Tribute To Forest Evashevski (Evy)

[LuteHawk]

As we remember the legends of Hawkeye Football,
we recall the greatness of Evy. He coached at Iowa
for 9 years and won 3 Big Ten Titles. He won 2 Rose
Bowls and coached All-Americans like Calvin Jones,
Alex Karras, Jerry Hilgenberg, and Randy Duncan.

From 1952 to 1960, the Iowa Football team had a
leader in Evy who was an innovator & motivator.
He said, "If you cannot block, then you cannot play
for me." He played Ohio St and Woody Hayes 8
times. He beat them 4 times.

Bottom Line: Evy belongs on the Mt.Rushmore
of Iowa Coaches.

 

[myteamcanbeatupyourteam]

Disagree. With his egomaniac behavior being AD, Iowa football was run into the ground because of him.

 

[Kranepool2]

He also began the demise of Iowa football.

 

[LuteHawk]

Regardless of your personal feelings for Evy,
the fact remains that he coached during the
Golden Age of Hawkeye Football. He won
3 Big Ten Titles and 2 Rose Bowls in 9 yrs.

 

[Herky96]

I don't know, would we have gotten Bump Elliott as AD if not for Evashevski's failure? Would we have gotten Hayden Fry, Lute Olson, or Dan Gable as Coaches? In a way, Iowa athletics may not be what is today, or enjoyed the same success without Forest Evashevski.

 

[iowaathletes]

He had a great career at Iowa as a coach.

 

[K OKeefe]

As we remember the legends of Hawkeye Football,
we recall the greatness of Evy. He coached at Iowa
for 9 years and won 3 Big Ten Titles. He won 2 Rose
Bowls and coached All-Americans like Calvin Jones,
Alex Karras, Jerry Hilgenberg, and Randy Duncan.

From 1952 to 1960, the Iowa Football team had a
leader in Evy who was an innovator & motivator.
He said, "If you cannot block, then you cannot play
for me." He played Ohio St and Woody Hayes 8
times. He beat them 4 times.

Bottom Line: Evy belongs on the Mt.Rushmore
of Iowa Coaches.

I believe the OP qualified his comments when he wrote, "Evy belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of Iowa coaches." Of course, this leads some to comment on Evy's failures as the Iowa AD. Evy was a great coach- 3 Big Ten titles and 2 Rose Bowls in 9 years supports the OP's position.

 

[anon_i8nzeu2gbf0ba]

Evy literally wrote the book on the wing-T offense. He was an offensive genius who walked away from coaching as a young man at the height of his career.

But one of the things I remember most about Evy's legacy is what he said after the #1-ranked "Fainting Irish" tied Iowa at 14 at South Bend in 1953, Evy's second season in Iowa City.

Iowa outplayed ND, but the Irish faked injuries at the end of the first half and scored with one second left to tie the game at 7-7. And wouldn't you know, the officials let them do it again at the end of the game when ND threw a TD pass on the last play to get a 14-14 tie, although it still ended up costing them the national title.

But in the aftermath of the huge controversy--faking injuries to stop the clock and get extra plays--that directly led to rule changes, Evy didn't say, "That's football." Instead, he offered his version of the famous poem by sportswriter Grantland Rice and said: "I don't want to turn poet, but I can't help but recite it here, and that is, When the one great scorer comes to write against our name, he won't ask whether we won or lost, but how come we got gyped at Notre Dame."

It doesn't get any better than that.

Read the whole story here: http://nealrozendaal.com/2013/01/04/hawkeye-flashback-1953-notre-dame/

 

[MIHawk64]

My first recollection of Iowa football was 1952, Evy's first year at Iowa they, "unpacked Ohio States bags" when OSU thought they were going to the Rose Bowl. I entered Iowa in 1959 when Evy was still coaching. I have maintained that had Evy kept coaching at Iowa for another 10 years Iowas program would have been right up their with Ohio State and Michigan for many years. By the way in 1952 Iowa was a 21 point underdog, just like this year. The week before the OSU game, Evy completely changed their offense to the Winged T and beat them, I believe 8 - 0. The story goes that when they recruited Alex Karas, they had him holed up in a hotel the night before signing day to keep anyone from getting him.

 

[JRHawk2003]

The Evy story is a complicated one. His record as a coach is incredible, but what he did to Burns, and especially Nagel was beyond bad.

Anyone else watch the classic OSU game on Channel 9.2 last week? The plays they ran are incredible. Cross buck handoffs? I wish we would see some of that now.

 

[83Hawk]

As we remember the legends of Hawkeye Football,
we recall the greatness of Evy. He coached at Iowa
for 9 years and won 3 Big Ten Titles. He won 2 Rose
Bowls and coached All-Americans like Calvin Jones,
Alex Karras, Jerry Hilgenberg, and Randy Duncan.

From 1952 to 1960, the Iowa Football team had a
leader in Evy who was an innovator & motivator.
He said, "If you cannot block, then you cannot play
for me." He played Ohio St and Woody Hayes 8
times. He beat them 4 times.

Bottom Line: Evy belongs on the Mt.Rushmore
of Iowa Coaches.

Agree.

Don't forget he also won a National Championship in 1958.

 

[rchawk]

Agree.

Don't forget he also won a National Championship in 1958.

Years ago somebody who was a student at UI during Evy's days posted that, back then, you expected Iowa to be one of the best teams in the country every year. They expected to win every game. It would have been a great time to be a Hawkeye football fan.

If only he had stayed in coaching and not tried to be AD. Iowa's football fortunes may have been much better well into the 1960s.

 

[General Tso]

The transition from coach to AD is where Evy and Barry Alvarez differ.

 

[LuteHawk]

Evy was 33 years old when he began his coaching
career with the Iowa Hawkeyes and 42 yrs. old when
he retired. He said that team morale was forged on
the practice field during the week. For Saturday
games he did not believe in pre-game oratory or
half time rants.

 

[Hawk68]

He left a number 1 rated team to Jerry Burns who really screwed the pooch and started Iowa's trip into the abyss.

 

[HawkandTackle]

The man could coach football and rocked that coat while doing it.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

He left a number 1 rated team to Jerry Burns who really screwed the pooch and started Iowa's trip into the abyss.

'60 -'61 were crazy years from a national perspective. Of course a nine game schedule back then with 2 non-conference games. In '60 our first 8 opponents were all rated in the top 20, with 5 of those in the top 10 and we finished at unrated Notre Dame, who we beat 28 - 0. We lost only to # 3 Minnesota which dropped us to # 3 ourselves and we missed the Rose Bowl.

In '61 we started at # 1, like you said. We beat California, USC, Indiana and Wisconsin while we steadily dropped from # 1 to # 2 to # 3 finally dropped to # 6 after losing our first game to Purdue. We lost to O$U week 6 and then our next two games before beating ND again to finish 5 - 4. We wouldn't have another winning season for 19 years, till Hayden's '81 Rose Bowl team.

I was at the '81 game at Camp Randall. Wisky thought they had a good chance to get to the Rose Bowl with a win over us as they had already beaten # 1 Michigan and Ohio State. They held all the tie breakers if they beat us, but our defense and Reggie Roby's punting prevailed 17 - 10.

BTW in '81 Iowa and tO$U did not play each other and both only played 8 conference games while the other 8 conference teams played 9 conference games. I can't remember why. Iowa and tO$U both played 3 non conference games while the other conference teams only played 2.