Quick Facts
Biography
Gary Adams (born September 4, 1939) is an American former college baseball coach, the head baseball coach of the UCLA Bruins from 1975–2004. Adams also served as the first head coach at UC Irvine from 1970–1974, winning two Division II national championships there.
Adams attended UCLA, where he played baseball from 1959–1962. After his playing career, Adams was an assistant coach at UC Riverside from 1965–1968 before becoming a head coach.
Coaching career
Adams was named the first head coach of the Division II UC Irvine baseball program prior to the 1970 season. Under Adams, the Anteaters reached the Division II NCAA Tournament in each of the program's first five seasons. In both 1973 and 1974, the team advanced to the College World Series and won the Division II National Championship.
Adams replaced Art Reichle as the head coach at UCLA following the 1974 season. Adams coached at UCLA for 30 seasons, appearing in 11 NCAA Tournaments and the 1997 College World Series. Adams retired following the 2004 season and was replaced by then-UC Irvine head coach John Savage.
Adams has coached big league greats such as Eric Karros, Todd Zeile, Troy Glaus, Chase Utley, Eric Byrnes and Casey Janssen.
Head coaching record
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent (College Division) (1970–1973) | |||||||||
| 1970 | UC Irvine | 33-12-3 | NCAA Regional | ||||||
| 1971 | UC Irvine | 27-17-1 | NCAA Regional | ||||||
| 1972 | UC Irvine | 33-19-1 | NCAA Regional | ||||||
| 1973 | UC Irvine | 44-12 | College World Series | ||||||
| Independent (Division II) (1974–1974) | |||||||||
| 1974 | UC Irvine | 48-8 | College World Series | ||||||
| UC Irvine: | 185-68-5 | ||||||||
| UCLA (Pacific-10 Conference) (1975–2004) | |||||||||
| 1975 | UCLA | 31-22 | 7-11 | 3rd (South) | |||||
| 1976 | UCLA | 35-25 | 16-8 | 1st (South) | Pac-8 Tournament | ||||
| 1977 | UCLA | 31-30 | 10-8 | 2nd (South) | |||||
| 1978 | UCLA | 39-20 | 9-9 | 2nd (South) | |||||
| 1979 | UCLA | 43-18 | 21-9 | 1st (South) | West Regional | ||||
| 1980 | UCLA | 31-22-3 | 15-15 | t-3rd (South) | |||||
| 1981 | UCLA | 21-35 | 7-23 | 6th (South) | |||||
| 1982 | UCLA | 38-27 | 11-19 | 4th (South) | |||||
| 1983 | UCLA | 28-24-1 | 12-18 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1984 | UCLA | 28-32 | 8-22 | 6th (South) | |||||
| 1985 | UCLA | 34-30-1 | 13-17 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1986 | UCLA | 39-23 | 21-9 | 1st (South) | West Regional (National Seed) | ||||
| 1987 | UCLA | 40-25-1 | 16-14 | 2nd (South) | West II Regional | ||||
| 1988 | UCLA | 31-28 | 12-18 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1989 | UCLA | 27-32 | 10-20 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1990 | UCLA | 41-26 | 14-16 | 4th (South) | Midwest Regional | ||||
| 1991 | UCLA | 29-30 | 13-17 | 4th (South) | |||||
| 1992 | UCLA | 37-26 | 14-16 | 3rd (South) | Mideast Regional | ||||
| 1993 | UCLA | 37-23 | 17-13 | 2nd (South) | Central I Regional | ||||
| 1994 | UCLA | 22-36 | 11-19 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1995 | UCLA | 29-28 | 12-8 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1996 | UCLA | 36-28 | 16-14 | 3rd (South) | Central I Regional | ||||
| 1997 | UCLA | 45-21-1 | 19-11 | 2nd (South) | College World Series | ||||
| 1998 | UCLA | 24-33 | 11-19 | 5th (South) | |||||
| 1999 | UCLA | 31-33 | 13-11 | t-3rd | Wichita Regional | ||||
| 2000 | UCLA | 38-26 | 17-7 | t-1st | Baton Rouge Super Regional | ||||
| 2001 | UCLA | 30-27 | 9-15 | 7th | |||||
| 2002 | UCLA | 26-35 | 9-15 | 7th | |||||
| 2003 | UCLA | 28-31 | 11-13 | t-5th | |||||
| 2004 | UCLA | 35-29 | 14-10 | t-3rd | Oklahoma City Regional | ||||
| UCLA: | 984-823-7 | 388-424 | |||||||
| Total: | 1169-891-12 | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||
Writing and Wine Making
After spending 41 years coaching college baseball, retirement brought on a new set of challenges and opportunities. With five daughters now grown and gone, there has been plenty of time on Gary's hands, and he and his wife, Sandy, have embarked on an exciting new life – publishing books and a new passion, growing high- quality Syrah grapes for wine. Currently, The Adamses are in their eighth season of producing estate Syrah, and will add Malbec to the vineyard in 2014. Currently, Adams has five children's books available, as well as the hard cover book, "Conversations With Coach Wooden" a book that brings delightful stories and surprises to the readers about the great coach, great man and even greater friend John Wooden.