In 1998, Jud Campbell gave the University of Georgia its first SEC diving title since 1967.

Jud Campbell just missed out on a national diving championship as a 13-year-old, losing to future Olympian Troy Dumais by a half-point.

But Campbell had another shot at a championship — and at Dumais — in 2000 at the Mission Viejo Aquatic Center in California.

This time, there was no stopping the Moss Farms diver.

“I remember my last dive and as I came up out of the water, the first thing I heard was Clayton Moss laughing.

“Then I looked at the leaderboard  and saw that I had won.

“You work so hard and you want to be the best and beat the best. It was magical.”

Moss Farms has been producing outstanding divers for more than four decades and Campbell’s National Championship is one of its greatest accomplishments.

Campbell won  a number of age group, National YMCA and SEC championships and was a multiple All-American at Georgia during an outstanding career that will be honored on Thursday when he is inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.

Campbell will join former Packer football players Willie Bell Robison, Darrell Funderburk and Dextra Polite and outstanding collegiate and professional golfer Kevin Blanton in being inducted at Thursday’s annual banquet.

The Hall of Fame also will honor the Colquitt County High 1994 state championship football team.

The honorees also will be recognized before the Friday night football game against Coffee High at Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Like many of the outstanding divers who have come through the Colquitt County program, Campbell got his start under Moose Moss, learning the rudiments of the sport at the Poplar Arbor pool.

Campbell thrived under the tutelage of one of the nation’s top age-group coaches.

“He was a huge motivator,” Campbell said. “You did it his way or you moved on, but I appreciated his method.

“I still feel his influence on me today.”

When Jay Lerew and later Wenbo Chen took over the program, Campbell responded to their  coaching styles as well.

“Jay obviously had a different approach,” Campbell said “It was more fun-oriented. Wenbo was more like Moose. You did things his way and you did them his way a hundred times until you were able to do them in a meet.

“They had three different cultural approaches.”

Campbell took the coaching and combined it with his talent and his desire to compete not only against others, but, more importantly with himself.

The results were impressive.

In 1992, the was named to the Can-Am-Mex team and won a silver medal on the 3-meter springboard and a bronze on the 1-meter in Pasadena, Calif.

“Being named to the National Team gave me the confidence that I really was good,” Campbell said. “Being in my first international competition was really a big deal.”

He also earned silver on the Junior Olympic National Championships.

A year later, he was named to National team and competed at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, England.

In 1994, he won a bronze medal in the Can-Am-Mex meet and was a high school All-American for the first time.

The next year he won the National YMCA championship on both boards, setting a national record.

In 1996, he was the Georgia Male Junior Diver of the Year and finished fifth on 1-meter and 14th on platform at the U.S. National Championships.

That fifth-place finish caught the attention of the college recruiters and a number of schools, including Texas and Kentucky made offers.

In 1997, he won the YMCA National Championship on 1-meter and was runner-up on 3-meter; was a YMCA All-American; a Georgia high school champion; a high school All-American; a National Academic All-American; and was both the Junior and Senior Diver of the Year in Georgia.

It was also that year that he made a recruiting trip to the University of Georgia.

“It just felt right,” he said. “It was like the perfect storm pulled me to Georgia.”

And as a freshman diving for Coach Dan Laak, he took first place on the 1-meter board in Gainesville, Fla., giving Georgia its first SEC championship since 1967.

He also was third on 3-meter and was sixth on platform at the SEC Championships.

Also that year, he placed fourth on 1-meter at the NCAA National Championships and was named All-American on 1-meter and honorable mention All-American on 3-meter and platform.

In 1999 he defending his SEC 1-meter championship in Lexington, Ky., setting a Georgia record with a 571.0.

During the season, be broke the Georgia dual record on 1-meter four times, was named All-SEC and was named honorable mention All-American on 1-meter and platform.

In addition to winning his National Championship in 2000, he was named All-SEC and All-American. He was All-SEC again as a senior.

During his career, he was the University of Georgia’s Diver of the Year four times and in 2001 was the SEC co-Diver of the Year.

“It was a pleasure to coach Jud the four years that he was at the University of Georgia,” Laak said. “He is an outstanding person and I am glad I had the opportunity to get to know and grow with him.

“The UGA diving program would not be the same if Jud were not part of it.”

Campbell also was a three-time Academic All-American and graduated from Georgia with a degree in management information systems.

He went on to earn his law degree from Pepperdine and passed the bar exam, but decided practicing law was not for him.

He now is a member of San Diego, Calif., police force.

“I wasn’t ready for an office job,” he said. “Right now, I’m working on my ‘street degree’ and I couldn’t be happier.

He and wife Lindsay and 18-month-old son Remy live in San Diego.

Now almost a decade away from his last competition, Campbell still relishes his career.

“A back 3 1/2 off the 10 meter … there is no simulating that,” he said. “And there is something about it being just you alone. It’s that mental competition … that mindset I got from Moose.

“I just liked trying to push myself and that feeling of, ‘I can’t believe I just did this.’”