Former Evarts and Eastern Kentucky University football standout Donnie Evans was inducted into the Eastern Kentucky University Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 1.
Evans, who died a year ago, was a four-year starter on the offensive line for the Colonels, according to his brother, David. He was a co-captain on the 1967 Grantland Rice Bowl and Ohio Valley Conference championship team under legendary coach Roy Kidd.
“This team got the championship team tradition started at Eastern,” said Kidd in a news release on the induction. “They have always been and will always be one of my favorite teams.”
“Coach Kidd spoke at the reunion of the Grantland Rice Bowl championship team reunion and said Donnie was the most dominant offensive lineman he’d coached in his tenure at Eastern,” said David Evans.
As the third son of Roy and Julia Evans, Donnie followed his older brothers, Roy and Danny, to Eastern. David Evans went on to play baseball at Jacksonville State (Alabama). Robert Evans, currently a teacher and assistant football coach at Harlan County High School, played baseball at Gadsden State (Alabama).
“Donnie was proud to represent the mountains,” David Evans said. “We had a strong love our community and the people here. It gave us some might deep roots to help us along when we needed it. We are all Harlan County born and raised.”