When Rob Evans graduated from New Mexico State, he knew what he wanted to do.

The opportunity was there for him to go to work for his coach, Lou Henson, and start his college coaching career.

Yet, the Houston 45 s (now the Astros ) drafted him as a shortstop.

And even though Evans had not played football since high school, John Madden showed up on campus and asked Evans to run a 40-yard dash, which he did barefooted on the grass football field. While he doesn’t remember the exact time 40 years later, Evans recalls Madden asking him if he would sign a contract if Madden offered one.

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Evans just wanted to start coaching, but he agreed to travel to Hobbs, N. M., with Madden and discuss the situation with his mom.

“The night before we left, I called my mom and told her to tell Coach Madden no,” Evans told the Downtown Tip-Off Club on Monday. “So we make the drive there, sat down with my mom, and Coach Madden tells her they want to offer me this amount for a three-year contract.

“ My mom looked at the numbers and said, ‘I don’t see why not.’”

Evans signed, reported to camp and waited every day to be cut. When he wasn’t, he quit, much to the unhappiness of Madden, who threatened to call him if they needed him because he was still under contract.

Evans spent seven seasons at New Mexico State, jumped to Texas Tech, and it was there he started recruiting a player in El Paso who played for Nolan Richardson. They have been close friends ever since.

“When I was recruiting the kid, Nolan called and wanted the job at Western Texas Junior College, so I made some calls and got Gerald Myers [the former head coach of the Red Raiders ] involved and Nolan got the job,” Evans said. “Then Gerald got worried and told me to go help him get some players, so I helped Nolan recruit Paul Pressey and some others.

“ And we never got a player from him. Not one.”

That was just one of many stories that was greeted with loud laughter.

Evans did a great job of weaving in personal stories about his career and recalled that when he went to Ole Miss as the head coach, Richardson said the program “was under the ground,” and he was right.

Evans had an idea, and while it took him a while to get the foundation laid, it paid huge dividends.

“I knew Nolan was only going to take the blue chippers in Arkansas, so I decided I’d come in here and get the good ones and then beat him with them, and eventually we did,” he said with a laugh.

By the time Evans had Anthony Boone, Keith Carter, Jason Smith, Hunter Carpenter and Jason Flanigan in place, the Rebels were off and running to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.

Evans left Ole Miss for Arizona State, where he made four more postseason trips before the school decided to go a different direction.

Evans spent a year working in television as an analyst and thought he might stick with it until he got a call from John Pelphrey.

“He asked me to fly to Fayetteville and visit with him, so I did, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” he said. “We went to dinner and had a great visit, but when he dropped me off at my hotel, I told him I would talk it over with my wife [Carolyn ] and let him know. About 30 minutes later, the phone in my room rang and it was John asking if he could come by and talk again.

“ His persistence impressed me, and it does today. No one is going to outwork John, I can tell you that.”

Evans already knew the passion for the Hogs and recalled when he was coaching at Tech that the hog calls in their hotel would keep them up all night, but that was OK.

“That meant my tickets were going to be worth a lot of money because there were 10, 000 Arkansas fans outside who didn’t have tickets,” he said, which brought the house down.

Then he led the large crowd in a hog call, and it was like he has always been an Arkie.