Adams, "Jack" (John James)
Hockey
b. June 14, 1895, Ft. William, ONT
d. May 1, 1968
Adams was a pretty good hockey player, but he's in the Hall of Fame because, as a coach and manager, he built Detroit Red Wing teams that won 12 regular-season National Hockey League championships and went to 15 Stanley Cup finals, winning 7 of them, during a 35-year period.
His professional career began with the Toronto Arenas in the 1917-18 season. The following year he went to Vancouver and won the Pacific Coast League scoring title. Adams returned to Toronto with the St. Pats in 1922, played there through the 1925-26 season, then spent one year with Ottawa. He was ninth in scoring in 1923-24 with 16 points, seventh in 1925/26 with 26 points. During his seven NHL seasons, he had 82 goals and 29 assists, with 11 goals and 1 assist in Stanley Cup play.
Adams retired as a player in 1927 to become Detroit coach and manager. The team was then known as the Cougars; it became the Falcons in 1930, the Red Wings in 1933. In Adams' first eight seasons, Detroit got into the playoffs only four times, losing in the Stanley Cup finals in 1934. But they finished first in the NHL's American Division and won the Stanley Cup in 1936 and 1937.
During the next ten seasons, Detroit reached the Stanley Cup finals four times, winning in 1943, losing in 1941, 1942, and 1945. After the 1946-47 season, Adams left coaching but remained as the team's general manager for another fifteen seasons. The Red Wings won seven consecutive regular-season championships, from 1949 through 1955, and another in 1957. They won the Stanley Cup in 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955.
Although he was known as "Jovial Jawn," Adams liked big, tough players and physical play. After a 15-minute brawl marred the last game of the 1940 Stanley Cup semi-finals between Detroit and Toronto, Maple Leaf management called the Red Wings "a bunch of hoodlums." Adams responded, "We're just sorry we can't play the Leafs seven nights in a row."
Adams became president of the new Central Professional Hockey League in 1963. The Jack Adams Award, presented since 1974 to "the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success," is named for him. As a coach, Adams had 413 wins, 390 losses, and 161 ties. In Stanley Cup play, his teams won 52, lost 52, and tied 1.