Jack Evens

Jack Evens died on the morning of Friday 16 October 2026, aged 92. The Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association announced his death the same day, offering condolences to the Evens family and the Jefferson basketball community and recalling that he was the first coach in Minnesota to win four state championships. KARE 11 in Minneapolis reported his death on 18 October with tributes from his son Jeff. The cause of death was not made public, and funeral arrangements were still being made at the time of the reports.

Jack Evens was born John Edward Evens on 24 May 1934. He went to Central High School in Superior, Wisconsin, and then to the state college in Superior, now the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

At college he played basketball, football and baseball. As a basketball player he led the Wisconsin State College Conference in scoring for two consecutive seasons, set or tied several school scoring records and was named all-conference as a sophomore, junior and senior. In 1962 he served as the college's interim head baseball coach. The university inducted him into its athletic hall of fame in 1973.

Evens was the first head coach of the boys basketball team at Thomas Jefferson High School in Bloomington, Minnesota, which opened in 1970 as the growing suburb's third high school. He led the team for 26 seasons, until 1996.

Between 1975 and 1987 Jefferson was one of the dominant programs in Minnesota. In 1976 his team won the school's first state championship in any sport, beating Hibbing in a final that matched Jefferson's Steve Lingenfelter against Hibbing's Kevin McHale, both future NBA players. Further Class AA state titles followed in 1982, 1986 and 1987. The 1987 team, led by Kevin Lynch, finished unbeaten at 26-0. His teams also won state consolation titles in 1975 and 1990 and finished third in 1985.

Evens was the first coach in Minnesota to win four state championships. He ended his career with a record of 554-193 and a state tournament record of 18-5. He was named Minnesota Coach of the Year for 1981-82 and Region Coach of the Year five times, and in 2012 the Minnesota State High School League named him among the top five coaches in the history of its boys basketball tournament. Jake Lynch was his assistant from the late 1970s until 1995.

He also taught American history at Jefferson for more than three decades, coached football and was an NCAA college football official for 25 years. He started a tradition of holding practice on the morning of Christmas Eve that continued after his retirement.

Basketball was a family affair for the Evens family. His son Jeff played for him, coached under him for 11 years and succeeded him as Jefferson's head coach in 1997, a post he still held nearly three decades later. Jack Evens's grandson Michael later joined Jeff's staff as an assistant coach. Jeff described his father as old school and fair, and said that as a young man his ambition had been to be like his father.

Evens's photograph hangs on the Jefferson Athletic Hall of Fame wall, a banner bearing his face hangs above the school's basketball court, and the trophy cases hold the championships his teams won. When the program celebrated its 50th season in December 2019, former players produced The Jefferson Basketball Documentary, based on about 100 interviews, to honour him, his son and Jake Lynch. Former players said the coaches taught them lessons about handling adversity that lasted far beyond basketball, and that the program won with players who grew up in west Bloomington.