New York Jet

Fleet, multi- skilled and Brooklyn- born, Ohio state H-back Curtis Samuel is outracing expectations.

- Pete Thamel

THE ADDRESS OF Erasmus Hall High 911 Flat bush Avenue contains a sense of urgency, but the place itself suggests permanence and achievement. The massive stone edifice across from the Benny Jewelry & Pawn Shop rises like a castle above Brooklyn’s landscape. To enter, open the red door, walk through the metal detector and past the X-ray machine. One of the two guards there may offer a key to the bathroom, but only after a promise to lock it on the way out.

Steeped in history and layered in grit, Erasmus Hall has been connected to household names for centuries. No, really. Walk out to the courtyard and find one of the oldest standing buildings in New York City, which housed Erasmus Hall Academy in 1786. Long before Hamilton was a Broadway smash, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were key benefactors in opening the school. Over the decades, as the enrollment swelled to nearly 6,000 students, everyone from Al Davis to Barbra Streisand, Bobby Fischer to Neil Diamond, Jerry Reinsdorf to Shaggy (of reggae fame, not Scooby Doo) walked the halls.

A photograph of the school’s newest star hangs out side the principal’s office. Curtis Samuel is not a chess savant or an NFL owner or a chart topper. But in his first season as a full-time starter, the Ohio State junior H-back became the most electric player in the Big Ten, joining his Erasmus predecessors in his ability to command the stage.