Cal Baseball: Clint Evans Becomes The First Golden Bear Inducted to the College Baseball Hall of Fame
Cal baseball's head coach for 25 seasons and 1947 College World Series Champion is the first Golden Bear to be selected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 HOF Class.
In 1947, the NCAA baseball tournament was the first-ever NCAA-sanctioned baseball tournament to determine a national champion in college baseball. California, led by head coach Clint Evans, would go on to defeat Yale University, which was led by then-junior first baseman George H. W. Bush and “Captain” of the Bulldogs team, with a perfect 4-0 postseason record to establish Cal as the first-ever champions of college baseball.
Coach Clint Evans will be the first California Golden Bear inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, as the longtime coach will be posthumously added in the 18th Hall of Fame class, having passed away at the age of 85 in 1975. He will be one of 21 players, coaches, umpires, and builders of the game who will be honored for their positive impact on college baseball.
Clint Evans would coach California for 25 seasons, where he would lead the sturdy Golden Bears to six California Intercollegiate Baseball Association crowns (a subdivision of the Pacific Coast Conference that included the West Coast powerhouse baseball programs of USC, Cal, Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara, and Stanford- and at times LMU, UCLA, Occidental College, Pepperdine, UCSB, USF, and Whittier College from 1927 - 1966) and tied for first in three other seasons. His winning % in Berkeley was .681, the highest for qualified coaches with a 547–256 record, second only to Bob Milano’s 688 wins.
Evans and the Cal teams he coached had 24 winning seasons in 25 years, with 8 conference championships. He was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986 and is the namesake of Cal Baseball’s field: Evans Diamond. His No. 13 is one of four currently retired by the program.
The 18th Induction Class for the 2025 College Baseball Hall of Fame will be held during the 2026 Night of Champions presented by Prairiefire on February 12, 2026, in Overland Park, Kansas, the soon-to-be home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. The event will kick off the 2026 College Baseball season the following day on February 13th, 2026.