Forest "Evy" Evashevski (February 19, 1918 – October 30, 2009) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He played college football at the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1940 and with the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks in 1942.
Evashevski served as the head football coach at Hamilton College in 1941, Washington State College from 1950 to 1951, and the University of Iowa from 1952 to 1960, compiling a career record of 68–35–6. Evashevski's 1958 Iowa team went 8–1–1, won the Big Ten Conference title and defeated the California Golden Bears in the Rose Bowl. Though they finished second to the LSU Tigers in both major pre-bowl game polls, the 1958 Hawkeyes were recognized by the Football Writers Association of America as national champions after all the bowl games had been played. Evashevski served as Iowa's athletic director from 1960 to 1970, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2000.
Early years Evashevski was born in Detroit, Michigan. In grade school, he captained the basketball, baseball, soccer, and track teams. At Northwestern High School, however, he was not allowed on the football practice field in his sophomore or junior years. The school's varsity football coaches felt that Evashevski was too small at just 128 pounds.Brian Chapman and Mike Chapman, Evy and the Hawkeyes, p. 27. So he played intramural football at Northwestern. As a senior, he had grown to 180 pounds and his intramural football squad scrimmaged against the varsity football team. Evashevski led his intramural team to an upset of the varsity squad, and the coaches let him join the team.
Evashevski started at tackle and linebacker as a 16-year-old Northwestern High School senior; he was allowed to skip a few grades in grade school to help him maintain interest academically. After his first varsity football game, a writer from The Detroit News said he was a sure-fire all-state pick, if he could stay healthy. But Evashevski suffered from headaches and vomiting after the game. In his next game, he hit a punt returner, forcing a fumble. Evashevski was knocked out cold and spent the next several months in the hospital. He said, "In the second game, I suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. They did three spinal taps on me before they decided to operate. I was supposed to be through with football. But when something is taken away from you like that, I believe you want it even more than you did before."Mark Dukes & Gus Schrader, Greatest Moments In Iowa Hawkeyes Football History, p. 87.
Playing career Eighteen months later, Evy enrolled at the University of Michigan. Michigan football coach Fritz Crisler wanted Evashevski on the field, so Evy was moved from the center position to quarterback one week before his first varsity game. In Crisler's single-wing system, the quarterback position required mostly calling signals and blocking for the running back, and Evashevski had the blocking skills and intelligence necessary to become a star. He started and was an all-Big Ten Conference performer three straight seasons. He played from 1938 to 1940 and paved the way for halfback Tom Harmon, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1940. Evashevski also played in the same Michigan backfield with David M. Nelson, a fellow alumnus of Northwestern High. Nelson would go on to a noteworthy coaching career; among his many contributions was the wing-T formation.Football plays site .
Harmon said, "Evy seemed to think right with Crisler...[A]s a linebacker, he had a fantastic instinct for smelling out the play...As a blocker, I never saw a better one."Dukes & Schrader, p. 87. Although Harmon won the Heisman, Evashevski was the team's captain. Evashevski was also the most dynamic personality on the team. Once, Crisler's Wolverines were leading a foe 21–0 at half. He feared a letdown, so he ordered his team to consider the game scoreless. Crisler then asked, "OK, Evy, what's the score?" Evashevski replied, "You can't kid me, coach. The score is 21–0."Chapman, p. 21. On another occasion, Evashevski shocked both his coach and teammates by lighting a victory cigar on the sidelines with thirty seconds to play in a 1939 win over Ohio State.Chapman, p. 27.
Before a game against Minnesota, Crisler implored his team in a pregame speech to be 11 lions on offense and 11 tigers on defense. Evashevski spoke up and said he would not play unless he could be a leopard. On another day, Crisler, who demanded punctuality of his players, arrived for practice a little late. "Fritz", Evashevski barked, daring to use Crisler's nickname, "we begin practice at 3:30. It's now 3:35. Take a lap around the field"; Crisler did. He was named to the 1939 College Football All Polish-American Team.
The Wolverines were 20–4 from 1938 to 1940. Crisler later called Evashevski "the greatest quarterback I ever had."Dukes & Schrader, p. 85. Evashevski won the Big Ten Medal given to the school's best senior student-athlete. He was the baseball catcher, the senior class president, and an honor society member. Evashevski graduated with a sociology major and a psychology minor. He wanted to take labor law at the University of Michigan Law School, but his plans were interrupted with the outbreak of World War II and the Americans entering the War.
