Stars of Yesterday - Hugh Adams, FSU's First All-American

By Jim Joanos

Alfred "Hugh" Adams, who died recently, lived the kind of life that we hope all of our athletes will. He was not only a great athlete but an exemplary scholar and a lover of the arts. In a word, he was a "renaissance" person of the highest category. A leader and class person on the field of play, he was also a leader and class person throughout his life. He influenced my life as well as thousands of others.

Hugh Adams

Hugh Adams played on Florida State's 1948 and 49 football teams during FSU's second and third seasons of the modern era. He was the leader and arguably FSU's best player on those two teams. At the end of the 1948 season, he was designated as the team's Most Valuable Player and selected as Captain for the 1949 team. Most importantly, he was designated as an Associated Press Little All-American. As such, he was the first FSU Seminole ever to obtain national honors. After the 1949 season, he was awarded the same Little All-American honor. The 1948 and 1949 teams had a combined record of 16 wins and 2 losses. They lost only one game each year. They were a powerhouse among the small college teams of that time. Hugh played tackle on offense and defense, as players then played both ways. His last game for FSU was the 19-6 victory over Wofford in FSU's first ever bowl game, Tampa's Cigar Bowl, on January 2, 1950.

It was during those times that I first got to know Hugh. He came to Leon High School in Tallahassee where I was a student, first as an intern and then for a short while as a member of the faculty. While there he served as an assistant football coach and the head coach of the track and field team. I was fortunate to have been a football player and also a runner so I got influenced by "Coach" Adams in both sports. It was a wonderful experience. He was not only a skilled teacher but set an example of great leadership. He made it easy to understand that athletics was a valuable training ground for the real game of life.

Hugh was from Punta Gorda and was a multiple sport star in high school. From high school he joined the Navy and entered their aviation cadet program. He was stationed at Georgia Tech and as such played freshman football at Georgia Tech. Later he attended the University of Florida for a short while and played some junior varsity football there. He then transferred to FSU and became a campus leader as well as the star football player that I have described. He received his bachelor's degree from FSU, and would later obtain a master's and a doctorate also. During the Korean War, he served again in the Navy, and later was a reservist for a number of years ultimately obtaining the rank of Commander.

He also served a short while as an assistant football coach and assistant dean of men at FSU. He later became the Superintendent of Schools for Charlotte County, Florida, and then was the President of Broward Community College for nineteen years. At Broward he played a major role in guiding that institution's major expansion from a small community college into the major educational establishment that it has become. Following his retirement from the college presidency, he served as Executive Director of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and later as President of the Broward Performing Arts Foundation.

In 1980, he was inducted into the FSU Athletics Hall of Fame. Throughout his life, he maintained his interest and support of the FSU athletics program. He will be greatly missed by all of the Seminole fans who knew him.