Calvin Johnson
Georgia Tech
Wide Receiver, 2004-06

• Two-time First Team All-American, earning unanimous honors and claiming the Biletnikoff Award in 2006.
• Became the first three-time First Team All-ACC selection in Georgia Tech history.
• Remains Yellow Jackets' all-time career leader in receiving yards (2,927) and touchdown receptions (28).
• Played for coach Chan Gailey.
• Becomes the 14th Yellow Jacket player to enter the Hall.

It is hard for Chan Gailey to pick just one favorite memory of Calvin Johnson, but the former Georgia Tech coach gives it a try anyway.
 
The first one comes from 2004, when Johnson caught two touchdown passes in the final three minutes to help the Yellow Jackets escape Clemson with a victory. Johnson caught eight passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns that night, just another day at the office. The second eternal memory comes later that season, when the man who would go on to become known as "Megatron" turned into "Spiderman," making an incredible one-handed grab behind his body in a 10-point win.
         
"That was amazing," Gailey said. "It was just day after day, catch after catch that you go: 'Wow, did I just see that?'"
 
His acrobatic plays permeated his days at Georgia Tech and later in Detroit, where Johnson proved the Lions right as their No. 2 pick in the 2007 NFL draft. He now enters the College Football Hall of Fame, seeds that were planted for the 6-foot-5, 238-pound receiver as a high school up-and-comer just south of Atlanta in Tyrone, Georgia. The Yellow Jackets eyed the five-star prospect from the get-go, with Gailey crediting a staff-wide effort in landing him.
 
"Everybody worked very hard on him, and he just saw the value of the combination of academics and athletics and the closeness to home, and his parents wanted to be there a lot," Gailey said. "The first day of recruiting, the first day you could go on the road, we took seven coaches — which was all you could take then — and went to his house and said: 'Hey, you see where we are. We think you'd be the right fit.' So it worked out."
 
Gailey loved Johnson's no-nonsense approach to the recruiting hoopla, and the coach never wondered if the ballyhooed prepster would have second thoughts after verbally committing to take this talents to Atlanta. That mental makeup, along with a strong upbringing from parents Dr. Arica Johnson and Calvin Johnson Sr., made Johnson more of a "sure thing" than other highly-recruited prospects who have flamed out.
 
"You saw the potential," Gailey said. "You don't ever know, but you saw the potential. But when you went in the home and you saw how he was raised, you thought he was going to be one of those that had the intangibles to be the guy.
 
"You can go into some homes and it's a 50-50 chance, you can go into some homes, it's a 30-70 (chance) and you go into some homes and it's an 80-20 (chance). And he was at least an 80-20, maybe a 90-10. He had the right makeup and the intangibles to take his talent to the next level to be that kind of guy."
 
On the field, Johnson became a two-time All-American and won both the Biletnikoff Award and the Paul Warfield Trophy, which are given to the nation's top receiver. He remains Georgia Tech's all-time leading receiver and the only three-time All-ACC player in school history.
 
Off the field, Johnson started the Calvin Johnson Jr. Foundation. Based in Atlanta, the foundation has awarded college scholarships to prep students in Atlanta and Detroit since 2008, and Johnson plays an active role in reviewing applications and making final decision about grants. Retired from the NFL in 2016, he currently works as athlete consultant and a private coach.
 
"You never know how football is going to work out," Johnson told ESPN.com in 2016. "So that's why I went to Georgia Tech. You get that degree and you can work wherever, you know."

Johnson will be honored this Saturday, Nov. 10, with an NFF Hall of Fame On-Campus Salute, presented by Fidelity Investments, during Georgia Tech's game against Miami (Fla.). He will officially be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame during the 61st NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 4 in New York City.