By the time Johnson was 12 years old he was already 6 feet tall His height gave him an advantage in sports When Johnson started at Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone his mother decided to allow him to play football He joined his high school’s team the Patriots playing wide receiver He took the number 81 QUICK FACT Even though Johnson had just started playing football it did not take him long to catch on By his sophomore year he had grown to be 6 feet 4 inches He became the starting wide receiver Before long he was considered one of the best high school football players in Georgia The job of a wide receiver is to catch the ball thrown by the quarterback The wide receiver then attempts to get the ball into the end zone to score a touchdown Johnson’s speed is part of what made him such a good wide receiver His ability to jump very high to catch the ball was another advantage He was also able to make acrobatic leaps and catches very few other people could make Chip Walker his coach in high school remembers one such amazing play by Johnson Walker told Austin Murphy that Johnson knock ed the cornerback into two other guys taking out all three of em College Superstar Johnson chose to go to Georgia Tech for college and play for its football team the Yellow Jackets Getting a good education was important to Johnson and his family so Georgia Tech was a good choice Also it is in Atlanta so Johnson would not be far from home Johnson decided to major in building construction Johnson made a mark at Georgia Tech even before his first football season started in the fall of 2004 During training camp he broke school records One record he broke was how high he could jump 43 inches Another was how far he could jump from a standing position 11 feet 3 inches Johnson was now 6 feet 5 inches 8 CALVIN MEGATRON JOHNSON SUPERSTAR WIDE RECEIVER
A Head Above Right from the Beginning Chip Walker Johnson’s high school football coach won three Georgia state championships with Sandy Creek High School including this 2009 win at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta QUICK FACT Several colleges with excellent football teams recruited Johnson to come play for them Some of the top teams included the University of Notre Dame and the University of Miami 9 tall He wore number 21 on his jersey at Georgia Tech In one of Johnson’s first games with the Yellow Jackets he scored the winning touchdown against Clemson He jumped over the defender to make the catch in the end zone Johnson immediately impressed his coaches and teammates and the players on opposing teams However he was always trying to improve In an
October game against the Miami Hurricanes Johnson made only two catches Years later Johnson looked back on that game He told Austin Murphy that game had made him realize that he was going to have to work harder get stronger and improve my technique a lot Johnson already worked hard to improve his skills but he began to work even harder Buddy Geis who coached the receivers on the team noticed Johnson’s efforts Geis told Mark Beech of Sports Illustrated that Johnson was so talented but he also outworks a lot of our older kids Whatever you tell him he does it right and at full speed He’s improving all the time Johnson’s hard work paid off In the fourth quarter of a November game against North Carolina State Johnson caught a pass with one hand Marcus Hudson who played for the other team compared the catch to something Spider-Man might be able to do Johnson’s teammates began calling him Spider-Man They also called him Neo after the character Keanu Reeves plays in the movie The Matrix Despite his amazing plays Johnson did not celebrate after scoring Johnson made this terrific catch for a touchdown in a September 2004 game against the Clemson Tigers Johnson and his Georgia Tech teammates won the game 28 24 10 CALVIN MEGATRON JOHNSON SUPERSTAR WIDE RECEIVER
A Head Above Right from the Beginning touchdowns like some other players do He simply set the football down on the field Eventually some of his teammates convinced him to do something to celebrate But they could not get him to do much more than give his teammates a high five Johnson studied hard and did well in his college classes On and off the field he was quiet and serious By the end of Johnson’s freshman year he had made 48 catches for 837 yards He scored seven touchdowns that year As a sophomore Johnson continued to succeed That year he had 54 catches for 888 yards and scored six touchdowns During the summer after his sophomore year Johnson worked on a project to design solar powered latrines He later went to Bolivia to help build the latrines he had designed In his junior year 2006 Johnson was even more of a standout player He made 76 catches and Johnson scored a touchdown in the first game of the 2006 season against the University of Notre Dame That year he helped Georgia Tech reach the Atlantic Coast Conference ACC Championship Game 11