Military service and early coaching career
Evashevski coached Hamilton College to a 5–2 record in 1941 and served as an assistant coach for spring football at the University of Pittsburgh in 1942. Evashevski then enrolled at the Iowa Naval Pre-Flight School in Iowa City, teaching the students hand-to-hand combat and playing for the Pre-Flight Seahawks in 1942. Then he left to serve three years in the military from 1943 to 1945. When he returned from the military, Evashevski went back to Ann Arbor to try to enroll at Michigan's law school. Evashevski and his wife could not find a room because of all the military veterans returning from the war.
When Biggie Munn, Crisler's line coach at Michigan and then head football coach at Syracuse University, offered Evashevski an assistant coaching job in 1946, Evashevski took it. He followed Munn to Michigan State University one year later and served as his assistant coach there from 1947 to 1949. In 1950, Evashevski accepted a head coaching job out west in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) at Washington State College in Pullman. He compiled a 4–3–2 record in 1950, and improved to 7–3 in 1951, the Cougars' best record in two decades.
Head coach at Iowa "People in the Midwest are my people and I wanted to be back among them...And, of course, I don't have to tell you what I think of Big Ten football. It's the best in the country."Chapman, p. 38. With those words, Evashevski left the Palouse in southeastern Washington to become the University of Iowa's 19th head football coach.
Evashevski nearly took the head coaching job at Indiana University, but Fritz Crisler urged him to consider Iowa. He felt that it would be easier to attain statewide support at Iowa than in Indiana, where Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame shared the spotlight.Bert McCrane & Dick Lamb (1964). 75 Years With The Fighting Hawkeyes, p. 190. Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown. Evashevski was familiar with Iowa City from his stint with the Naval Pre-Flight School. Crisler was the man who recommended Evashevski to Iowa's athletic director, Paul Brechler. Crisler did warn Brechler, however, that Evashevski was "a tough, stubborn Polack, and you might have to put the reins on him."McCrane & Lamb, pp. 189–90.
In 1952, Iowa football had only had three winning seasons in the previous 16 years. Iowa had also gone without a Big Ten Conference title for three decades. A United Press story named three football programs in 1952 with new coaches that would struggle to ever be competitive: Iowa, Indiana, and Pittsburgh. Iowa's first two opponents in 1952 were Pittsburgh and Indiana, and Iowa lost to both, but Evashevski knew the Hawkeye program could be resurrected. When he came to Iowa, Evashevski was asked by a writer, "Do you think Iowa could ever really have a consistently winning team?" Evashevski snapped, "Why in the hell do you think I took the job?" Afterwards, a photographer noted, "I think that man truly believes he's the savior of Iowa football."Schrader, p. 84.
Early years (1952–1955) The Hawkeyes struggled to an 0–4 start in 1952, surrendering more than 32 points per game during that stretch. Iowa was scheduled to play Ohio State for homecoming, and Evashevski's Hawks were three-touchdown underdogs. Ohio State had never played in Iowa Stadium, having not played in Iowa City in a quarter century. Evashevski completely retooled his offense the week before the game, and Iowa shocked the Buckeyes, 8–0. The Des Moines Register wrote, "Put your license plate back on the family auto, citizen, for Iowa won a football game Saturday."Gridiron Glory, University of Iowa, 1952 . Register sports editor Sec Taylor added, "It was like my 8-year-old granddaughter out-boxing Sugar Ray Robinson." The Associated Press (AP), in a year-end poll, voted it the third biggest upset of the year.Chapman, p. 54.
Before the season, Evashevski had warned the school administration to expect some eyebrow-raising behavior from him. He strongly believed that the team had to be instilled with a fighting attitude, and that the Big Ten needed to be made aware of Iowa's presence in the league.Chapman, p. 55. In a loss to Minnesota, Gopher fans on the sideline yelled at Iowa coaches and players to stop obstructing their view. Words were exchanged, and several men wound up charging Evashevski, with one fan taking a swing at Evashevski and missing.Chapman, p. 56.
The following week against Illinois, a very physical game turned dirty in the fourth quarter. More than one brawl cleared both benches, and players from both sides were ejected from the game. Evashevski stormed on to the field to protest a call, which fired up the Iowa crowd. When an official tried to mark off an Illinois penalty against Iowa, the Hawkeye crowd started throwing apple cores at the officials. After the game, as the Illinois team was trying to leave the field, an Illinois player got into an argument with an Iowa student and punched him, breaking his jaw. Several Illinois players and ten Iowa players were hurt during the game, with four being sent to the hospital. This incident led to a suspension of the Iowa–Illinois series for 15 years.Chapman, p. 61.