Flyer Alumni Profile: Dr. John Evans '03

On the night of November 10, 2000, on a football field in Reserve, La., John Evans’ future changed. But at that moment, it wasn’t his future he was worried about. Of more immediate concern was his broken right leg. 

In a game that was already lost on a play that had no chance of success, Evans, the Loyola quarterback, was tackled as he scrambled toward the Flyers’ sideline. 

He didn’t get up. 

If you had asked 16-year-old John Evans what his chosen occupation was going to be when he graduated from college, not only would “heart surgeon” not have been at the top of the list, it wouldn’t have even made the list at all. 

But in the course of enduring the rehabilitation of his broken leg, things began to change. Today, he is John M. Evans, MD, a cardiovascular & thoracic surgeon at CHRISTUS Shreveport-Bossier. 

“I probably thought I would go into the oil and gas business,” Evans said. “But I was fascinated with the process of what was going on with getting my leg fixed. I knew then that I wanted to be a part of helping people in that healing process.” 

Evans came back quite well from his broken leg during the playoff game in his sophomore year and went on to be a three-year starter at quarterback. Two decades later, he is still No. 7 on the Flyers’ career passing yards list. But when he came back to Loyola to speak at Career Day in March, 2020, it wasn’t to discuss touchdown passes. 

“It was surreal and nostalgic.” Evans said. “I realized that I had not stepped foot in those halls since graduation, and that is too long. The students were very respectful and engaging. I would have loved to have had a Career Day when I was in high school, and I think it is outstanding that Loyola is providing this opportunity for its students now. I was fortunate Loyola gave me the chance to participate, as the whole experience was rewarding and quite an honor.” 

After earning a degree in biology from LSU, Evans graduated from LSU’s medical school in Shreveport in 2011. He then completed a residency in general surgery at UA-Birmingham over the next five years and says he “fell in love with heart surgery.” He completed a residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Vanderbilt before moving back to Shreveport in 2019. 

“I greatly enjoy being a physician-surgeon and consider it a great honor and privilege to take care of patients,” Evans said. “I get satisfaction working with my hands and achieving a technical objective, and that certainly gets fulfilled each day in the operating room. It is rewarding to help people; contributing in the effort to improve a patient’s quality of life, oftentimes prolonging their life, and even sometimes saving their life.” 

It’s a road that started at 921 Jordan Street. 

“Loyola served as a launch pad, sending me on my way to achieve my career dreams and aspirations,” Evans said. “As a student at Loyola, I did not appreciate the premium education I was receiving, but in retrospect, I certainly do now and am forever indebted to the school. I have thanked my parents for sending me to such a fine school, for making that commitment and investment in me.” 

That commitment and investment is just as important today as it was when Evans was a student. “The challenging curriculum clearly sets one up for success at the next level both academically and professionally,” he said. “The wide array of extracurricular opportunities from sports, to academic clubs, to community involvement and enhancement opportunities facilitate development of a balanced student. 

“Most importantly, however, is the school’s cultivation and nurturing of its students’ faith,” he added. “The aforementioned pursuits are futile if not set on a firm foundation of Catholic Christian principled values promoted by a school such as Loyola, and this is certainly reassuring and refreshing in a progressively more secular society.” 

Married with four children, Evans recognizes what Loyola did for him and can do for current and future students. “I greatly encourage the current and prospective students to take advantage of what this great school has to offer,” he said. “This school can serve as a launch pad that can shoot you up to the moon and beyond. Develop good study habits now that will serve you well in college and beyond. Compete against no one except yourself. Demand nothing but a full effort and you will not be disappointed.”