BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
Featured in Varsity Magazine
Henry Mason was reminiscing with one of his former wide receivers, Lee Evans, when Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez popped his head into the office to say hello.
Mason, a longtime Alvarez assistant coach (1995-2007), now serves as the UW's director of player personnel and external operations. Alvarez did a double-take when he spotted Evans.
"I was kind of surprised; I didn't know he (Evans) was going to be up there," said Alvarez who was on his way to see head football coach Paul Chryst. "So I told Lee, 'You saved me a call.'"
That's not all he blurted out.
"Coach (Alvarez) says, 'You know Lee, you're going into the Hall of Fame,'" Mason recalled with a chuckle. It was Evans' turn for a double-take.
"It caught me by surprise," Evans said. "I was more shocked than anything."
He really shouldn't have been. Thirteen years removed from his Wisconsin playing career, Evans still ranks as the school's career leader in receiving yards (3,468) and touchdowns (27). His 175 receptions are second only to the 202 registered by Jared Abbrederis and Brandon Williams.
It was fitting, too, that Evans got the Hall of Fame news from Alvarez – whom he still addresses as "Coach" – and in the company of Mason, who recruited Evans out of Bedford, Ohio.
"He (Mason) brought a competitiveness out of me that I always had but he brought it out on a much bigger level," Evans said. "He taught me about competing, being aggressive going for the ball and not being afraid to make mistakes; things that I still remember to this day.
"I don't know where I would be without him."
Alvarez had a similar influence over the 5-10, 210-pound Evans.
"Coach epitomized how to work like a champion," he said. "You really can't put into words all of the knowledge that he was able to give to us as players not only on the field but off the field. It's still great to this day to be able to go back to Wisconsin and Coach Alvarez and Coach Mason are still there."
What will never leave anyone is the memory of the 2002 spring intra-squad game.
"That was something," Evans said, "that changed my life forever."
Gliding effortlessly over the middle of the field on a post route, Evans went up for a throw over freshman defensive back Johnny Sylvain and secured the football in his strong hands before going down. It was a pattern that he had executed repeatedly on a daily basis in seven-on-seven drills.
It looked like such an innocent pitch-and-catch. There was no collision at the end of the play. Just silence when Evans didn't get up. On the jump ball, he came down awkwardly and twisted his left knee. Evans was eventually helped off the field. His teammates reacted predictably afterwards.
"It was like the bottom of my stomach dropped out," said quarterback Jim Sorgi.
"It deflated everybody," said center Al Johnson (now a UW graduate assistant).
"It was hard to breathe," said quarterback Brooks Bollinger.
Fourteen years later, Alvarez was reminded of that late April practice/scrimmage and confided, "That was really devastating for me because I wasn't going to play him that day."
Evans blew out his knee and had ACL surgery. Although he embarked on an aggressive rehab program with the intent and hope of returning for the Big Ten season, he never made it back for what would have been his senior year. He needed a second surgery and was forced to take an injury redshirt.
"The fear of failing. That kept me going to accomplish a goal (of playing in the NFL) that I was so close to having. Another thing was the doubters. And third, and not of the least importance, was my support group -- my backbone to fight through some things."
As a junior, Evans was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, catching 75 passes for 1,545 yards, a Big Ten record.
"Boy, I was hoping he'd bounce back after the surgeries," Alvarez said. "But you never know on those things. You never know how someone is going to rehab. And after rehabbing, you never know if they're going to have the confidence to put their foot in the ground and make the cuts."
Without recourse, Evans entered a discovery phase.
"One of the biggest things I learned from that whole experience was patience," he said. "As much as I worked and tried to get back on the field for that next season, I just wasn't able to. And it forced me to understand what my body was telling me and what I couldn't or couldn't handle."
What fueled Evans' rehab? What was the motivation that drove him to return?
"The fear of failing," he said. "That kept me going to accomplish a goal (of playing in the NFL) that I was so close to having. Another thing was the doubters. And third, and not of the least importance, was my support group – my backbone to fight through some things.
"That's when I learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot about some of the people around me. When things are going good, everybody is good. When things are bad, not all of those people are who or what they said they were. That was motivating in itself. I had to learn that lesson."
