INDIANAPOLIS — Shamika Johnson’s voice shook slightly as she walked back to her hotel in the freezing Indiana wind.

“I’m happy and all kinds of emotions are flowing through me right now,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “Just a proud parent. A proud mother.”

Johnson was at Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday night to watch her son Tez and the No. 1 Oregon Ducks beat No. 1 Penn State for the Big Ten championship. Tez Johnson was named the game’s MVP with 11 receptions for a career-high 181 yards and a touchdown.

While Johnson is known for his connection to Bo Nix’s family – Nix’s parents Pat and Krista took him in during a difficult high school season – Saturday marked the first time Johnson’s biological family saw him play in person.

Definitely a complete game.

These included mother Shamika, stepfather John Posey, brother Keywone, sister Keynila, twin cousins ​​Tywun and Tyron, uncle Deandre and aunt Kimiko.

“I told them, this is the first game you come to, I’m going to give you all a show. I promise you that,” Tez Johnson said after the game. “For me it was just, I don’t know if words can explain it, my mom, just seeing the tears in her eyes because she could see me playing on a stage like that.

“Just the ability to bring them to the game cannot be explained in words. It’s something you dream about. And when that time comes and you manage to get checked off your wish list, it’s not a given.”

Saturday wouldn’t be Shamika Johnson’s first opportunity to see her son as a star for the Ducks.

She traveled from her home in Alabama to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to see Oregon play in the Big House. But Johnson injured his shoulder on the Ducks’ second offensive snap. The injury happened in a flash.

“I couldn’t tell you, I was just so upset,” Shamika Johnson said. “I didn’t even know he was injured at first.”

But then a few weeks later I got a call from Tez.

He had recovered extensively to get back on the field for Oregon’s regular season finale against Washington, catching three passes for 36 yards and a touchdown against the “hated” Huskies. He was back and ready to compete for a conference championship at Lucas Oil Stadium and couldn’t imagine that his family wouldn’t be among the nearly 70,000 spectators in the stands.

“He called me and asked me, ‘Mom, do you want to come to the Big Ten?'” Shamika Johnson said. “And I was more than proud to be here.”

Johnson was instrumental in keeping the offensive engine running on a night the Ducks needed to score points. His big plays fueled drives, evasive moves by the Penn State secondary that went deep and a 48-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter gave Oregon a 38-24 lead.

In the end, he and his teammates hoisted the Big Ten championship trophy, were still undefeated at 13-0 and strutted into the College Football Playoff. And at the top of the podium, a humble smile from Johnson as he picked up the MVP trophy and his eyes wandered to the stands.

“I’m happy for him and the whole team,” said Shamika Johnson. “And I was really excited for him to get MVP. That’s exactly what broke me. But it was so joyful. This is the happiest time of my life right now. … He’s out there doing what he loves to do, and that makes me proud and makes me feel like I did a good job.”

Johnson’s journey from the difficult times of his youth to the pinnacle of college football has been an inspiring story for the Ducks and their fans, but his mother believes it goes deeper.

“He now knows what the meaning of life is,” she said. “It’s no longer a game for him. It’s real. The man he is now is what he had to become to get where he is today.”

— Ryan Clarke covers that Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference. Listen to this Ducks Confidential Podcast or subscribe Ducks Roundup Newsletter.