MOULTRIE — Christopher McCranie played in a high school state championship football game, caught a pass that won a game in overtime, played in the Georgia-Florida High School All-Star game, was drafted by the Boston Red Sox and caught punts in front of 90,000 people while playing for the University of Georgia.

His biggest thrill?

Playing on the Colquitt County High 1991 football team that advance to the state championship game, the first Packers team to get that far since 1963.

“I just remember the time with the guys I grew up with,” he said. “The community was involved. That was an awesome, awesome senior year.

“I remember that whole season. It just can’t get much better than that.”

Next month, McCranie will join three of his teammates on the 1991 Colquitt County High football team — Parks Hughes, Greg Bright and Tony DeRosso — in being inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame. The 14-member Class of 2007 will be honored at the Hall of Fame’s annual banquet, to be held Oct. 25, at the Colquitt County High cafeteria.

There are not many Hall of Famers who were as outstanding in as many sports and at as many levels as McCranie.

As a junior, he started on the football, basketball and baseball teams and would have as a senior except for the broken leg suffered in the state championship football game.

As a senior, he was the Region 1-AAAA Offensive Player of the Year in football and played in the Georgia-Florida High School All-Star football game.

A three-time All-Region baseball player (at three different positions), he batted over .500 as a senior and spent two summers playing with the Dunwoody Tigers traveling team.

A draft choice of the Boston Red Sox, he elected to take a scholarship offer from the University of Georgia, where played baseball and football.

Now an attorney with a land development firm in Jacksonville, Fla., and the father of a 3-month-son James, McCranie is still remembered for his feats on the football field and baseball diamonds around the Southeast.

And it all started on the recreation fields of Colquitt County, where a number of coaches — including his father Marshall and older brothers John and Eric — pushed him develop his considerable talents.

John was an outstanding defensive back for the Packers and Eric was a center. Like the youngest McCranie boy, both also excelled for the baseball Packers.

“I was very fortunate to have so many people who had a positive influence on me,” he said.

Once he reached Colquitt County High, he was coached on the football team by a staff that included Jim Hughes, Brent Brock, Tim Kelshaw, Neil Roberts and others.

McCranie lettered three years and as a junior he was named to the All-Region second team. As a senior, he was the Offensive Player of the Year, was named All-State and selected for the Georgia-Florida All-Star Game after catching 63 passes for for 959 yards and six touchdowns.

One of his catches that year defeated Lowndes High on the last play of overtime on penetration, the format then used to break ties at the end of regulation.

During his career, he caught 81 passes for 1,354 yards, still fourth on the Packers all-time receiving list. He also had seven interceptions while playing in the secondary.

In baseball, he was All-Region as an outfielder, as a shortstop and as a catcher. As a senior, he batted .562 and stole 25 bases.

McCranie also honed his skills playing during the summers for the Dunwoody Tigers and the Boston Red Sox were sufficiently impressed to draft him.

Playing baseball professionally was tempting.

But McCranie had grown up with stories of Herschel Walker and Lindsey Scott. The scholarship offer from Georgia was hard not to take, especially when it enabled him to play both sports.

“It was a big decision,” he said. “But it was the right decision. I’ve got a lot of great memories from Georgia. It opened a lot of doors to what I’ve done to this point.”

McCranie graduated fifth in the Colquitt County Class of 1992 and also weighed offers from the Air Force and Naval academies.

As a freshman playing for head coach Ray Goff, McCranie was a backup corner and traveled with the team. But when he didn’t play, he was red-shirted.

And while the transition from high school to Division I football was difficult, McCranie said playing for Hughes and his staff got him ready.

“Nobody ever worked harder than we did,” he said. “We were very well-prepared. We knew how to prepare mentally and physically.”

The next four seasons, that preparation paid off.

McCranie played wide receiver and returned punts and is sixth in Georgia history in the number of punts returned.

In 1995, his average of 10.5 yards a returned was third in the SEC and 24th in the nation.

He was a four-year letterman and a four-year SEC All-Academic. In 1994, he received the National College Football Foundation’s Scholar Athlete Award. As a senior, he received the Wally Butts Award.

McCranie said he enjoyed playing for Goff.

“He was like your father up there,” he said. “He is a real good man.”

McCranie also lettered three years in baseball.

The first time he played as a freshman, he was inserted into the game as a catcher, a position he had not played since he was a junior in high school.

He played several games behind the plate, but primarily played the outfield and second base the rest of his career.

McCranie said he played baseball at Georgia with the understanding that if he lost a starting position, he would give it up and concentrate on football.That’s what he did following his junior season.

“It was a difficult time,” McCranie said of giving up baseball. “But not as difficult as it could have been. I could still go across and play football.”

McCranie graduated from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business in December 1996. After spending several months in Spain, he entered law school at Georgia. He received his master’s in business in 2000 and law degree in 2001.

McCranie worked for several years in Atlanta, where he was able to help out brother Eric, who was then the head baseball coach at Clarke Central High.

In 2005, he married the former Jennifer Rose Paulk of Douglas. That same year he moved to Jacksonville to work as an attorney for the land development firm of Trevitt Mock.

McCranie says he likes it in Jacksonville, a city he says still has small-town feel. He also likes the fact that he can be back in Moultrie — where his father and two brothers still live — in a little over two hours.

McCranie especially enjoyed a trip to Moultrie last February to see brother Eric’s successful debut as the Colquitt County High baseball coach, succeeding Jerry Croft, who had coached all three McCranie brothers.

“We’ve stayed close,” the youngest McCranie said, adding that he came to Moultrie to be with both of his brothers when their wives gave birth.

“These are the guys who helped raise me,” he said. “That’s important.”