Bucknell University Athletics
Dave Evans Receives Senior Athletic Award
6/19/2001 8:00:00 AM | Football
June 19, 2001
LEWISBURG, PA -- Bucknell senior Dave Evans (Kulpmont, Pa./Mount Carmel), a three-year letterwinner on the Bison football team, received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held at the University in early May.
Evans won the Alvin E. Jackson Memorial Award, presented to senior athletes "for outstanding academic and athletic achievement, and future promise as Bucknell alumni." Evans shared the award with Jessica Smith of the women's crew team.
In addition to Evans and Smith, several other student-athletes were honored at the banquet, including the winners of the Christy Mathewson Award, given to the most outstanding athletes in the senior class. All-American football and baseball standout Kevin Eiben won the men's Mathewson Award, while women's swimming standout Molly Lowe won the women's Mathewson Award.
Evans played in 27 games during his Bison career, and was an important part of the nickel package in the secondary as well as the leader of Bucknell's special teams. He excelled on the punt, punt return, kickoff and kickoff return units. He worked harder than virtually any player on the team to stay in top physical shape, and each season finished at the head of the teams conditioning tests.
As a senior, Evans set a school record when he returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown in the Orange and Blue's victory over Lafayette. He finished his senior year ranked third on the team with three interceptions for 119 return yards. Evans made 37 tackles last fall, including 19 solo hits and tackle for a loss of seven yards. He also had three pass breakups and recovered a fumble.
In the classroom he performed to the highest degree, earning Verizon Academic All-America Second Team honors following the season. A civil engineering major with a 3.75 cumulative grade point average, Evans became the 99th Bucknell student-athlete to receive national Academic All-America honors since the programs inception in 1952. He is the first player under head coach Tom Gadd and the 19th Bison football player overall to earn the distinct honor.
Bucknell is a highly-selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,650 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League, along with Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Navy. Army and Navy do not compete in the league in football. Fordham and Towson are associate members of the league in football and Georgetown will join as a football-only member in 2001. American University will also become an all-sport member in 2001-2002.
In two of the past nine years, Bucknell ranked FIRST in the nation in the graduation rate of its student-athletes, and in the ten years the NCAA survey has been conducted it has never been lower than seventh. In addition, Bucknell ranks third in Division I in the total number of GTE Academic All-America selections, with 100 national Academic All-Americans since 1970.
