BURNEY LEE ADAMS - Weequahic High School Alumni Association

BURNEY LEE ADAMS
Weequahic Legendary Football Coach
On November 22, 2012 at Weequahic High School’s annual Thanksgiving Day
football game with Shabazz High School, the Untermann Fieldhouse
was named the “Coach Burney L. Adams Fieldhouse.”
Burney Lee Adams, is the youngest child of William Bradford Adams, Sr., and Louise (Hilton) Adams. He was born
in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew up in Savannah, Georgia, where he graduated from St. Benedict
Elementary School and St. Pius X High School. Because St. Pius X High School did not have a football team,
Burney played football for Tompkins High School in Savannah under the famed, legendary coach, the late
Joseph James Turner.
After high school he served 27 months in the US Military in Germany as a para-trooper and played football for
the 11th Airborne. He received an honorable discharge in May 1958 and returned home to Savannah for a very
brief period before going to Florida A&M University (FAMU), in August 1958 for a one week tryout as a walkon for the football team. FAMU's world renowned football coach, the late Jake Gaither, told Burney he had just
one chance for a scholarship — that chance was to make the team or he would be sent back home to
Savannah.
Burney not only made the team, he made the varsity team. Of the 61 freshmen who made the team and
received scholarships that year, Burney was one of only three to make the esteemed varsity travelling squad.
He was so fierce on the football field, his team mates nicknamed him "Killer Boy," a name that stuck with him
even to this day. He was a member of the 1959 and 1962 undefeated Rattler Football teams and served as
team captain in 1962, his senior year. He was the 1962 Lineman of the Year, made the 1962 Southern
Interscholastic Athletic Conference (SIAC) 1 Team and was a 1962 All American Nominee.
Burney graduated from FAMU in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Arts Education then
signed to play professional football with the Canadian Football Team - Hamilton Tigercats. An injury ended his
professional football career and the Tigercats released him in 1963. After his release from the Tigercats, Burney
was on his way to Miami, Florida, to take a teaching & football coaching position when he accepted his
brother's invitation to stop over in Newark for a brief visit. Needless to say, that brief visit lasted over 44
years.
Over a 34 year period of coaching (8 years as an Assistant Football Coach and 26 years as Head Football Coach),
Burney Lee Adams, Weequahic High School's longest serving minority head football coach, (who retired
from coaching in 2002), built up a high school football program at Weequahic High School (WHS),
Newark, NJ, that was second to none. Coach Adams, as he is called by most, was modest and never sought
attention for his work with the youngsters, but, he was never afraid to take a stand for equality and fairness
for his players, both on and off the field. He will long be recognized in the community as a great motivator of
young people - someone who commanded their respect and admiration, and in so doing, achieved the support
of their parents. He was a pioneer - an innovative coach, who brought new ideas to the Weequahic High School
football program. In the early 1970's he incorporated features into the football program that were way ahead
of the time, and made history when he hired NJ's first certified, on the field female assistant coach, Ms.
Loraine White. Because of its success, the WHS football program was featured in both the New York Times
and the Newark Star Ledger in the early 70's, and, during the 70's, 80's and 90's, schools in the Tri-state
(NY/NJ/CT) Metropolitan area modeled their football program after Weequahic's program.
Two major components of the football program were the WHS Booster Club and the WHS Father's Club
(originally known as the WHS Father & Son Club). In the mid 1960's, Coach Burney Adams brought the idea
of having a Booster Club to Head Coach Ed McLucas. Along with other assistant coaches and several parents,
including Mrs. Dews and Mrs. Williams, they founded the WHS Booster Club. The Booster Club was established
to support the football program through activities such as fundraising and a nutrition program - providing a
nutritious meal to the team on game day. Shortly after taking over as Head Football Coach in 1970, Coach
Adams met with his close friend and FAMU classmate, Eugene (Gene) Wesley, and former Newark City
Council President Donald Bradley and they brainstormed about Burney's idea of starting a Father & Son Club.
They presented the idea to community leaders and parents - including, Mr. Robert Logan, Rev. Quattlebaum,
the late Atty. Ron Owens, the late Judge Irvin Booker, the late Bob Jenkins and the late Freeman Johnson. Soon
after that meeting, the WHS Father & Son Club was founded. Coach Adams, several community leaders and
many committed parents, devoted thousands of hours of volunteer time to the Father & Son Club, which
provided much needed mentoring and support for the players.
The mission of the WHS Father & Son Club was primarily to nurture the youngsters' development; to help
students become more aware of the wide-range of post-secondary opportunities available to them through
nationwide tours to colleges & universities, Fortune 500 & NYSE companies; to inspire them to continue to pursue
academic excellence through mentoring, seminars by guest speakers, and, tutoring/test taking skills/PSAT/SAT
workshops under the leadership of Ms. Bette Anderson, Program Director of the Essex County College Upward
Bound Program; to serve as a fundraising arm of the football program - raising much needed funds to support the
tours, college scholarships and other team activities.
Coach Adams was also the visionary and founder of "The Soul Bowl," - the annual Thanksgiving Day Game
between Weequahic and Southside (now Malcolm X Shabazz ) High Schools, Newark South Ward's two high
school football teams. He brought the idea to Don Bradley and together, they organized and started the
annual tradition.
