Inducted 2024

Jeff Evans always said he goal was 40 years, but when it was all said and done, 37 was the magic number.
From 1980 until his retirement from The Bakersfield Californian in 2017, Jeff covered just about every sport and athlete in Kern County as a sports reporter for the newspaper.

While Jeff dabbled in preps and feature stories, the bulk of his career at The Californian was spent covering college athletics, and he witnessed and chronicled it all for the masses.

From the 1988 JC Grid-Wire national championship team for the Bakersfield College football program that went 11-0, beating Fullerton 30-24 on a touchdown with less than 90 seconds left on the clock, Jeff illustrated that drive and touchdown from Stan Greene to Lionel Sykes with eloquence and style like no one else. He was also the reporter covering Cal State Bakersfield. Jeff was there when Dedrick Basile hit the buzzer-beater to win the 2016 WAC Tournament title over New Mexico State, which propelled CSUB into the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a Division I program.

Jeff began covering CSUB when the program was D-II and was there first hand as the athletic department transitioned to D-I.

But there was so much more to Jeff, branching out covering Cal League baseball, pro boxing, mixed martial arts, auto racing, rodeos, gymnastics – you name it, Jeff covered it.
During his time at The Californian, Jeff was responsible for compiling the BC football individual season and career leaders in passing, rushing and receiving. Prior, there was no list of those individual accomplishments for the program.

And he was in charge of move the all-star teams, now known as All-Area, from just football to recognize all sports in Kern County.

With a motto of “Be courteous to others,” Jeff was always willing to just talk sports to strangers that would come up to him in the community.