While playing on the USC football team in 1924, he was a key player[4] that helped the team defeat Syracuse by score of 16–0,[5] where future Kansas State head coach Pappy Waldorf was playing (Adams would later hold the head coaching position at Kansas State).
Adams was the 18th head football coach for the Kansas State Wildcats in Manhattan, Kansas and he held that position for three seasons: 1940, 1941, and then again in 1946 (Ward Haylett and Lud Fiser were head coaches from 1942 through 1945).[8] His overall coaching record at Kansas State was 4–21–2. The bright spots in his coaching career included a 1940 victory over the cross-state rival Kansas Jayhawks by a score of 20–0[9] and a 12–6 victory in the 1941 season over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.[10]