Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and recent Super Bowl champ Patrick Mahomes was the renaissance man of sports at his Texas high school.
His dad was a Major League Baseball star, so classmates assumed he’d followed the same path. But he could shoot with the best of them in basketball, too.
Mahomes didn’t become Whitehouse High School’s starting quarterback until his junior year. And even then, his football career took a backseat – he was drafted his senior year by the Detroit Tigers to play professional baseball.
So his classmate Spencer Shaw took a big swing when he told yearbook staff what he looked forward to most at the Class of 2014’s future reunion: “Seeing Patrick Mahomes’ Super Bowl ring.”
Shaw forgot he’d made the prediction but kept an eye on Mahomes’ career. His sister, who also graduated from their high school near Tyler, Texas, sent him a picture of the 2014 yearbook prediction the same week the Chiefs advanced to the Super Bowl to remind him that he was one of Mahomes’ original fans.
“Drafted in the top 10, winning MVP in his first starting season, then the Super Bowl in his second starting season – I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted that,” he told CNN. “But knowing him, having that ‘it’ factor, you just kind of knew he was going to succeed.”
Shaw, now a minister at a church in Tuttle, Oklahoma, played basketball with Mahomes in high school. He knew his friend, who he calls “Pat,” was talented, but he never could’ve guessed his forecast would come true.
“He was the type where it didn’t matter what sport he played, he was going to excel at it,” he said.
The two kept up a bit after graduating from high school, regularly running into each other at home in Tyler, Texas. But once Mahomes went pro, they lost touch.
So if the Whitehouse High Class of 2014 meets for their 10-year reunion, Shaw hopes the two have a chance to reconnect.
“I hope he does come,” he said. “Not only to see him, but hopefully he’ll bring the Super Bowl ring – make the full prediction come true.”
