One of the South’s most notorious college football fans, Roy Adams (aka “TennStud”) has passed away.
A 1963 Tennessee graduate, Adams was a retired restaurant owner and real estate developer who parlayed his passion for college football — cultivated during his time in Knoxville as a student — into the legendary watch parties. His home contained more than 30 big-screen televisions, five television viewing rooms, multiple game rooms and a wet bar.
“Roy was loved by many, loathed by some,” said friend and fellow Vols fan Ryan Groves. “(He) loved college football and the Vols, and I’m sure he’ll be hosting watch parties this fall with all his old buddies in heaven.”
One man’s colorful is another man’s creepy, I guess. My only knowledge of Adams comes from what I read of his message board posts and, of course, his infamous role in the Logan Young mess. Strange guy.
“In the 1980s, when I was still practicing law, Roy had gotten caught up in an NCAA investigation,” Schledwitz said. “They were investigating him for providing illegal benefits to Tennessee football players. I wasn’t that good a lawyer, but I was good enough to know that the facts may not be on our side.
“I did a little research and, at the time, the regulations read that it was improper to give benefits to a kid at one school that were not offered to all other kids. So I put on a defense where I could prove that Roy provided benefits to athletes of all different schools. I had affidavits from kids from Ole Miss, Jackson State, Northwest Community College, Mississippi State and the University of Memphis. I had affidavits from everywhere. Roy helped student athletes throughout the Southeast. The NCAA closed the file.”
So that was Adams. Handing out money. Because what’s the point of wealth if you don’t spread it around?
“I bet there’s been at least 10 University of Memphis football players who lived at his house, or he bought cars for,” Schledwitz said. “Lord knows, they all got TVs.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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Adams so epitomizes the TN fan I dislike so much. I appreciate, and applaud, his love for CFB, don’t even really care that he made a bad choice of teams to root for because if I were born in TN I could have fallen into that same trap. You can love one team the most but should not let that interfere with your ability to interact with other teams’ fan and treat this as a sport. But what I dislike about him, and their other “extremists”, is his desecration of the college game because they put their mighty Vols above what is good/fair for all.
All fan bases have these nutcases but TN is worse than others. To many of them, there isn’t a CFB, just TN football. Even their silly “it’s football time in Tennessee” saying acts as if that is all that s going on, and that is the way many of them live their lives. I have been in a sports bar in TN and every single TV on a Saturday afternoon was on that one game, been at parties where the TV was turned off when the TN game went off (that didn’t last long.) Yes, we have some like that too, but this applies to some 75%+ of the ones I have encountered…and I lived amongst them for a dozen years.
The difference between Adams and the others was he had the money to get personally involved in stacking the deck/cheating. Love the passion but it was misdirected by his obsessive nature. The game just doesn’t need fans to interfere in the process as personally as he did.
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“The game just doesn’t need fans to interfere in the process as personally as he did.” Luckily, cough, cough, we don’t have anybody like that…cough, cough…Leeburn, cough, cough.
Not saying I disagree at all, Mac, but everybody’s got em…most of them just don’t get as famous as Adams.
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Yes, and I don’t like any of them, regardless of their affiliation. I do think we are talking different levels here Scorp, Leeburn is/was minor league compared to Adams, Colonial Bank, etc. Living with him, cars, etc. was Auburn-level thumbing your nose out in the open.
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Lulu and Junior will be at the funeral
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Idea- Why don’t we give basketball players TVs to encour…..oh…wait….we probably should see if they will give away TVs at Pepperdine first.
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