John William "Tree" Adams (September 22, 1921 – August 20, 1969) was an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line (OL), while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line ( ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East ...

from 1945 to 1949. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

Early life

Adams was born in

Charleston, Arkansas Charleston is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States, and along with Ozark is one of the two county seats of Franklin County. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,494 at ...

as one of ten children. He was considered normal size until he was 10, but then experienced a

growth spurt Human height or stature is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body, standing erect. It is measured using a stadiometer, in centimetres when using the metric system or SI system, or feet and inches when u ...

during which he "shot up like a tree". He attended

Subiaco Academy Subiaco Academy is an American Roman Catholic day and boarding school for boys founded in 1928. Serving grades 7-12, it is part of Subiaco Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Subiaco, Arkansas. Earlier schools at the priory and abbey dated to 188 ...

Subiaco, Arkansas Subiaco is a town in Logan County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 572 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Subiaco Abbey, which is located there, and which donated in the early 20th century for a townsite and railroad connec ...

, where he played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

College career

Adams played

at the

from 1942 to 1944. In 1943, he was the backup for Ziggy Czarobski on the 1943 championship team and then became the starting tackle in 1944.

Professional career

Adams was selected in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

of the 1945 NFL draft by the

References

External links

* 1921 births 1969 deaths American football offensive tackles Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Washington Redskins players Players of American football from Arkansas People from Charleston, Arkansas 20th-century American sportsmen {{offensive-lineman-1920s-stub