Lee Edward Evans is a former American track and field athlete, winner of two gold medals at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He was also a Fulbright Scholar. While running for Overfelt High School in San Jose, California, Evans was undefeated in his high school career, improving his 440-yard time from 48.2 in 1964 to 46.9 in 1965. He attended San Jose State, where he was coached by Hall of Famer Lloyd Winter. As a freshman, he won his first AAU championship in 440 yd in 1966. He won the AAU title four years in a row and again in 1972 and added the NCAA 400 m title in 1968. His only defeat during that streak came at the hands of San Jose State teammate Tommie Smith. The two were so competitive, Winter could not let them practice together. Lee Evans achieved his first world record in 1966, as a member of the USA national team which broke the 4 x 400 m relay record at Los Angeles, the first team to better 3 minutes for the event. The next year he broke the 4 x 220 yd relay world record at Fresno in a time of 1:22.1. In 1967, Evans won the 400 metres at the Pan American Games, in an automatic time of 44.95, which was the first bona fide automatic time to break 45 seconds. 

February 25th, 1947 in Madera  /  Died:   May 19th, 2021 - aged 74