WATCH: Former Georgia QB D.J. Shockley receives High School Hall of Fame jacket
Former Georgia quarterback D.J. Shockley was announced among the 2023 inductees to the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame on Friday morning. Live on the air of Fox 5 in Atlanta, Shockley’s name was the last shown for the 2000s as he was a part of the team breaking down the new entries. Moments later, his wife and kids walked out with his new Hall of Fame jacket.
Shockley played his high school football at North Clayton in Atlanta. His father was the team’s head coach, and Shockley served as the starting quarterback from his sophomore season on. In his final two seasons combined, Shockley threw for 28 touchdowns, 3,200 yards all while adding 1,600 more yards on the ground.
Shockley arrived in Athens as a priority prospect for incoming head coach Mark Richt. Shockley redshirted his first year on campus before playing a role the next season, throwing a touchdown pass in the Sugar Bowl victory over Florida State.
Shockley got hurt in 2003 at Georgia and didn’t play much in 2004. Then, in 2005, Shockley started 12 of the Bulldogs’ 13 games, completing 173-of-310 passes for 2,588 yards and 24 touchdowns with just five interceptions. Georgia would win the 2005 SEC Championship Game over LSU, 34-14, with Shockley being named MVP. While UGA would finish the season with a loss in the Sugar Bowl, Shockley finished third in the voting for Associated Press Player of the Year and won the FCA Bobby Bowden Football Player of the Year Award.
“One of the things about the Hall of Fame is, not only great players but getting good people. I think DJ, when we talked about you, not only were you very deserving as a player but the type of person that you are and have become and how you’ve supported high school athletics,” LJ Rosenberg from ScoreAtlanta.com said during the jacket presentation.
“To have my family here watching, my daughter is not a morning person at all so to be here, have my sister here, my beautiful wife who’s been with me through it all, there through my high school days, this is unbelievable,” Shockley added.
In total, 22 former Georgia players were a part of the induction class for 2023. Bulldogs to make the cut include the likes of three-sport athlete Vernon “Catfish” Smith who was an All-American in 1931 and scored all 15 of Georgia’s points in a 1929 upset of Yale, quarterback and coach Ray Goff, who was named SEC Player of the Year in 1976 before roaming the sidelines for the Bulldogs from 1989 to 1995, Scott Woerner who had a a crucial interception in Georgia’s 1981 Sugar Bowl victory over Notre Dame to clinch the National Championship, and Georgia’s current offensive coordinator Mike Bobo who played quarterback for the Bulldogs from 1993 to 1997 and set various passing records over the course of his career. More recent players include three-time Pro Bowler and 2001 first round pick Marcus Stroud, 2002 first rounder Charles Grant, and two-time consensus All-American Jarvis Jones alongside Shockley.
This year’s class is the second in the Hall of Fame’s history. Last year’s class included 15 former Georgia players including Buck Belue, Pat Dye, Terrence Edwards, Andre Hastings, Garrison Hearst, Andy Johnson, Bob McWhorter, David Pollack, Bill Stanfill, Matt Stinchcomb, Herschel Walker, Hines Ward and Eric Zeier. They joined Fran Tarkenton and Champ Bailey, previously selected due to their status as Pro Football Hall of Famers.
This year’s induction ceremony is expected to take place in October once again at the College Football Hall of Fame. The full list of 2023 Hall of Fame inductees is listed below with Bulldogs italicized.
Pre-1948
Vernon “Catfish” Smith, Lanier-Macon (1927)
Bill Hartman, Georgia Military Prep (1933)
Billy Henderson, Lanier-Macon (1945)
1948-1959
Pepper Rodgers, Brown (1949)
Billy Lothridge, Gainesville (159)
GIA
Ernie Green, Spencer (1957)
Julius Adams, Ballard-Hudson (1965)
1960s
Dan Reeves, Americus (1960)
Bruce Bennett, Valdosta (1961)
Buzy Rosenberg, Northside-Atlanta (1968)
1970s
Ray Goff, Moultrie (1972)
Anthony Flanagan, Southwest Atlanta (1973)
Lucius Sanford, West Fulton (1973)
Eddie Lee Ivery, Thomason (1974)
Ray Donaldson, East Rome (1975)
Mackel Harris, Americus (1975)
Scott Woerner, Jonesboro (1976)
Guy McIntyre, Thomasville (1978)
1980s
Pat Swilling, Stephens County (1981)
John Davis, Gilmer (1982)
Keith Henderson, Cartersville (1984)
Ken Swilling, Stephens County (1987)
1990s
Al Pickins, Mitchell-Baker (1990)
Randall Godfrey, Lowndes (1991)
Adam Meadows, McEachern (1991)
Jeff Saturday, Shamrock (1992)
Mike Bobo, Thomasville (1992)
Marcus Stroud, Brooks County (1994)
Quincy Carter, Southwest DeKalb (1995)
Jeff Backus, Norcross (1995)
Deon Grant, Josey (1995)
Jamal Lewis, Douglass (1996)
Jon Stinchcomb, Parkview (1997)
Charles Grant, Miller County (1997)
Reggie Brown, Carrollton (1998)
Ronnie Brown, Cartersville (1999)
2000s
D.J. Shockley, North Clayton (2000)
Charles Johnson, Hawkinsville (2003)
Rennie Curran, Brookwood (2006)
Jarvis Jones, Carver-Columbus (2008)
