Football is one of those sports where talent often runs in the family. Archie, Peyton, and Eli Manning, Howie and Chris Long, Kellen and Kellen Winslow—the list of NFL families is lengthy.

Harvard football is no exception to this trend, as the Crimson can say it has a player whose family heirloom is a football.

Hailing from Oxnard, California, freshman defensive back Brian Owusu is the second oldest in a family of five standout athletes.

He and his older brother, Chris, are both currently playing football for Division I schools.

The Owusu boys clearly get their athleticism from their father, Francis, who represented Ghana in the 400-meter race at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

“He doesn’t like to talk about [the Olympics] much,” Brian said, “but we always tell him that we’re really proud of him for just being a great dad, and not being one of those dads who boasts about it and tells everybody.”

“Athletics runs in my family,” Francis said. “[When Brian and Chris were] in fourth [and fifth] grade, people were telling me how good they were in sports. I told them I would allow them to do sports only if they continued to do very well in school. If their grades fell, even one grade, I wouldn’t allow them to do sports anymore.”

Heeding their father’s advice, Brian and his older brother are both playing football for programs that stress academics.

Chris is a sophomore wide receiver and kick returner at Stanford and was one of only eight true freshmen to see playing time last year.

He made his mark by notching a 41-yard touchdown reception—Stanford’s second longest pass play of the 2008-2009 season—and he is currently second in the nation in kickoff return average.

Despite Chris’ tremendous success on the field, scholarship has always been stressed in the Owusu household.

Mr. and Mrs. Owusu taught their children that doing well in school is guaranteed to be valuable throughout life and that sports should always be secondary.

“Academics stays with you for the rest of your life,” Francis said. “Anything can happen in sports; you can get hurt. If you don’t have a good education, then what?”

After proving that he could keep his grades up, Brian pursued many different sports.

He has played baseball, soccer, basketball, track and field, and football. Brian was a three-sport athlete in high school, earning nine letters in football, basketball, and track.