Ray Evans (American football)

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Ray Evans
Date of birth:	September 22, 1922
Place of birth:	Kansas City, Kansas
Date of death:	April 24, 1999 (aged 76)
Place of death:	Shawnee Mission, Kansas
Career information
Position(s):	Halfback
College:	University of Kansas(1941-42, 1946-47)
Organizations
As player:
1948	Pittsburgh Steelers
Stats at DatabaseFootball.com
College Football Hall of Fame

Ray Richard Evans (born September 22, 1922) was an American football halfback. He was an All-American in football and a two time All-American in basketball at the University of Kansas and is considered possibly the greatest overall athlete to ever attend KU (In addition to his multi-sport prowess in college, Evans would go on to play professional football and basketball, and was even offered a contract to play baseball for the New York Yankees.) He played both halfback on offense and defensive back on defense at KU. During his 1947 All-American season, Evans led the Jayhawks to a Big 6 conference championship and an appearance in the Orange Bowl. He also holds the distinction as the only NCAA football player ever to lead the nation in passing on offense and interceptions on defense in the same season. In fact, Evans is still the Jayhawks single-season (10) and career (17) leader in interceptions. Evans was also a standout guard on the basketball team where he played for the legendary Phog Allen. He was a member of the 1943 conference championship team (which also featured Charlie Black and Otto Schnellbacher) that is regarded as one of the greatest in the basketball program's proud history.

Ray Evans is the only athlete at KU to have both his basketball jersey(15) and football jersey(42) retired. Ray's college athletic career was interrupted by threes years of service with the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1964. He played professionally for the Pittsburgh Steelers