Feature Story /// Pete Adkins, Jefferson City HS


Pete Adkins through the years ... From growing up in the Depression to recently celebrating his 100th birthday — and the interesting journey he made in between.


THE Pete Adkins


Story By: Tom Loeffler Photos from the Adkins Family


The good thing about going through a bad stretch in life is knowing it won’t last forever. Conversely, the bad thing about going through a good stretch is knowing it probably won’t last forever, either. We should count ourselves lucky, I suppose, that the football era


     Of course, Pete’s still going strong at the ripe age of 100. He still has his charismatic wits about him, he has a can’t-miss long-            town in his truck, and still cuts his grass and does his own yard   to an end. To this day, he regrets retiring when he did. “I really do,” said Adkins, who celebrated his 100th birthday in  to the point where we were having trouble hiring the right kind of


6 /// November 2024


coaches, and we were having some problems with a few of the parents. And I was not going to tolerate that.”   into the 1966 season.   my coaches (he only had two assistants) didn’t know a tennis ball  


 it was 71 in a row.”  “Hickman had a great ball club that year,” Adkins said. “They were  We just got a little bit more than we could handle that night. The winning streak was great, but we knew it couldn’t last forever.”


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