Amsterdam News obituary

Bronx, N.Y. – Fordham Athletics mourns the loss of former assistant men's basketball coach Howie Evans who passed away last week.
 
Evans arrived as Fordham in 1978 as an assistant to head coach Tom Penders, who had just been hired by the Rams. Over the next six years, Evans would help Fordham rise from a 7-22 season to eventually receiving four consecutive NIT bids from 1980-83 and recruited Fordham's first seven-footer in school history, Dud Tongal.
 
Following his timer at Fordham, Evans went on to serve as head coach at Maryland Eastern Shore from 1984-87.
 
Evans was a founding Board Member with Black Fives Foundation, which he joined in 2014, and remained on as Board Member Emeritus until his recent death. The mission of the Black Fives Foundation is to inspire excellence in youth by preserving, teaching, and honoring the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball. He was the last known living connection to Will Anthony Madden, the pioneering King of Black Basketball during the 1910s, who made pivotal contributions to basketball that changed the way games were promoted, staged, played, and covered in the news.
 
Prior to joining the Black Fives Foundation, Evans was the Senior Sports Editor for The New York Amsterdam News, the third oldest paper in New York City. He embraced a career that spanned over 30 years of experience as an educator, journalist, communications specialist, high school, college basketball coach and as a coach in the Holcombe Rucker Summer Pro Rucker League.
 
Evans was known for many firsts including being the first African-American to own in partnership, a major professional sports team, the Garden State Colonials of the Eastern Professional Basketball league. He was also the first African American to produce and host a network sports radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System and the first sportscaster to produce and host a sports call-in radio talk show (WRVR FM in New York). Evans was the first African American sports reporter to travel with pro teams when he covered the New York Knicks and New York Jets.
 
Born and raised in New York City, Evans has been inducted into numerous sports Halls of Fame, including the inaugural Bronx Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. He has served on sports youth-serving organization boards in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. He was the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the City Wide Athletic Association and was a charter member of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Trustees.