MGCCC Hall of Famer Ed Evans dies at 88
PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Athletic Hall of Famer Ed Evans, a member of the 1948 co-national championship football team, passed away Friday at his home in Wiggins at the age of 88.
Edward A. Evans was born in Perkinston on April 16, 1930. He was one of the few players, if not the only player, to letter in football six years at Perkinston. He was a four-year letter-winner for Perkinston Agricultural High School, and he twice lettered for Perkinston Junior College. He also played baseball, basketball and ran track.
Evans was a two-time First-Team All-State selection in football and played on the 1948 team that won the state championship and earned co-national champion honors after winning the Laurel Lions Bowl. He was captain of the 1949 team.
Evans went on to play two years of football at Mississippi State College, now Mississippi State University, then a year of service football at Fort Jackson, S.C.
He returned to Perkinston and began coaching in 1956, and three years later became the head football coach. In 1961, he hired George Sekul as backfield coach, and Sekul went on to become the school's all-time winningest head coach.
Evans coached the winning East squad in the All-American Junior College Bowl at Albuquerque, N.M. He left coaching in 1962 to begin a career as an administrator.
During his time as a coach and administrator, he served as Perkinston High School coach and principal, member of the college building program, member of the Federal Manpower Training Program, director of maintenance and transportation and administrative assistant for vocational instruction.
Evans retired from the college in 1991 after 34 years of service, and the MGCCC Alumni Association awarded him the Sam Owens Trophy in 1996 for his service to the school.
Evans was preceded in death by his wife, Myra Evans. He is survived by his son Butch Evans; two daughters and sons-in-law, Joy Lehman and Chuck Blaylock, and DeeDee and Quent Hatten; four grandchildren and their spouses, Cissy and Bruce Meadows, Kasey and Clint Lott, Clint Hatten and Jake Hatten; four great-grandchildren and their spouses, Parker and Brittany Smith, Madelyn Meadows, Miles Meadows and Landon Meadows; three great-great-grandchildren, Aubree Smith, Kendall and Shelby Lott; one brother Dinkey Evans and one sister, Jerry Bradley.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Edward and Myra Evans Scholarship Fund at MGCCC, P.O. Box 99, Perkinston, MS, 39573.
Visitation will be held Monday, Oct. 15, from 11 a.m. until the service at 1 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, followed by burial in Wiggins City Cemetery.
For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
