University of Mississippi alumnus Peyton Adams grew up with a superhero as a grandfather — All-American fullback Billy Ray Adams, who played football under the legendary Coach Johnny Vaught.
“His athletic accomplishments followed him into every room he entered all the way until his passing in the fall of 2023,” said Adams.
“The problem with having a figure that looms so large in your life is that you never feel like you will be able to live up to what they have accomplished. The beauty of that same feeling is that it gives you a standard to live by that will allow you to accomplish things beyond your imagination in your pursuit of that legacy.”
Adams, an Oxford, Mississippi, resident, and his family have established the Billy Ray Adams Family Scholarship Endowment with a major gift to support School of Business Administration students majoring in real estate.
“My grandfather rose from a dirt floor house in Columbus, Mississippi, and became the first person in our family to receive a college degree,” said Adams, a 2019 business alumnus. “He blazed a path that has now seen three generations of our family earn college degrees and will continue to present that opportunity for generations to come. This endowment will allow his name to live forever in the place that meant so much to him.
“My grandfather facilitated so many of my lifelong memories and my love for the university, Ole Miss football and the outdoors, to name a few. The first life lessons of patience, passion, respect, loyalty, persistence and, more importantly, hope came from sitting in his lap during Ole Miss football games.”
Adams wants the scholarship’s impact to be one of opportunity, helping shepherd students to Ole Miss and enabling them to benefit from the same experiences his family has had during their time in Oxford.
“We want to help incubate instate talent and give students the opportunity to be a part of a growing field of study before sending them into the professional world to represent our university and state. Under the current leadership and faculty, the program is growing at a rapid pace and pointed in a direction to become one of the leading real estate programs in the SEC and on the national stage,” Adams said.
When asked what he would want scholarship recipients to know about his grandfather, Adams said, “Nothing was handed to him. He was the second youngest of 12 children raised by a single mother. His God-given athletic ability provided the opportunity to attend college. He waited three years behind three All-American fullbacks on Coach Vaught’s historic Ole Miss football teams before having a chance at making an impact on the field.”
Billy Ray Adams took full advantage of that opportunity and turned it into a season that granted him a first-team All-SEC selection, All-American selection, a future team of the decade honor and a third-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in the 1962 NFL draft.
After a nearly fatal car crash that cut his NFL career short, Billy Ray Adams entered the work force as a high school football coach, trailer salesman and eventually into his career in the insurance and risk management field. After decades of hard work, he and his partners grew their firm into one of the largest insurance and bonding companies in the Southeast. He retired in the late ’90s and devoted his time to his family and Ole Miss athletics.
All-American playing for Coach Johnny Vaught.
“He was the poster child for making something out of nothing and is a shining example for anyone awarded this scholarship that it’s not about where you came from but about where you end up,” Peyton Adams said.
Adams is as associate broker with Cannon Cleary McGraw real estate firm in Oxford and he serves on the Real Estate Advisory Board in the School of Business Administration.
Ken Johnson, the Christie Kirkland Walker Chair of Real Estate and a professor of finance, said, “Peyton’s gift is a great benefit to our program. It helps us meet the Ole Miss Real Estate Initiative’s first mandate of recruiting, retaining and placing the best young real estate talent in the country.
“Peyton’s generous gift is just another shining example of how dedicated he is to advancing real estate here at Ole Miss into one of the leading programs in the nation.”
Adams gives the university credit for his degree, lifelong relationships and meeting his wife, Sallie Kate.
“Ole Miss is the cornerstone of my personal life and professional career, and I would not be where I am today without its influence. The education I received and the relationships I have formed since I stepped on campus as a freshman and continue to make are still the most valuable assets I have at my disposal,” he said.
To make a gift to the Billy Ray Adams Family Scholarship Endowment, send a check with the fund’s name written in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655 or online https://umfoundation.com/BillyRayAdams.
For more information on supporting the School of Business Administration, contact Molly Armitage Francis, development associate, at mollyc@olemiss.edu or 678-920-4202.
By Tina H. Hahn/UM Development