Talk:Tony Adams (disambiguation)

Tony Adams was also the former announcer for the Jacksonville Lizard Kings Hockey team and Jacksonville Tomcats Arena Football Team.
Born Anthony Andrew Adams on August 12th, 1969 in Flint, Michigan. He moved to Davison in July 1978. He then moved to Belton, Texas in August 1982 and remained there until October 1986 when he moved back to Davison to finish high school. He enlisted in the Navy in November 1986 and started active duty in June 1987. He was honorably discharged in June 1998.

During his active duty tenure, he was stationed in Great Lakes, IL, Virginia Beach, VA (twice), San Diego, CA, and Jacksonville, FL (twice). He enrolled in broadcasting school and started an internship for WGH-AM 1310 in Virginia Beach, Virginia during his shore duty tour in 1993. From October 1993 to April 1994, he would intern for "The Score". He then picked up a part time job disc jockeying for Bubba's Beach Club, a popular sports bar in Virginia Beach. He would leave Bubba's and Virginia Beach to complete his military career in Jacksonville.

Upon his transition into civilian life, he would run into broadcasting colleague Scott Jackson, who he interned alongside at WGH and he would sign onboard with WBWL-600 "The Ball" in May 1998. He work for several prominent sports personalities while at The Ball, such as Bill Riley (KSLC-TV Salt Lake City), Rick Ballou (One-on-One Sports in Chicago), Chris McClain (XM NASCAR Network), Joe Zydlo (Jacksonville Lizard Kings and Trenton Titans hockey), Dave Schultz (Jacksonville Suns and Newark Baseball), and Cole Pepper (WOKV-AM 690 Jacksonville, Jacksonville Jaguars studio host, and Jacksonville University play-by-play announcer). He would work in various capacities for The Ball, such producing baseball broadcasts for the Southern League Detroit Tigers affiliate Jacksonville Suns from 1998-2000, NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars football broadcasts from 1998-2000, East Coast Hockey League's Jacksonville Lizard Kings broadcasts in 1998-2000 (where in 1999-2000 he was in-studio host for road games), and Arena League 2 Football's Jacksonville Tomcats broadcasts in 2000.

When Rick Ballou departed Jacksonville in 1999 to join One-on-One sports in Chicago, Tony stepped in to take his color analyst job with the Jacksonville Lizard Kings in the East Coast Hockey League. He would join legendary minor league hockey announcer Ken Double (Atlanta Knights, Indianapolis Ice, and Houston Aeros Hockey) in the booth. Ken was also the broadcasting mentor for the current Phoenix Coyotes color analyst Darren Pang. It was in this position that Tony would learn about broadcast preparation and professionalism. However, the role was short lived as he would be in the position for one season. The Jacksonville Lizard Kings suspended operations just eight days after the 1999-2000 season.

Tony had an interesting opportunity arise in 2000. Bill Riley, the sports director at The Ball was serving as the new AF2 Jacksonville Tomcat's arena football team in 2000. In May, his wife gave birth to a son two nights before the Tomcats' game in Roanoke, VA. Bruce Burge, the Tomcats CEO contacted Tony the night before the team was to head to Roanoke to see if he'd fill in. He accepted, although he had neither seen nor heard an arena football game. Teamed up with former Florida State and San Francisco running back Dexter Carter, Tony was able to cruise through the broadcast. This opened up the opportunity for Tony to fill-in on road games as the color analyst in 2001 with new Tomcats play-by-play man Cole Pepper. Tony would also be teamed up with Jacksonville Jaguars beat writer Vic Ketchman in the 2002 year for the Tomcats. Ketchman did play-by-play for the home games. Tony would be the color analyst on the home games and would be the play-by-play man on the road.

After the 2002 season, the Tomcats would become embroiled with arena dispute with SMG in Jacksonville. The Better Jacksonville Plan was the legislation passed to build a new baseball park and new arena. With this legislation in effect, the Tomcats would lose valuble parking spaces for attending fans. Seeing this as an issue, Tomcats management requested a one-year suspension of operations to have the new arena built. The AF2 declined the request and the Tomcats ceased operations in November 2002.

Tony has led a very active life in sports radio. He has been on the radio in different markets covering Jacksonville Jaguars games. He worked for two seasons for WSCR-AM 670 The Score (2001-2002), a season for WTRK-AM in Dallas (2001), and a season for XTRA-670 in San Diego (2001). a season for Bloomberg.com (2001), and four seasons for Sportsnetwork.com (2002-2005).

He started producing "The Outdoors Show" on The Ball in May 2001. When the station was sold and eventually disbanded, The Outdoors Show moved to its Jacksonville sister station, Newstalk 690 WOKV-AM in April 2002, and Tony moved over with the show. The show has one of the most popular weekend shows since it started in 1997.

He also serves as public address announcer for Jacksonville University athletics. He has covered Jacksonville University's womens basketball for five seasons (2001-2006), men's basketball for four seasons (2002-2006), and football for four seasons (2002-2005). He has also been involved with the NCAA, assisting with media relations for the Division I "March Madness" basketball championships in 2004 in Orlando and 2006 in Jacksonville.

Tony lives in Jacksonville with his two sons, Anthony (15) and Bryan (13).

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