Very few Sun Devil offenses were as explosive this century as the 2002 season, and one of the main contributors to that performance has now received the highest possible honor from Arizona State. Shaun McDonald, who caught a school-record 87 passes in 2002, was inducted into the ASU Hall of Fame along with six other coaches, players, and ASU teams.
McDonald, who prepped locally at Phoenix Shadow Mountain High School, was one of the most prolific wide receivers to ever don the maroon and gold. In that fabled 2002 campaign, McDonald also had a school-record 1,405 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns which is the second-best in school history. He was a finalist for the 2002 Biletnikoff Award (the only player in ASU history to be a finalist for the award) and is the only Sun Devil with two four-touchdown receiving games. That season he was a third-team Associated Press and Sporting News All-American. His exploits were crucial in two of the biggest come-from-behind victories in school history, and the win over SDSU did mark the breaking out part of Sun Devil great quarterback Andrew Walter.
In 2001 and 2002, he earned First-Team All-Pac-10 honors. McDonald remains the only player in Arizona State history to record consecutive seasons with double-digit touchdown receptions, as he caught ten as a redshirt sophomore in 2001. He is also the first player in Arizona State history to post multiple 1,000-yard receiving seasons, as he totaled 1,104 receiving yards in 2001.
McDonald ended his illustrious Sun Devil career ranked third all-time at ASU in career receptions (156), second in career receiving yards (2,867), and had the second-highest total of career touchdown receptions (24) and was able to do that in just three years as he declared early for the NFL draft where he was a fourth-round pick in 2003 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams (106th overall), and went on to play seven seasons in the NFL. Aside from the Rams, he also played for the Steelers and Lions, with the latter team marking his best season in the pros, hauling 79 passes for 943 yards and six scores.
The 2023 ASU Hall of Fame class will be officially inducted on Oct. 7 at halftime when ASU football hosts Colorado at Sun Devil Stadium, with the annual luncheon set for Friday, Oct. 6.
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