North Carolina State University Athletics
PACK PERSPECTIVE: A Family Affair
10/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- It was Parents Day at Carter-Finley Stadium, and no one could have been prouder of an offspring than the guy sitting 10 stories above the field, watching a miracle happen.
Johnny Evans, a former NC State All-America and professional football player, knew this game might come one day, when he had to sit in the radio booth on the fourth floor of Vaughn Towers and talk about what his sons were doing on the field. He had prepared as best he could, but he was just another nervous father, remembering all he had done in raising his children, teaching them to play football, basketball and baseball.
So he was caught a little off-guard when play-by-play announcer Gary Hahn asked him to assess the NC State offense on that night against Boston College, with about two minutes to play and the Wolfpack trailing 15-10.
“Very average at best,” was what Evans came up with, not long after the Wolfpack made its only turnover of the game.
What transpired over the next couple of minutes, however, was as far from average as you can get.
Daniel Evans, making his first start at quarterback, trotted on to the field, ready to live out the dream he had had ever since he was a 6-year-old boy, roaming the sidelines with his brother, Andrew, and listening to their father offer color commentary on the Wolfpack Radio Network.
He only had about 46 seconds to work with, so he hurriedly got the offense on the field, displaying the poise that earned him the starting job earlier in the week. His first pass, to freshman Donald Bowens, was incomplete, the only blemish on a perfect drive. His next went for 18 yards to tight end Anthony Hill.
The next throw went to junior wide receiver John Dunlap, a sideline pass similar to one that Dunlap had caught earlier in the game, but was ruled out of bounds. (Instant replay confirmed that judgment.) This time, however, Dunlap caught the ball inbounds and gained 20 yards, putting the Wolfpack within striking distance of the goal line.
As the clock ticked down, the younger Evans called the play, put his trust in the offensive line and stood calmly in the pocket. As Boston College’s defensive line collapsed around him, he sprinted forward and flung the ball to the end zone.
Dunlap was there, waiting to out-jump Eagles defender DeJuan Tribble. He juggled the ball at first, but grabbed it in his hands as he fell backwards for a game-winning touchdown, giving the Pack a 17-15 victory that ended a two-game losing streak.
Johnny Evans couldn’t speak.
“Story-book is probably the best word to use,” Evans said three days later, when his mind had cleared and his emotions were in check.
What the color analyst saw next made him feel even more proud. Daniel and his brother, Andrew, walked to the middle of the field and said a short prayer with some teammates and opponents.
“You could tell that Daniel sort of had a chance to let his emotions go, and Andrew was there to prop him up,” Evans said.
A similar moment played out a few minutes later, when Daniel saw his mother, Beth, in the lobby of the Murphy Center. He raced into her arms and they embraced for more than a minute.
“To me, at that moment, he was a little boy again, in his mother’s arms,” said Johnny Evans, after seeing a picture of the hug. “He surely looked like a man an hour before, but that was a very tender picture of that moment.”
Soon after, Johnny shared his own special moment, when he interviewed Daniel on the postgame show. He began with a rebuke: “OK, D, you just about killed your old man. You know that, don’t you?”
Indeed, calling the game was harder than Johnny ever imagined, even though he had been preparing for this moment for nearly three years and had all week to anticipate what it would be like.
“It was maybe a little more difficult than I anticipated,” said Evans, who has been working for the radio network for nearly two decades. “I had said all along in advance when people asked that question that having to do the broadcast would make me stay more focused and less nervous.
“If I was in the stands, I would have just been a nervous wreck. At least now, I am a nervous wreck, but at least I have to keep some decorum, some sense of what I am doing. I am broadcasting to thousands of people, so I have to be very careful about what I say. I think I am going to get better at it.”
The next day, the entire Evans family Johnny and Beth and their quadruplets, Daniel, Andrew, Catherine and Quinn spent the day together. Johnny felt obligated to keep his son grounded as much as possible.
But the speech was wholly unnecessary.
“Daniel understands that he may never, ever have a game like this the rest of this career,” said Evans, who was a quarterback and All-American punter for the Wolfpack from 1974-77. “I never had one like that my entire career. He had that one in his very first start. But he is thankful that the Lord saw fit at that moment in time to say, This is what I am going to do with you.’”
Johnny Evans is being a little modest in that regard. Many Wolfpack fans will remember what the elder Evans did almost exactly 29 years before against two-time defending ACC champion Maryland on the same field.
On Oct. 1, 1977, the Wolfpack hosted a Terrapins team that had won an ACC-record 21 consecutive conference games. It was Evans’ senior season, and State was looking to rebound from the disappointing 3-7-1 record it had the year before in Bo Rein’s first season as head coach.
NC State had already suffered a home loss to East Carolina and was looking at the prospect of going to Auburn the next week for an exceptionally tough road game. The Wolfpack had gone through some fumble-itis during the early part of the season, dropping the ball 16 times in the first two games. Incredibly, Evans and the offense lost six fumbles at Syracuse, including three inside the Orangemen’s 10-yard line, and still managed to dominate in a 38-0 victory.
The game against Maryland was close throughout, and the Terps took a 20-17 lead with less than four minutes to play. Running his team’s standard option offense, Evans marched the Wolfpack on a 69-yard drive in the final minutes and scored the game-winning touchdown with 27 seconds to play, securing a 24-20 win.
The next week, the Wolfpack went on the road and beat Auburn 17-15.
Those two games propelled the Pack to a Peach Bowl matchup with Iowa State, where Evans won Most Valuable Player honors after rushing for a touchdown and passing for two more in a 24-14 New Year’s Eve victory.
Where will the Wolfpack go from here? It’s too early to say. Daniel Evans and his team will have another opportunity to shine in a Thursday game against Florida State, one in which this story will be retold again to a ESPN audience.
But last Saturday was Parents Day at Carter-Finley Stadium, and one Wolfpack family will never, ever forget it.
Tim Peeler is the managing editor of www.gopack.com and a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. He can be reached at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Reprinted from "The Wolfpacker" with permission from Coman Publishing Company.
