Forest Evashevski

Forest 'Evy' Evashevski 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 University 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, winning the Big Ten Conference title and defeating the California Golden Bears in the 1959 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. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2000, and inducted into the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame in 1989.

Born 2/19/1918 and died on 10/30/2009 at the age of 91.

HEAD COACH SEASONS

1952-1953 Football
1953-1954 Football
1954-1955 Football
1955-1956 Football
1956-1957 Football
1957-1958 Football
1958-1959 Football
1959-1960 Football
1960-1961 Football

VIDEOS

100 Years of Iowa Football (1889-1989)

Hooray for the Hawkeyes: Relive the Big Moments in Iowa Football As They Were Broadcast

100 Years of Iowa Hawkeye Football - KCRG-TV

BOOKS and MOVIES

Evy and the Hawkeyes: The Glory Years (9/1/1983)
A history of Forest Evashevski's playing career at Michigan and his amazing coaching career at Iowa through the 1960 season. This book is extremely difficult to find, so I was able to create a scanned copy. Click on the book image or book name to download a PDF version.

Scoring Power with the Winged T Offense (1/1/1957)
No description available

FAMOUS QUOTES from Forest Evashevski

When you get licked as thoroughly as we did today, it looks silly for us to say anything about that (injuries). We did have several players hurt, but I would not want to take anything away from a fine Minnesota team.
...from Iowa vs. Minnesota on 11/5/1960

Maybe Ohio State was not really up for this game. When Woody Hayes is facing me across the field, I'm always worried. I have a lot of respect for him and his teams are tough to handle
...from Iowa vs. Ohio State on 11/12/1960

I can't compare them. I've said before it's like asking me to say which of my 6 children I like best. This team is a great gang, and so were the others.
...from Iowa vs. Notre Dame on 11/19/1960 - Evy, when asked to compare the 1960 team to the 1956 and 1958 teams.

I want to leave a word of caution to my successor-it may not be as rosy as some people expect. On occasions this year we have been awfully lucky. We have a small squad-just 50 boys. We have a lot of sophomores who didn't get experience this fall. Our material is as low as at any time since I've been at Iowa.
...from Iowa vs. Notre Dame on 11/19/1960 - Evy warning fans after his last game at Iowa.

I won't try to get these kids out of the clouds until Monday. Then we must work hard for Notre Dame.
...from Iowa vs. Ohio State on 11/12/1960

We make too many mistakes. We're like a lot of golfers who have to scramble to get on the fairways.
...from Iowa vs. Wisconsin on 10/15/1960

You can't say we're good. We didn't even approach it today with all the mistakes we made-that one on the kickoff that let Wisconsin score on its 3rd touchdown. we made another fumble on the next kickoff and almost lost the ball again.
...from Iowa vs. Wisconsin on 10/15/1960

The feeling of relief that this is the end of my coaching career has not yet set in, and I suppose I won't know definitely about that feeling until Monday. But I am willing to give up coaching and this was not a quick decision. When I finally made up my mind I knew I was rich. I do not know about a possible Rose Bowl bid. It is my personal opinion that Big Ten teams are preferred by Rose Bowl officials.
...from Iowa vs. Notre Dame on 11/19/1960 - Evy talking after his last game as head coach.

Listen to that, Burns never admitted he was the defensive coach until Williams ran for the touchdown, and that's all we could hear on the telephones. I think I fired him twice in the 2nd half before we got that big break.
...from Iowa vs. Michigan State on 10/8/1960 - Evashevski joking about Iowa assistant coach Jerry Burns after a big defensive play that won the 1960 Michigan State game.

You know, we didn't platoon at all. Just substituted by individuals on the wild card rule except for a few times when we put in several players at once at the quarters and on kickoffs.
...from Iowa vs. Oregon State on 9/24/1960 - Evy on using the new substitution rules in the game against Oregon State.

When the One Great Scorer comes to write against our name, He wonâ€™t write whether we won or lost, but how come we got gypped at Notre Dame.
...from Iowa vs. Notre Dame on 11/21/1953 - At pep rally after returning to Iowa City, in reference to the "Fainting Irish" controversy - Link to source

That's just so much horse-radish: '...not that you won or lostâ€”but how you played the Game.' Now wouldn't that look lovely in a doctor's office. So you're violently ill and go to see the doctor and you see on the wall, 'For when the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, he won't ask whether the patient lived or died, but how you made the cut.' You'd get the hell outa there.
9/23/1957... - Quoted in Sports Illustrated article about a Grantland Rice quote. Ironically, Iowa would be named the Grantland Rice Trophy as national champions the following season (1958). - Link to source

Trouble with a lot of student bodies and alumni and close friends is they'll punish a player socially for dropping a ball. I don't have a great deal of sympathy for the coach when he's blamed, because he's getting paid. Like the way I cost us the Michigan game last year by anticipating that Michigan would do something they didn't. It was my own fault, and I should have been blamed. But it's sad to see a young kid, with all the frailties of being young, blamed by thousands for defeat.
9/23/1957... - Quoted in Sports Illustrated article - Link to source

To make football fun, we let our kids make their own training rules. We find they live up to their own rules better than if they were instructed. And we let our players run any formation they want to run, as long as we feel we know enough about it to coach it. Conversely, we've thrown out plenty of formations because our players didn't enjoy 'em.
9/23/1957... - Quoted in Sports Illustrated article - Link to source

There have been so many frustrations in this series for me, I just don't know what to say. This was a big one for me.
...from Iowa vs. Michigan on 11/1/1958

FAMOUS QUOTES about Forest Evashevski

We had a team meeting after practice Tuesday night and decided to dedicate the game to Evy, and to give him the game ball. He's the greatest coach and terrific to work for. Evy knows his men and you know you're safe on the field, he'll take care of you.
Gerald 'Jerry' Mauren ...from Iowa vs. Ohio State on 11/12/1960

I just want to shake your hand. I want to pay a helluva tribute to a helluva coach. They don't come any better.
Duke Slater - Duke Slater who was on hand for Forest Evashevski's last home game at Iowa.