Gordon Adams, Millennium Hall of Fame

- In the heat of Gordon Adams’ first game as starting quarterback

for Coach John Robinson’s USC Trojans, there were 95,049 screaming

Tennessee fans rooting against him.

And, with only 10 seconds left and the Trojans at midfield in a tie game,

they called timeout and Adams approached the sidelines.

Expecting a play call from Robinson in a tense moment to open the 1980

college football season, Adams instead remembers Robinson saying: “Isn’t

this great? This is what we play for, and why we come to USC -- to be in

situations like this.”

The Trojans, on the ensuing pass play, picked up the necessary yards to

set up Eric Hipp’s game-winning, 47-yard field goal with no time left to

beat the Volunteers, 20-17, which is considered one of the most dramatic

finishes in USC football lore.

“I remember strolling over to the sidelines and seeing John Robinson

there with a big smile on his face,” said Adams, a fifth-year senior and

former Trojan walk-on, following a stellar career at Newport Harbor High.

Adams, on scholarship his last two years, breathed a sigh of relief in

1979 when local product John Elway committed to Stanford.

“Once Paul McDonald graduated, I was the backup (quarterback) and felt I

could beat out those guys who had been recruited at that point,” Adams

said, “but if Elway had (selected USC), there’s no question he was a

prize recruit and would’ve started as a freshman in 1980 after McDonald

graduated.”

Thrilled that Elway chose Stanford, Adams made the most of his starting

opportunity, while fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a third

generation Trojan.

In Week 8 of the ’80 campaign, Adams was voted Chevrolet Player of the

Game against Stanford, a 34-9 road victory for the Trojans on national

television. The next week against Washington, however, Adams blew out his

knee on a goal-line play at the end of the first half and missed the rest

of the season, which included games against UCLA and Notre Dame.

The Trojans that year were banned from postseason bowl games because of

Pacific 10 Conference penalties, but finished 8-2-1 and extended the

school’s unbeaten string to 28 games in Week 8 against Stanford. The

20-10 home loss to Washington snapped the streak.

In 1978 and ‘79, Adams didn’t start, but was part of USC’s Rose Bowl

winning teams, including the ’78 squad that captured a national

championship after beating Michigan, 17-10, in the Rose Bowl with Trojan

offensive linemen Anthony Munoz, Brad Budde and Pat Howell clearing the

way for All-American tailback Charles White.

Out of Newport Harbor, Adams was recruited by several Ivy League schools

and strongly considered Dartmouth, but “USC was in my blood.”

In high school, Adams was Coach Bill Pizzica’s starting quarterback as a

junior in the fall of 1974, but, following the Sailors’ 21-7 loss to

Westminster in Week 3, he found himself on the bench.

The next week against Edison, Adams came off the bench and rallied

Newport Harbor to a 17-16 Sunset League win in an edge-of-your-seat

thriller. Adams never lost his starting position again.

“That year, we probably had one of the best teams in school history,”

said Adams, surrounded by a core of stars that included split end Vinnie

Mulroy, running backs Steve Foley and Brian Theriot, kicker Art Sorce and

defensive standouts Bucko Shaw, Pete McCowen, Dave Helfrich and Ron

Lamerton.

The Sailors finished 10-2, set a school record for victories in a season,

won their second straight Sunset League title and advanced to the third

round (or quarterfinals) of the CIF Southern Section 4-A playoffs.

As a junior, Adams completed 59 of 132 passes for 932 yards, then threw

for 1,005 yards his senior year when the Sailors failed to make the

playoffs, completing 64 of 147 passes in nine games. Newport Harbor that

season had victories over Corona del Mar, Fountain Valley, Western and

Edison. Tom Mockett, Al Vom Steeg, Eric Smith, Dan Christy, Rick Clark,

Bryant Humann, Jim Helfrich and Dee Ward were also among the Tars’

standouts in 1975.

Adams, 41, is a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

celebrating the millennium.

Adams, a division manager for EDS (the company started by Ross Perot),

lives in Laguna Niguel with his wife of 15 years, Anne, and three

daughters: Vanessa, 14, Claire, 12, and Alison, 10. Anne Adams, an

Alabama graduate, still insists the Crimson Tide football team was better

in 1978 than the Trojans.