior. Again, he would have to sacrifice.

The conference took place at the same time his team was playing for the city championship.

“That was a tough choice,” he says. “But in the long-term, the impact of speaking about human rights was more than the impact of playing in a football game.”

A similar situation arose the following year when Princess Naa Asie Ocansie of Ghana visited Denver and was so impressed by Marcus’ accomplishments that she invited him and his family to her country.

Marcus, rated the top schoolboy running back in the nation by SuperPrep magazine, again left his team. He returned in time to finish the season and win a slew of athletic awards.

“He’s a young man who is kind of . . . well . . . like you don’t see nowadays,” Alexander says.

Before graduation came around last summer, Marcus found time to collect an award as one of the top 10 youth volunteers in the nation, bring his “Just Say Know” program to more middle schools and raise money so he could return to Ghana with farm and school supplies.

On that second trip to western Africa, the village of Matsekope named him its chief of development.

And one more thing--he turned 19.

By the time Marcus arrived at Colorado for summer training camp, local newspapers were proclaiming him the most-celebrated schoolboy athlete in state history. But he was about to meet the one person who had reason to dislike him.

As the leading rusher for the Buffaloes last season, Cortlen Johnson expected to be the starting tailback. Everyone else expected Marcus to replace him, sooner rather than later.

Johnson had seen and heard plenty about the hot recruit.

“On television, people would be talking about him every week,” he said. “Most kids coming out of high school would let that get to their heads.”

But from the first day of summer camp, Marcus did something that took Johnson by surprise. He asked questions.

Questions about reading keys and blocking on pass plays. Questions about the best way to prepare for games.

“He was like a little brother,” Johnson said.

Other teammates learned that Marcus could be like any other freshman, cracking jokes, acting goofy. It turns out that, with so much hype surrounding his arrival, the newcomer had set a relatively simple goal.

He wanted to be one of the guys.

“I’m sure that at some point I’ll have personal goals,” he says. “For now, I’m just thinking about the team.”

In his first college game last Saturday, Marcus was called into action after Johnson suffered a toe injury. His 98 yards included two long runs in the second half that had broadcast analyst Bill Curry, a former coach at Alabama and Kentucky, gushing.

“I keep having this flashback to Herschel Walker,” Curry said.

With Johnson still hobbled, the Trojans will probably get a long look at Marcus on Saturday. It won’t be the first time. USC recruited him last spring.

“He’s got quickness as well as power,” USC Coach Paul Hackett said. “He’s very dangerous.”

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Does the freshman tailback dream of winning a Heisman Trophy? Does he imagine playing in the NFL? He responds with a Martin Luther King Jr. quote.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands at times of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge.”

This is not a story about sports. This is a story about sports as a means to an end.

Marcus Houston wants to be successful on the field in the same way that any teenager wants to be a football hero.

But every time he wins an award, he also thinks about how he can use it to get more funds for “Just Say Know.” Every time he gets attention for his exploits on the field, he reminds himself that football is only one piece in life’s puzzle.

“It’s easy to feel comfortable with yourself being an athlete and scoring touchdowns on Saturday,” he says. “But I’ve got a window of opportunity right now and I’m trying to get some things done.”

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COLORADO (0-1) at No. 11 (USC (1-0); 5 p.m., Saturday Coliseum, Channel 7