Mason remembered Evans' first game back – the 2003 opener at West Virginia.
"Lee jumped right in," Mason said, "and played 68 plays."
Evans also scored on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Sorgi, tying the game in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. He finished with seven catches in a 24-17 victory. The following week, Evans came up even bigger with nine receptions for 214 yards in a 48-31 win over Akron.
Most of the yardage came on one play: 56 Jerk.
The number refers to the blocking protection: maximum protection with two tight ends and a fullback. Jerk is code for the flanker, who was Evans. It was his assignment to execute a double-move: out and up. The play was called with the ball resting on Wisconsin's 1-yard-line.
Akron cornerback Rickey McKenzie bit on the out, Evans flew past him and Sorgi dropped the ball into his hands. Evans didn't have to break stride and he ran away from McKenzie for a 99-yard score, the longest in UW history. It would not be the last time Evans heard "56 Jerk" in the huddle.
On October 11, 2003, Ohio State brought a 19-game winning streak into rain-swept Camp Randall Stadium. The defending national champions were also coming off a bye in the schedule. The key matchup was Evans vs. cornerback Chris Gamble, a converted receiver the Badgers tried to recruit.
"Great player," Mason said of Gamble. "Top five corner in the country."
Protecting a 10-3 lead in the third quarter, Wisconsin lost Sorgi when he was tackled by Ohio State linebacker Robert Reynolds, who applied a WWE-style chokehold to Sorgi's windpipe. Sorgi had trouble breathing and left the game. Matt Schabert replaced him.
The Buckeyes rallied for a 10-10 tie in the fourth quarter. Evans had yet to catch a pass when Schabert was fed the call from the sidelines: 56 Jerk. Gamble was a gambler. That was his M.O. "If we would have run the out pattern there," Mason said, "Gamble would have picked it and scored."
But it was the out-and-up.
Gamble took the bait. Schabert got the ball to a wide-open Evans, who sprinted 79 yards for the game-winning TD. "In my mind," Evans said, "I can run it back and visualize everything from running the route to watching Schabert throw it to tracking the ball in the air to catching and running with it."
Mason knew the NFL scouts would be watching, especially because of the challenge that Gamble presented. "He really hit his stride about the Ohio State game," Mason said, "where he really felt comfortable. I think in his own mind he was all the way back (from the knee surgeries)."
In mid-November, Evans solidified his argument to be a No. 1 draft pick when he caught 10 passes for 258 yards and five touchdowns against Michigan State. Evans showed off his arsenal by virtue of the variety of routes and passes that he caught from Sorgi, who completed 16-of-24 for 380 yards.
"Lee Evans did it every which way," Mason said. "He caught long ones (TD's of 70 and 75 yards). He caught medium ones (two TD's of 18 yards). He caught a red zone pass (a 9-yard TD). I was talking with a scout and it was like, 'Any more questions? Anything else you need to see?'"
The Buffalo Bills selected Evans with the 13th overall selection in the 2004 draft.
"When I look back on it," Evans said of his UW career, "you have the Ohio State and Michigan State games, two polar opposites, one being the one play (beating Gamble) and the other being a game that symbolized all the work that went into getting back to that point and being successful."
Evans played seven years in Buffalo and one in Baltimore. In 2006, he had 82 receptions for 1,292 yards for the Bills. He ended up playing in 118 games and finished with 381 catches for over 6,000 yards and 43 touchdowns. He retired in 2012.
"I don't have any regrets," he said. "I really enjoyed playing; I really enjoyed the game."
Evans and his wife, Miranda, are living in northern Virginia. They have one son, Lee IV. Besides his degree from Wisconsin in consumer science, he also earned his MBA from the University of Miami. Evans loves the competitiveness of the real estate world as an investor and manager.
But the 35-year-old Evans insisted nothing will ever top his love for the Badgers.
"I have a ton of memories from Wisconsin – the injury being one of them," said Evans, eyeing the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "My parents haven't been back to Madison since I left and my wife is from Wisconsin. I feel extremely humbled and very grateful to have this opportunity."
Particularly since he beat the odds.
