Former longtime NBA referee Hugh Evans, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022, died Friday morning, his wife, Cathy, told ESPN’s Andscape.
Evans was officially named to Hoop Hall on April 2, on his third try. He was an NBA referee from 1973 to 2001 and refereed 1,969 regular season games. Evans has also refereed 170 playoff games, 35 NBA Finals and four NBA All-Star Games. He was ranked the second best official in the NBA by coaches, general manager and senior vice president of the NBA during the 1995-96 season.
After retiring in 2001, Evans worked as an assistant supervisor of NBA officials for two years. He is also a member of the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame and the North Carolina A&T Hall of Fame. Additionally, Evans was one of six NBA umpires to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He will be inducted posthumously on September 9 and 10 in Springfield, Mass.
Asked about his Hall of Fame nomination earlier this year, Evans said: “I still haven’t put into perspective what that means. I’m still processing it. Every time I hear it, you have chills, I have tears, I’m happy and I just know that I’m special I was chosen to be special by God.
Evans became the second NBA umpire from a historically black college and university after playing basketball and baseball at North Carolina A&T. The first was Ken Hudson, who attended HBCU Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio and umpired in the NBA from 1968 to 1972. Nine of the 73 NBA umpires in the 2021-21 season came from HBCUs, according to the National Basketball Referee Association.
Evans said he was proud to be an HBCU NBA referee. He told Andscape in 2021 that the biggest challenge he had as a black NBA referee was to become widely respected and overcome institutionalized racism. He said his professionalism on and off the pitch, which included his sharp dressing at games, ultimately earned him that respect.
“Getting accepted by coaches, players, fans and general managers has been tough,” Evans said. “They didn’t think we [Black referees] could do the job. I was the first black to pass the first round of the playoffs. I continued to make finals. After a while they said, ‘This guy is good. We’ll give him space.'”