During his run as the head coach of Ole Miss Men’s Basketball from 1992 to 1998, Rob Evans won two SEC West Division Championships and was the 1997 SEC Coach of the Year. In the documentary “Paving the Way: The Odyssey of Coach Rob Evans,” Evans reflects on his journey as an athlete, coach and mentor.
Evans remains one of the most impactful figures in Ole Miss Athletics history, remembered not only for his trailblazing role as the University of Mississippi’s first Black head coach but also for the legacy he built on and off the basketball court.
Part one of “Paving the Way” is available now on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube and STARZ. Part two is in production and will be released next year.
Damon Evans helped bring his father’s story to the screen after being inspired by a friend’s suggestion.
“A friend called me and said, ‘Man, your dad’s got a lot of stories. We should try to document this in some kind of way,’” Damon Evans said in an interview with The Daily Mississippian. “Everyone just decided that it would be a pretty cool project to do a documentary on his career.”
That conversation sparked what would become a full-fledged film project chronicling Rob Evans’ groundbreaking coaching journey.
After 24 seasons as an assistant, Evans accepted his first Division I head coaching job at Ole Miss in 1992.
“I told my wife, ‘You know, I feel like we can go as a family to Mississippi, and we can make a difference in a lot of areas, not only in the basketball program but also in the lives of people,’” Rob Evans said to The Daily Mississippian. “There was just no interest in basketball at Ole Miss. I felt like we needed to come in and create a lot of positive change there. And so we went to work.”
When Evans moved to Ole Miss, his family followed. His son, Damon, studied banking and finance at the university, while his daughter, Amber, studied radio and TV broadcasting.
While Evans had plenty of success on the court, he wanted to create more than just winners. He wanted to coach his players to become good people.
Joezon Darby, an Ole Miss Men’s Basketball player from 1995-98, described the person that Evans was to him on and off the court.
“Coach Evans was a mentor and father figure for a lot of us who didn’t have physical dads in their lives at the time,” Darby said. “Everything that he did, I watched. I watched how he handled the media, I watched how he handled the administration and I just watched his overall day-to-day movements around campus. You know, you want to emulate those men who impact your life the most, and Coach Evans was that individual for me.”
Darby also emphasized how important academics and pursuing a degree was to Evans if you played for him — it was a nonnegotiable.
“If we didn’t take care of our business academically, he wasn’t going to play us, no matter how big the game was,” Darby said. “He told my grandmother and my mom that if they allowed me to go to Ole Miss and play for him, I would graduate.”
During Darby’s senior year, Evans left Ole Miss to coach at Arizona State University.
“I wasn’t going to graduate because I said, ‘Man, this guy left me.’ (At graduation) I looked up and guess who was there? Coach Evans. When I walked across that stage, I saw him, and I just broke down,” Darby said.
ASU first reached out to Evans in 1997, when the Rebels won their first SEC West Division Title. ASU’s Athletic Director Kevin White’s son, Michael, played on the Ole Miss team.
“(Kevin) had called me and said, ‘It looks like I’m going to have an opening here at Arizona State. Would you be interested?’” Evans said.
What was most important to Evans at the time was loyalty to the Ole Miss program, as well as his players.
Evans spent another year at Ole Miss and accepted White’s job offer after the 1998 season. Prior to the announcement, Kevin White confided in his son to ensure he was okay with Evans’ leaving Ole Miss.
“Michael (White) told him, ‘I don’t want to lose coach Evans, but if it’s something that’s good for coach Evans and his family, and if it’s good for you and Arizona State, I’m good with it,” Evans said.
UM Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter was a part of Evan’s two SEC West titles teams in the 1997-98 seasons. He emphasized the improvements Rob made to the program.
“(I have) so much respect for coach Evans. As a coach that came here, the first African American men’s head coach here at Ole Miss, (he) just did an awesome job of building a culture,” Carter said. “It took him a few years to put all the pieces together, but (he) built something really cool. The 1997 NCAA Tournament season was a pretty big turning point for Ole Miss Basketball.”
In addition to highlighting Evans’ coaching success, the documentary also touches on his own athletic career, where he excelled in basketball, baseball and football.
After turning down a professional baseball offer from the Houston Colt 45’s (now the Astros) to pursue a college degree, Rob Evans played basketball at Lubbock Christian before captaining two New Mexico State teams from 1966–67. Following his collegiate career, he signed as a free agent with the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, now the San Antonio Spurs.
In 1968, Evans signed a two-year free agent contract with the Oakland Raiders as a wide receiver and cornerback under legendary coach John Madden.
When Evans’ basketball eligibility ran out, the New Mexico State football team reached out and asked if he would be interested in using his fifth year of athletic eligibility to play football. Madden was there watching other players when the football staff at New Mexico State asked Madden to persuade Evans for them.
“(Madden) said, ‘Would you mind going out and running a 40-yard dash for me?’ And I went out and ran a 40-yard dash on the football field, and he clocked it,” Evans said. “(Madden said,) ‘If we offer you a contract, would you be willing to come to the Oakland Raiders?’”
Although Evans had the chance to play football at the highest level, his true passion lay elsewhere — he wanted to pursue a career in coaching rather than continuing as a player.
“When I made the team I thought, ‘Man, I really want to coach,’” Evans said. “So, I talked to Madden and finally convinced him that that’s what I wanted to do. I went back to New Mexico State, and that’s when Lou Henson hired me as a graduate assistant.”
When Evans was asked what message he wanted to send to the documentary audience, he said he wanted people to feel inspired.
“I’ve always felt that way, that I have a responsibility, and when God put me on this earth to make a difference in people’s lives, I spent my whole career wanting to win,” Evans said. “It’s not all about winning. For me, it’s about making a difference in people’s lives. And I want the documentary to show that we made a difference, my wife and my kids, we all made a difference in all the people that we touched.”
