Sad news from the sports world this past weekend as New York basketball icon and longtime sports journalist Howie Evans passed away.
Evans, who spent time between Harlem and the Bronx, was raised in Hunts Point, where he found his love of basketball. He played for Morris High School and was offered a scholarship to play for NYU, one of the nation’s elite programs at the time.
However, the scholarship was rescinded, which Evans felt was due to racism. He ended up attending Maryland State College, an HBCU which became Maryland Eastern Shore in 1970.
There he continued his love of the game and was introduced to writing through a job at a Baltimore newspaper.
Basketball kept him out of trouble, particularly at home where gangs wielded a strong influence, and pointed him in the right direction, which he never swayed from.
In 1973, he founded the AAU Junior National Basketball Program and, understanding that education was important as well, received a license from the Board of Education and went on to found the Wagner Center on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. The center offered various services to the community including GED classes, boxing lessons and a breakfast program.
But basketball was the vice that changed his life.
In Harlem, Evans played basketball with Wilt Chamberlain and noticed that the papers wrote “horrible stories” about the future Hall of Famer, so he penned a story of his own on Chamberlain and sent it to the Amsterdam News, one of the oldest Black publications in the country and the city’s third-oldest paper.
The paper published his story and the editor wound up calling Evans and asked him to write a weekly article. That call jumpstarted his writing career, as he became a columnist for the Amsterdam News and later the Senior Sports Editor for the paper.
That’s also where he made history as he covered the New York Jets, becoming the first Black sportswriter in professional football. He covered the Yankees, Mets and Knicks as well.
Howie’s love for basketball and youth empowerment led him to take his AAU teams overseas. According to Blackfives.org, He also led his USA junior and senior teams to play games in European countries such as England, Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Russia.
He later coached at Fordham University and his Alma mater, Maryland Eastern Shore.
Evans became an educator who worked in the NYC public school system for over 20 years, particularly in the South Bronx and Harlem. He also founded his own media company, HEC Communications, launched his own radio show, was part of award-winning documentaries such as “Black Magic”, which showcased the history of HBCU basketball and made numerous appearances on both national and local networks and programs.
Among his many accolades, he was named one of New York City’s 25 Most influential African American individuals in sports and entertainment by the New York Daily News.
Howie Evans passed away on Sunday in Wilson, North Carolina after a long battle with dementia.
RIP Howie Evans.
