Kevin Sherrington

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One last leftover from an era now over at the Cotton Bowl, and one of the men who helped make the old girl famous:

In the winter of 1969, a two-man party from Dallas set out for a game at State College, Pa. A fierce snowstorm grounded all flights out of Cleveland, but it didn't deter the Cotton Bowl's fearless scouting party, Field Scovell and today's subject, Wilbur Evans.

With Scovell at the wheel and Evans riding shotgun, the two drove all night. The snow came so thick, so blinding, that occasionally Evans had to roll down the window to read the road signs.

"When he'd pull his head back in," Scovell once said, "he'd have icicles on his nose and eyelashes."

The pair made its destination, only to conclude that the Nittany Lions weren't candidates. Off the travelers made for South Bend, Ind., where they hoped to continue negotiations with Notre Dame, out of the bowl business since 1925.

The Cotton Bowl boys – Scovell, the folksy first chair, and Evans, the partner he overshadowed – pulled off the feat with considerably less trouble than they'd encountered just getting there.

"The fact that Notre Dame chose to return to the bowl picture after a 45-year absence was big news all over the country," Evans said in 1977, weeks before retiring. "The fact that it chose to come to the Cotton Bowl to challenge the No. 1 team in the nation gave our game a tremendous boost."

Texas beat Notre Dame, 21-17, to clinch the national title, no doubt providing an exclamation point for the coup.

File 1978 / Evans family

Wilbur Evans was honored at halftime of the 1978 Cotton Bowl, the game he served for years as Field Scovell's often overshadowed partner.

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After graduating from UT and working for papers in Austin and Dallas, Evans served as Texas' sports information director from 1949 to '61, when he became the first Southwest Conference sports information director.

Except for a brief turn as Gov. John Connally's press secretary in '63 and two years with the Cowboys, Evans worked for the SWC or Cotton Bowl or both until 1978, forming a fine partnership with Scovell.

"They played doubles well," is how longtime sportswriter Sam Blair put it.

Friends and associates remembered Evans, who died in 1987 at 74, as professional and detail-oriented with a quick wit.

Case in point: In '69, after winning the Arch Ward Award from CoSIDA, the sports information organization he helped found, Evans thanked everyone before concluding, "I believe it was Tennyson who wrote, 'A man who dwells too long on his honor inspires others to play with their spoons.' "

He sat down to a standing ovation.

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