Hall of Fame
At first, Keith Adams couldn't believe he was in the Class of 2024 for the Joplin Sports Authority Hall of Fame. "Honestly, I'm not sure why I'm in there," he said. "I told Jared (Bruggeman, JSA Executive Director) maybe he gave the committee something to drink. I guess when you sit back and look at it, I've touched an awful lot of lives through officiating. I hope it's been a positive impact on them."
Adams was born upstairs at his grandmother's house in Neosho 95 years ago, delivered by a midwife who was related to George Washington Carver. He was raised in Joplin, and sports—basketball in particular—have always been a part of his life. "I played basketball at South Junior High School, then at Joplin High School and Joplin Junior College (now Missouri Southern)," Adams said. "On the way, I played in the church league softball and progressed from that into the industrial league."
Adams officiated basketball and volleyball for many years. He believes he was paid $10 for the first basketball game he officiated in 1949, and he continued on the basketball court for about 34 years.
"I started officiating after I got out of junior college," he said. "Along the way, there was a shortage of football officials. Tom Grant, who was an insurance salesman, was really gung ho on officiating, and he talked a bunch of us basketball officials into taking a class (on football officiating)." But football didn't last long for Adams. "I officiated football for about three years," he said. "Until one day it was freezing rain, and I thought, 'what are you doing here.' So I quit." The next sport in Adams' officiating career was volleyball. He continued to officiate volleyball after retiring from basketball
Adams can't imagine his life without sports. "Sports has been a big part of my life," said Adams, who was a JSA Hall of Fame Committee member until resigning earlier this year. "I was blessed to be able to play softball with my sons Darieus and Doug. "I played slow pitch softball on our hospital team in my 70s (as a pitcher). I caught one (batted ball) off my right shin. We were in the E League, which is the bottom of the leagues. The team we were playing didn't have enough players and they picked up an A (League) player. He cracked that thing and hit me right in the shin. It sounded like it was hitting a bat. "What hurt me the worse was I picked the ball up and threw it to first. They only had one umpire back then behind the plate, and he called him safe. He was out by a good step. That hurt my feelings more than my leg."
The Adams family, Keith, his wife Alice and their sons, have always been big Missouri Southern fans. "We traveled with Southern's basketball team to Puerto Rico twice, to the Bahamas twice," Keith said. "We went to Hawaii with them and went to Phoenix. We've traveled quite a bit with them."
