Lee Evans, the two-time Olympic champion who was a major part of San Jose State’s Speed City track program and an activist for social justice, has died in Nigeria where he had been unconscious for the past week after suffering from a stroke. Evans was 74.
Friends said Evans died Wednesday while in a coma and breathing through a ventilator. He died just before midnight, Nigerian time, alone in the intensive care unit, said Segun Odegbami, Evans’ close friend.
Evans’ children were in the process of trying to bring the Olympian home for further medical care after their father collapsed last week while having dinner with Odgebami and other friends.
Odgebami, a Nigerian soccer great, said Evans had blood clots in his brain but doctors said they were unsure why he had remained in a coma.
Evans was an assistant track coach at Odegbami’s International College and Sports Academy and had coached on and off in Africa since the 1970s. Odegbami said Wednesday from Nigeria that Evans lived with him as well.
“Suddenly he’s not here,” Odegbami said. “All those dreams are not fulfilled. It is so painful.”
Odegbami added, “He’s a restless spirit and finally found peace when he settled in Africa. It is where he wanted to live, to work and where he would have wanted to die.”
Ron Davis, another former San Jose State runner who is coaching in Tanzania, said Evans carried the message of Speed City around the world, and always wanted to help young runners.
“I’ve seen him drive past villages and he wanted to stop and get out and coach the youth,” said Davis, who assisted Evans with the Nigerian track team in 1974.
Davis said Evans’ runners won Nigeria’s first Olympic medal in track and field when finishing third in the 1,600 relay at the L.A. Games in 1984.
Evans, who graduated from San Jose’s Overfelt High School, was the first person to break 44 seconds in the 400 meters when he won the race at the Mexico City Olympics.
Evans also anchored the 1,600-relay team to a world record of 2 minutes 56.16 seconds. Both of the world records lasted for two decades.
But he never thought of himself as special, friends said.
“He didn’t see himself as the god we saw him,” Odegbami said.
Evans also was a prominent figure with the Olympic Project for Human Rights spearheaded by then San Jose State sociologist Harry Edwards. The San Jose athletes and Edwards tried to mobilize Black athletes to boycott the Mexico City Olympics to protest racism in American and oppression around the world.
Evans wore a black beret during the medal ceremony for the 400 meters to show solidarity with civil rights organizations. The demonstration was overshadowed throughout history by fellow San Jose State runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos who raised black-fisted gloves during the medal ceremony for the 200 meters.
Davis said Evans worked behind the scenes to promote human rights and social justice around the world.
“His legacy of contributions to sports and the struggle for social justice is indelible and enduring,” Edwards said on social media.
Friends said Africans revered Evans for his work with young runners. Odegbami politely ended an interview Wednesday when former Nigerian president Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo called to express sympathy for Evans’ passing.
Odegbami said he and his staff will continue Evans’ work at the academy. He said they will keep the flame alive by putting his name on the walls of the buildings and the streets nearby.
“He has touched so many lives around the world,” Odegbami said. “Now that he is gone people will fully appreciate him.”
Evans, who was born in Madera, won the first of his five U.S. titles in the 400 meters in 1966.
He won the NCAA championship in 1968, and then the Olympic trials at Echo Summit in the Sierra in a then-world record 44.06.
Evans proved faster in Mexico City’s high altitude, winning in 43.86 seconds. Evans also anchored the 1,600-meter relay team that set a world record that stood for more than 24 years.
Evans was elected to the USATF National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1983 and also was a member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.
After graduation, he served as San Jose State’s head cross-country and assistant track coach. Between 1975 and 1997 Evans led national track and field programs in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and trained athletes in 18 other countries.
In 1977, he was the sprint coach for the All-African team at the first World Cup and earned coach of the year honors in Nigeria that year. In 2002, Evans joined the coaching staff of the University of Washington, and he later served in numerous coaching and advisory positions around the world.
Evans began working for the United Nations in Africa after resigning as track and cross-country coach at the University of South Alabama in 2008.
Odegbami said Thursday that Evans’ family plans to have a burial in Nigeria; a date has not been scheduled.
— — —
Jamaican Olympic runner Neville Myton, who graduated from San Jose State in 1971, died Wednesday after a prolonged battle with cancer, according to the Caribbean news outlet Sports Max2. He was 74. Myton competed at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics.
