Belton, S. C.
Inducted 2024
Jean Evans, one of South Carolina’s most outstanding players, came from a strong tennis family. Her father was one of the founders of the Belton Tennis Association and Palmetto Championships and served as the President of the South Carolina Tennis Association, and her brother was a top junior and collegiate player. Jean set a standard of excellence for junior and high school players, and was one of the first state players to venture outside South Carolina for sectional and national tournaments. Her accomplishments include:
South Carolina
- Ranked #1 in the state in singles and doubles in all 4 age divisions between 1959 and 1963.
- Won 9 singles titles at the Palmetto Championships in Belton, a tournament record that stands
today. - Jean also continues to hold the Palmetto records for most consecutive singles titles with 6 which
she won from 1958 to 1963, and the most singles titles in one age division with 4 18U
championships won between 1960 and 1963. - Even though often playing outside the state when the tournament was played, she won numerous
State Closed Championships singles and doubles titles. - For 4 straight years, from 1961 to 1964, Jean won both the singles and doubles titles at the State High School Championships and led Belton High School to the State Team Championship.
- Received the 1960 State High School Sportsmanship Award
- Played on both the Belton High School boys and girls teams, and was recruited by Clemson, South Carolina and PC to play on the men’s teams.
Southern
- Earned her first Southern ranking, #2 in the 13U in 1958
- Ranked #1 in the South in both singles and doubles in 1959, 1961 and 1962. She was ranked #2 in singles and #1 in doubles in the 18U in 1964.
- Played on the Southern Intersectional team from 1960 to 1964 where they competed on grass at the Germantown Cricket Club.
- Received the 1962 Teague Award at the age of 16, an award presented by the Carolinas Amateur Athletic Unions and selected by the Associated Press, and given to the most outstanding amateur athlete across all sports in North and South Carolina.
National
- Ranked #6 in the nation in the Girl’s 15U in 1962 and #18 in the Girl’s 18U in 1964.
- Won the 1963 singles championship at the National Jaycee Tournament in Provo, Utah.
- Received the Mauren Connolly Sportsmanship Award at the National Jaycee Tournament in 1964.
Unaware of the groundbreaking territory she was entering by having scholarships offered to her to play on men’s tennis teams, she opted to accept an academic scholarship from Queens College in Charlotte, where she continued to play tennis. While at Queens she won the 1968 North Carolina Women’s Collegiate Championships, defeating Laura Dupont, an inductee in the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, in the finals. Jean played on the European Tennis Circuit in1969, including the Wimbledon qualifying rounds. She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where she coached the Harvard-Radcliffe Women’s Tennis team from 1969 to 1972. She was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1972, which curtailed her career in tennis as a player and coach.
