Spartan Olympic Gold Medalist Takes United Nations Job

Mobile, Ala.-----Two-time 1968 United States Olympic games gold medal winner and world record-setting sprinter Lee Evans accepted an offer from the United Nations to work in refugee camps and perform additional humanitarian work in New Guinea.

Evans, who won his Olympic medals in Mexico City while a San Jose State student. concluded his eighth season at the University of South Alabama as the director of track and field earlier in the month. The Jaguars’ men’s track team won two Sun Belt Conference indoor track and field championships and one men’s cross country title. He was an assistant track and field coach at the University of Washington for two seasons before going to South Alabama.

“Now, I am looking forward to helping out these refugee camps in West Africa. This area is similar to the area that the movie Blood Diamond was based on and they have a lot of issues that need to be attended to, so I am looking forward to doing my part to help out,” said Evans, a 1991 Nelson Mandela Award recipient for his work against apartheid and racism and in respect for human rights causes.

The 1970 San Jose State graduate has real-life experiences in the African countries of Qatar, Cameroon, Nigeria, Somalia and Madagascar. He was the national track and field coach for Nigeria (1975-81), Cameroon (1986-88) and Qatar and a university professor in the Cameroon and Nigeria. Evans was awarded a Fulbright professorship in Cameroon. As the founder of the Madagascar Project, he worked to provide fresh water, cash crops, medical care, power generation and ground transportation to the village of Vohitsaoke.

Evans graduated from San Jose State in 1970 as a physical education major. He was the team captain of the 1969 San Jose State outdoor track and field team that won the NCAA Championship in Knoxville, Tenn.

The San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame member is a 1994 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner, a member of the USA Olympic, USA Track and Field and Bay Area Sports Halls of Fame. His world record gold medal winning time in the 400 meters of 43.86 lasted 20 years until 1988.

A central figure of the Speed City days in the 1960’s, Evans accounted for half of the San Jose State total of four gold medals at the 1968 Olympics. Tommie Smith won the 200 meter dash in a world and Olympic record 19.83 seconds and Ronnie Ray Smith, no relation to Tommie, ran on the victorious 4x100 meter men’s relay team. If San Jose State was a country in 1968, its gold medal count was more than all but 11 countries.