For his entire 34-plus years of coaching, Coach Adams had a lasting impact on the lives of thousands of
youngsters through the football program. He was dedicated and devoted not only to the players on the field,
but to the youth of Newark and surrounding areas. His mission as a head coach was to use football as a
tool to propel youngsters on to higher aspirations. He understood early on that he needed to hone in
their unharnessed talents if they were going to excel on the football field and in life. To all of them he was
their coach, teacher and mentor. To many he was more like a parent who took them in and provided room
and board (sometimes with other families), when they were either homeless or needed a temporary place
to stay. Coach Adams envisioned and instilled in his students that they were ambitious enough to be
anything they wanted to be, including engineers, computer scientists, robotics specialists, bankers,
administrators, law enforcement officials, educators, professional athletes, medical doctors, dentists, etc.
Since 1963 Coach Adams has been steadfastly instrumental in obtaining college scholarships and financial
assistance for well over 1200 Essex County minority students. Burney Adams never turned away youngsters
who sought his assistance. He obtained college scholarships and financial assistance not just for
Weequahic High students (both males and females), but for students from all over Essex and neighboring
counties, including students from rival schools whose coaches consistently tried to discredit and defame him.
He obtained college scholarships and financial assistance for students from areas all over the State of NJ; for
students from NY and as far away as Florida and Georgia, who reached out to him.
Greater than 83% of the students he sent to college, graduated. More than 95% of those graduates went
on to fulfill their ambition to pursue successful careers in every area imaginable including, Professional
Football, Genetic Research, Medicine, Law, Criminology, Engineering, Law Enforcement (including the
higher ranks of NJ State Police and NJ Drug Enforcement Agency), Military, Social Work, College
Professorship and Deanship, Education, Entrepreneurship, Management, Technology, Fiber Optics, Local,
State and Federal Government, etc.
Coach Adams has friends in many places, including a long line of Newarkers and WHS alumni who admire him
for his significant contributions to the Newark community and for what he continues to do to help young
people and others. His students and football players have many success stones including, to name a few, Al
"Bubba" Baker who played approximately 14 years with the National Football League and was the 1978 NFL
Defensive Rookie of the Year, 1978 Lineman of the Year and 1978 NFL All-Pro; Tajiddin Smith, former NFL player
now with the Canadian Football League (CFL); Donald Johnson, assistant football coach with the Chicago
Bears in the 2007 historic Super Bowl, now an assistant football coach with the San Diego Chargers; Major
Laney Ferguson (NJ State Police - Retired) and NJ State Police Major Joseph Hines; Victor Brown, (University
of Oklahoma, Team Captain), who went on to play on the 1974 & 1975 National Championship Teams under
the legendary coach, Barry Switzer; Leon Baptiste, electrical engineer and proud graduate of NJIT, who
installed solar panels on the roof of the NJIT building and was an electrical engineer for the Prudential Arena
and the new Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.
In addition to his teaching and coaching responsibilities, Burney Adams worked for seventeen years for the
City of Newark as the Chief of Staff for retired Newark Municipal Council President, Donald Bradley - from
1989 to June 2006 when they both retired. He was employed for seventeen years (1972-1989) as a
congressional aide to NJ Congressman, the late Peter Rodino, when Congressman Rodino chaired the House
Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach former President Richard Nixon. He also worked sixteen years as a
legislative aide to NJ Assemblyman, the late Ronald Owens from 1972 to 1988. Sixteen years ago, in 1996 after
his sister, the late Judge Alfreta Adams from Liberty County, Georgia, went on to glory, Burney stepped in and
assumed the responsibility to raise her 7- year old grandson Anthony Adams, as if Anthony was his own child.
Burney received a Masters Degree in Education Administration & Supervision from Rutgers University, NJ,
and completed certified PhD equivalency hours and coursework, in Education, at Jersey City State University,
NJ. Additionally, he completed and received several post-graduate certifications from Montclair State
University, NJ; Kean University, NJ, and Jersey City State University, NJ. He is a life member of Kappa Alpha
Psi Fraternity (over 53 years membership), the NAACP and FAMU National Alumni Association; is a longtime
and current member of the FAMU National Rattlers "F" Club; former member of Essex County Coaches
Association, New Jersey Education Association and the National Education Association; is a charter member
and one of the founders of both the FAMU New Jersey Alumni Chapter and the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame.
Coach Adams received numerous athletic, community and civic awards at the local, state and federal levels —
too numerous to mention. In 1985 he was inducted into the Greater Savannah Athletic Hall of Fame, and in
2003 into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame. In 2001 he received the Essex County New Jersey "Living
Legend Award."
In 2003 FAMU bestowed on him the FAMU Distinguished Alumni Award and the late NJ Congressman Donald
Payne gave Coach Adams congressional recognition in April 2003, for being a role model and significant
contributor to the Newark community for over 40 years. In September 2012 Burney Adams is scheduled for
induction into the Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame in Tallahassee, FL and will receive in
September 2012, the Coach Joseph Turner Distinguished Citizen Award from the Woodville-Tompkins High
School Hall of Fame Assn., in Savannah, GA.
Burney Adams is very unassuming and would much prefer that we remember his career only in terms of the
youngsters' success on the football field and the motivating factors which helped them reach higher
aspirations. But those who know him best saw him not only as a coach, but also as a community organizer who
drew on the many relationships he developed over the years to help him advance the political agenda that
existed in the community. His close affiliation with the powerful political leaders at the local, state and
federal levels was no accident.
It was the best example of quid pro quo, in that Coach Adams knew how to rally and get the community
support the politicians needed and he in turn got their support to further strengthen his ability to reach out to
the youth of the community. For all of his dedication and devotion to the Newark community, Coach Adams has
never sought the headlines, never sought accolades or recognition for his admirable service to the youth, the
citizens, the community and the country. He just says "I am God's chosen instrument. It is He who deserves the
glory and the true credit lies in Him. I am eternally grateful for all that He has done for me and through me."