Adkins shares love for alma maters Ringgold and W&J
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a story about the athletic career of Monongahela’s Bob Adkins.
Bob Adkins went from a WPIAL football title to the campus of Washington & Jefferson, and his high school success as a Ringgold Ram carried over when he became a President at W&J.
“I had a great career. I arrived as a wide receiver, and I think that anybody that knew me would have told you I was probably more like a defensive back at heart, but I was actually willing to make the switch because Coach Luckhardt was able to convince me that it was a good move for me,” Adkins recalled.
“It was. I enjoyed playing there and I learned a lot in terms of how to defend people. I ended up leading the team in receptions as a freshman. I had a really big year. In my sophomore year, I was lucky. We were able to recruit a transfer student out of West Virginia — a guy who had played at Serra Catholic in high school. He was incredibly fast and that allowed me to be able to move over and play defense a little bit in my sophomore year, then full time as a junior.”
The team only managed a 3-4-1 record when Adkins was a freshman, but quickly improved to 9-1, earning the status of being nationally ranked. The team ended up making the playoffs and almost making it to the finals Adkins also found time to run track as well for the Presidents.
College days aside, Adkins couldn’t help but relive more of Ringgold’s glory days, recalling some thoughts on his high school days.
“There were a lot of guys on that team that would have been superstars,” Adkins said. “James McCrae — in any other program would have been a 1,500- to 1,700yard rusher as a senior, but he put those desires aside for the sake of the team. I think Larry Holley or Vernon Kirk could have been upset not to be the primary focus of any offense, but we had so many other weapons.
“Scotty Henson was an awesome quarterback but there were games when he only threw the ball five or six times and he was fine with that because we were winning — it didn’t matter to him. There were a lot of egos that were able to be suppressed due to Coach Billy Connors.
“I’ve never been more proud of being associated with an organization that I was being associated with Ringgold that year. It was a life-changing experience, not just for the players, but for the community. It brought pride back to a place that didn’t have a whole lot of it going into that year.”
Adkins stressed that under head Coach Connors the Rams were very innovative. He pointed out that Ringgold ran plays such as end-arounds, a weapon most high schools typically don’t employ.
“When we added that to our arsenal, it was unexpected,” Adkins said. “When you have guys like Vernon Kirk and Larry Holley, who were so fast, they could have been among the top five or 10 runners in the WPIAL.” Speed was so important to the team’s success.
“You had McCrae and myself on the inside, and we were both fairly quick. It got to be a lot for teams to handle,” he remembered.
Adkins, who lettered in basketball and starred in track as a relay runner and jumper, said he was as proud of Ringgold’s success.
“It’s a toss up. I was fortunate enough to make contributions to two playoff teams at W&J. We went to the national semifinals when only eight teams made the playoffs, but I wasn’t as closely bonded as I was to my high school,” he said.
Incidentally, Adkins acquired his nickname “Tree” shortly after his family moved to Monongahela from Texas.
As a future football star, one might expect his rugged nickname came from his size or strength, not unlike 235-pound former NBA center Wayne “Tree” Rollins. That was not the case.
“I was playing kickball one of the first days I had moved. I went back to catch a fly ball and ran into a tree,” he said with a laugh. “The nickname stuck with me to today.”
Adkins holds a degree in biology with a minor in psychology.
He now works at Washington and Jefferson in the admissions office.
He and his wife Erin Moore have three children, Olyvia, Kurt and Anthony.
