This article, written by Nigeria's former coach, Ron Davis, was forwarded to The Guardian by Green Eagles' former captain, Segun Odegbami. Odegbami, who has been friends with Evans and Davis since their time as athletics coaches in Nigeria in the late 1970s and 80s, says the Olympic champion needs the support of every black man, the race he stood up for, in this trying period. Excerpts:LEE Evans needs our help. The Olympic gold medallist and political activist, who exploded all records in the 400 metres at the 1968 Olympics, has been hospitalised with an aggressive brain tumor. The prognosis for the 63-year old Evans is not good. As his fellow 1968 Olympic activist, John Carlos, said in an email, 'all of our teammates want to go out and say some prayers.All there is left to do is pray.'But the situation is made far worse by the fact that Evans, after four decades of teaching and coaching at schools ranging from South Alabama to Nigeria to Saudi Arabia, does not have health insurance. This has meant, according to Evan's sister, Rosemary, that he has been subject to unspeakable neglect while in the care of the Eden Medical Center in Castro, California.Rosemary said to me: 'Iheard his doctor in the hall and I heard him say he wished he'd been transferred somewhere else because he didn't have insurance. Lee is in intense pain. Not even morphine is helping. He hasn't eaten in several days, yet there was no IV in his arm when I first went into his room. He's lying in filth and nothing is happening. If family members aren't vigilant, if we aren't vigilant, I don't know what's going to happen.'Fellow longtime athletic activist, Dr. Ken Noel, sent an email to Lee's friends, stating: 'The word from Rosemary this morning is that the situation is worse. Lee's is still not receiving reasonable care. He is lying in his urine (no catheter) and has not eaten. Meanwhile, the doctors have not decided on treatment.I'm organising a rally/prayer vigil at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley. I need a minimum of 20 people to be there. If you are in the bay area, please try to make it.'This is a national disgrace. Evans, in addition to his Olympic gold medals in the 400 and 1600-metre relays, is a central part of athletics and American history. A founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR), OPHR turned the sports world on its head by attempting to organise a boycott by African-American athletes of the '68 Olympics to protest racism and oppression both at home and abroad.They wanted South Africa and Rhodesia disinvited from the games. They wanted the Hitler-sympathizer, Avery Brundage, disinvited from the games. They wanted Muhammad Ali's title, stripped for his opposition to the war in Vietnam, restored. They wanted more African-American coaches hired. They pledged to boycott, protest and raise hell if their demands were not met.This protest was punctuated with Tommie Smith and John Carlos's famous raised fist salute after finishing first and third in the 200 metres. Evans famously wore a black beret on the medal stand. I interviewed Evans several years ago. Recently, he had been working to build a school on 13 acres of land he purchased in Liberia.He has even been trying to sell his gold medal to raise money for the school, saying:'I don't need the medals. I need money to build the school.'Evans's wife, Princess, is a Liberian refugee and his dream was to build the school and name it after her. Africa has always been close to Evans's heart. I interviewed him several years ago and he said: 'As soon as I learnt about what Jim Crow meant and I found out that my ancestors were Africans, I wanted to go back to Africa.'So that's what I did. I went back to Africa in 1975 and I worked there for about 20 years and I was fortunate to coach three Olympic medal winners on Nigeria's team. I'm going to go back to Africa again and continue my work over there.'Odegbami takes the story from here: 'I spoke with Ron Davis, who was national track and field coach in Nigeria with Evans, and coached alongside him for close to 19 years. Mr. Davis was also at San Jose State with Evans in 1968. He said, 'we were Black Americans before and after the Olympic Games.'We've all been exposed to class and racism in America but at the Olympic Games were we Americans' This is what Lee, Tommie, John and others were organising against in 1968. And I have to say that Evans' story is another example of the need for universal healthcare for all Americans.
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