Tonight (Friday), Ole Miss will honor former basketball coach Rob Evans when the Rebels play Sam Houston State at their old venue — Tad Smith Coliseum where Evans led the Rebels to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998. Ole Miss had made only one NCAA Tournament in its history prior to that. He was also a pioneer in a sense, the first Black head coach in a major sport at the university.
When I first heard of those plans to honor Evans, my thoughts quickly turned to another time and place.
I was a Metro Columnist for a newspaper in Phoenix when Arizona State fired Evans in March, 2006. At the time, I was facing my own crisis — a secret I had been carefully guarding.
Evans’ firing came about three weeks after I was arrested for my third DUI on Feb. 19 of that year. For the next two months, I anxiously awaited the results of a blood test that would determine if my blood alcohol content would lead to a charge of DUI. Another conviction meant prison time.
Maybe it was because I was preoccupied with my own troubles that I never reached out to Evans to offer my sympathies or any words of encouragement.
Our paths had crossed twice professionally, first when Evans was hired as the Ole Miss basketball coach in 1992 and I was the sports editor in Biloxi, and in 1998 when my arrival in Phoenix preceded his arrival as the coach at Arizona State by only a few days.
Although I developed professional relationships with coaches, athletes and staff members with all of the pro and college sports programs in the Phoenix area, I felt a special bond with those who had Mississippi connections. Evans was one of those. Another was Buck Showalter, the former Mississippi State player who was the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Although I left the sports department in 2005 to become a columnist, I continued to run into Evans from time to time after that.
So when ASU fired Evans, I should have reached out.
A month later, I was informed that the blood test results had been returned and I was being charged for DUI, a Class 4 felony because it was my third DUI in four years. A year later, I pleaded guilty and was held in the Maricopa County jail for 34 days while awaiting sentencing. I arrived at Florence West Prison in May 2007 to begin my sentence.
I was a mess at the time — humiliated, shamed, in fear of the harsh realities of prison and violence I saw around me. I was also isolated.
I had become a pariah not only among those I knew among the pro and college sports programs in Phoenix, but even among my former colleagues.
No one bothered to offer any kind words.
Well, almost no one.
One day at mail call, I received a letter on University of Arkansas Athletic Department letterhead.
It was from Rob Evans, who had been hired by Arkansas as an assistant coach soon after he left Arizona State.
It had been a year since he had left Arizona; there was no reason why he should have bothered to write. When times were tough for him, it wasn’t as though I had offered any comfort.
The letter was brief. He told me to keep my head up. He said he had made his share of mistakes, too, that everyone does. He recounted the difficult times of his life — and how his faith had sustained him through it all.
At that moment, the message was not what resonated so powerfully. It was that he took the time to reach out. It meant the world to me in that moment.
I’ve often thought of how many other people have a similar story. It’s hard to imagine that I would be unique. I suspect there are hundreds of people who Evans helped, never expecting anything in return.
It’s been 25 years since Evans left Ole Miss and people tend to forget over time.
I’ve always felt Evans was one of the more under-appreciated coaches at Ole Miss. I don’t know where you would rank him in Rebels’ coaching hierarchy. There are those who may have been better coaches than Evans. But there has never been a better man.
A letter to a down-on-his-luck convict is all the proof I need.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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