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Jeremy Shockey
| Biography |
Jeremy Charles Shockey was born on August 18, 1980, in Ada, Oklahoma. Located about 90 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, Ada is rural, quiet, and small—basically, everything Jeremy is not. With just one newspaper and one television station, it isn’t your typical spawning ground for big, brash larger-than-life super jocks. But then Jeremy is not your typical small-town guy. A high-energy kid who dreamed big, he grew up knowing two things: He wanted to play football for the University of Oklahoma, and from there he would conquer the NFL.
Jeremy and his brother, James—his senior by 13 months—were raised by their mother, Lucinda. Divorced before her boys started elementary school, she worked at various times as a doctor's assistant and later as the business manager of a cosmetics studio owned by her sister, Jolene. (To this day, Jeremy has no relationship with his dad, Jimmy.)
Lucinda kept her boys in line as best she could. She drew strength from her mother, Evylene, who was paralyzed in a car accident with a drunk driver when Lucinda and her two older sisters were children. Evylene never let her physical limitations hamper how she brought up her daughters, including her oldest, Connie, who suffered from cerebral palsy. She possessed a true fighter's spirit, and many close to the Shockeys say the same fire burns inside Jeremy. As a boy, he always made a point of spending time with his grandmother, often waiting on her hand and foot.
Jeremy loved football from the time he could walk. Intensely competitive, the youngster spent day after day working on his skills as a receiver and linebacker. James was always there to push his little brother. In fact, Jeremy credits his older sibling with helping him develop into the player he is today.
Jeremy and James were also best friends. They worked side-by-side in summer jobs, and hung out with the same crowd. While the pair could be a handful, Lucinda had one hard-and-fast rule that she demanded they follow: Drinking and driving was absolutely forbidden. On weekends, it wasn't uncommon to see buddies of Jeremy and James sprawled on the Shockey yard after a night of beers and fun.
In his teens, Jeremy was not a particularly impressive athletic specimen. He was so skinny that Ada High varsity football coach Gary McBroom feared the freshman would not survive tryouts in September of 1995. Jeremy managed not to break in half, and won a spot on the varsity. Tenacity, dedication and a flair for making plays bigger than he was garnered the freshman more and more minutes, and by season’s end he had earned himself a letter.
Jeremy’s next three years with the Cougars were marked by steady improvement and at times spectacular performances. He started at receiver and outside linebacker, and also returned kicks. In the spring before his senior year, he suffered a setback when he broke a wrist. Shrugging off the pain, Jeremy didn’t miss a day in the weight room. In the fall of 1998, he blossomed into a true star. Named All-State and All-District, Jeremy caught 50 passes for 1,108 yards and five touchdowns, and also brought back four punts for scores.
Most impressive was the way Jeremy rose to the occasion in big games. He hauled in eight passes for 206 yards in a near upset of the state's top-ranked team, Oklahoma City's Carl Albert High School. Against arch-rival McAlester High School, Jeremy set the tone by knocking the team’s star fullback out of the contest with a vicious tackle in the first quarter.
Despite his sensational senior year, scholarship offers were few and far between for Jeremy. Initially, he thought he was headed to Norman to realize his childhood dream of wearing Oklahoma’s crimson and cream. But that changed when head coach John Blake was fired after a disastrous three-year tenure with the Sooners. In as the school’s new coach was Bob Stoops. He didn’t share Blake’s view of Jeremy.
For that matter, neither did most Division 1-A coaches. At 6-4 and195 pounds, Jeremy didn’t have a linebacker’s body. The schools that offered scholarships to the 19-year-old as a receiver—Fresno State, Montana, and Wyoming—did not interest him. Instead, Jeremy opted for Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, a junior college about three hours northeast from Ada.
Jeremy Shockey, 2002 NY Post
Coach Dale Patterson ran a program known for taking the rough edge off of talented teenagers and feeding them into major colleges. Among A&M’s more notable alumni were Charlie Clemons, Lamar Smith, Cory Ivy and Fred Perry—all of whom went on to star in college and play in the pros. Josh Scobey, a running back, was on the 1999 team. He also became an impact player in college and was later drafted by the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.
Coach Patterson welcomed the opportunity to work with Jeremy. He had packed on 20 pounds of rippling muscle since his senior season at Ada, and all of a sudden he was looking like a football player.
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