Calvin Johnson Selected for College Football Hall of Fame

Calvin Johnson, Tech wide receiver from 2004-06, later starring for the National Football League’s Detroit Lions, was selected to be a member of the 2018 class of the College Football Hall of Fame. Johnson joins nineteen other legendary Yellow Jackets enshrined in the hall, located nearby in Downtown Atlanta. The Hall of Fame, for those unfamiliar, is a tremendous experience and well worth the trip, even more so with its addition.

Johnson, who is already in the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame, won tremendous accolades in his three years on the Flats, including three first team All-ACC selections, ACC Rookie of the Year in 2004 as a true freshman, and multiple All-America picks, including a consensus selection in his junior season, his last for Tech before going pro.

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He ultimately wound up just shy of 3,000 receiving yards, with 2,927, the most in school history. In three years, he scored 28 touchdowns, a record, in 178 passes, the second most in school history. He averaged a stellar 16.4 yards per catch. His other four still-standing school records include most receiving yards in a season, of which he had 1,202 in 2006, most touchdowns in a season, with 15 in 2006, and most games in a career and a season with over 100 receiving yards, with 13 overall, seven of which came in his magnificent 2006 season. However, numbers fail to deliver full appreciation for all the great things he was able to accomplish in his time on the Flats. Whether it was the narrow loss to Wake Forest in the 2006 ACC Championship, or, much more excitingly, the 28-24 comeback win over Clemson his freshman year, in which Johnson caught the game-winning touchdown with 0:11 left to play, his third of the game, and the team’s third in less than five minutes, shocking Clemson on the road in Death Valley. As the play-by-play announcer says, presciently, “the legend is born, Calvin Johnson!” He did, absolutely, live up to his legendary billing.

Johnson went one to have a prolific professional career, playing solely for the Detroit Lions. Eventually becoming famously known by his nickname, “Megatron,” Johnson still holds the NFL record for most receiving yards in a season. Unsurprisingly, then, he led the league in receiving yards multiple times and was selected for the Pro Bowl half a dozen times as well.

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Johnson and his fellow honorees will be inducted on December 4th, 2018 in New York. Additionally, the Institute will acknowledge his tremendous accomplishment at a yet to be determined home game some day this fall. We here at From the Rumble Seat send our sincere congratulations to Calvin, and we thank him for both his time at Tech and for all the tremendous work he’s been doing in the city in his retirement. Whether it’s in real estate, the pretzel business, or putting the finishing touches on his degree, we are excited to see where the next phase of his life takes him. Congrats again to a truly excellent Yellow Jacket!