Doug Evans - Inducted 2015
As a coach and teacher at Washington High in Sioux Falls, Evans was a forerunner and leader in physical education in South Dakota and the nation.
The 1937 University of Minnesota grad grew up in Wimbledon, N.D., where he competed in football, basketball, baseball and track. In 1939, he joined the Washington High faculty as a physical education instructor and assistant football coach. After serving in the Navy from 1942-46 (spending part of the time as a fitness officer under boxing legend Gene Tunney), he returned to WHS. He served as assistant coach in football, basketball and track, and also was intramural director and the school’s first athletic trainer until he became district supervisor of physical education in 1955.
The physical education programs that Evans developed were a model for the rest of the state and nation. In 1968 he was selected as one of the top three fitness leaders in the U.S. by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the U.S. Jaycees and Met Life, which earned him a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson at the White House. Evans devoted over 40 years to athletics and physical education in Sioux Falls.
Some of his contributions to Sioux Falls physical education and athletic programs included Lifetime Sports Programs for boys and girls; Sports Day for junior high girls; intramural program for junior high girls and senior high boys and girls; physical education programs in Special Education; and Little Olympics for boys and girls in elementary school. In the 1960s he conducted “Fun and Fitness,” a weekly family fitness program on KELO-TV.
Evans was a basketball and football referee for 20 years, and he worked at the Dakota Relays and state track meets for over 35 years. He also worked at the NAIA national meets in Sioux Falls, and, with the help of his staff and their students, he conducted mass fitness demonstrations for the event. He was an early advocate of sports for girls, and during the 1960s he talked to PTAs throughout the area stressing the importance of physical education and sports programs for all children.
Evans is a member of the Washington High and the WHS/LHS Appreciation halls of fame. He was the Honorary Referee of the 57th Dakota Relays, and he was honored by the North Central Conference for service to physical education and athletics.
