The Buckeye and the Blue Knight : Life Has Favored Jim Karsatos and Frowned on Steve Evans

A bunch of Ohio State crazies had just put the finishing touches on the goal post they had ripped from its socket after their beloved Buckeyes had knocked the No. 1 out of Iowa in a nationally televised game at horseshoe-shaped Ohio Stadium, or as it came to be known on this day, the really big shoe.

Man, as Buckeye quarterback Jim Karsatos said, this is what it’s all about. Lights, cameras, scouts, cheerleaders--just like they promised in the brochure. And do we have the greatest band in the world or what?

Karsatos fought his way through this Ohio madness to the locker room, where he quickly showered before quoting Shakespeare to a press corps willing to gobble up every dangling participle.

By dusk, Karsatos had writer’s cramp and had absolutely crossed the last T on his last autograph. No more, please.

At about the same time, 40 miles down the road, 230-pound fullback Steve Evans and the Blue Knights of Urbana University began stretching for their night game against Wittenberg College. OK, nit pickers, it was the Wittenberg jayvee team.

Now you have to give Urbana some credit for marketing sense. Scheduling their game opposite Ohio State-Iowa would have been about as sensible as a Friday night television matchup between Celebrity Badminton and Miami Vice.

And night football in the frigid rain at a high school stadium in Urbana really isn’t so bad, not when you can gross $288 at the gate against a JV team. Just think if Wittenberg brings the varsity?

OK, enough with the jokes. Urbana, which resurrected its football program this year after a 50-year bye, has heard them all before.

The only thing the Blue Knights have in common with the Buckeyes are their practice jerseys and shoes, hand-me-downs from the Ohio State athletic department.

It’s true that only 40 miles separate the schools. But, on a football field, their distance would be measured in light years.

Ohio State is an NCAA power. The Urbana Blue Knights are the Bad News Bears of something called the NAIA.

Ohio State is Coach Earle Bruce and tradition. Urbana is Coach Ray DeCola and the old team bus.

Funny meeting you here, Steve Evans.

When they left their respective Orange County high schools in 1981, no one ever doubted that Jim Karsatos and Steve Evans would again share headlines. Most figured it would be in the Rose Bowl, though.

Karsatos of Fullerton Sunny Hills High and Evans of Anaheim High were Orange County’s best quarterbacks in the fall of 1980. They also were friends, having met on the field and later on the high school banquet circuit.

Karsatos left for Columbus in search of stardom. Evans went to Arizona State.

That was four years ago. Today, Karsatos is a star of a team only two victories from the Rose Bowl.

Evans, who has gained 35 pounds since high school, is one of three Urbana fullbacks.

That Evans should end up so close to rival Karsatos geographically is a coincidence the Evans family would just as soon kick under the carpet.

“I feel confident in saying he’s embarrassed,” Gail Evans, Steve’s father, said. “From where he came from, from what he’s accomplished and then to end up in a place like that?”

That wasn’t in the plan.

Evans was a shining three-sport star at Anaheim and went to ASU only because they guaranteed he could play football and baseball. But he didn’t even survive his freshman season.

Evans was implicated in, then and later cleared of, a dormitory scandal involving some football players and a woman student. Evans said then-coach Darryl Rogers linked him to drug use on campus. Evans to this day will look you straight in the face and tell you the whole thing was a frame. He’ll tell you that Rogers wanted him out because he didn’t want Evans playing two sports.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Evans said. “To this day, I still don’t know.”

Evans, scarred by the incident, left ASU after his freshman year and has done a pinball act ever since, bouncing from one junior college to another before finally landing in Urbana, of all places.

Gail Evans, who has closely monitored his son’s career, flat-out blames Rogers and ASU for destroying his son’s future in sports.

Rogers, now the coach of the Detroit Lions, said that idea is ridiculous. He said he barely recalled the dormitory incident and that it had nothing to do with Evans’ departure.

“The reason he wasn’t there was because he flunked out of school,” Rogers said. “He was not eligible at ASU. I remember there was an incident, but I don’t remember that as being the reason he was no longer there. I don’t think it had anything to do with it.”

To this day, Gail Evans’ blood boils.

“Steve’s dream of being a pro athlete is pretty much shot,” Evans said. “What happened at ASU . . . I’ll never forgive them for what they did to him. It ruined his career. It ruined his life. But he’s still got hope. That’s why he’s in Urbana.”

Yes, hope springs eternal in Urbana, population 12,000, where Main Street USA looks as it might have half a century ago. This is a town where you can still see a movie for a buck and a half. It’s best to be quiet in Urbana, as the “No Noise” signs along Main Street suggest.

Any available postman will gladly tell you that Urbana University lies “just right around that bend.”

In fact, it’s been right around the bend since 1850, the year the school was founded.

Urbana, nestled in the woods, is a private institution that offers a variety of courses.

But what Urbana didn’t have since the 1930s was a football team. And darn it, as one administrator deemed, “this is a Midwest college and Midwest colleges should have a football team.”

And so the Blue Knights were reborn. Athletic department officials convinced the administration that football was the way to bolster dwindling enrollment--it’s at 350--at the school, which always has fought to stay open.

Athletic Director Bob Cawley figured that if Urbana could lure 100 players at $8,200 a pop for tuition, well, hey, the place would be rolling in dough. Seemed like a good idea.

They lured a long-time Urbana High School coach, Ray DeCola, out of retirement and gave him $1,800 in recruiting money to play with.

“My recruiting pitch is you’ve got a good chance of starting because I’ve got no one else,” DeCola said.

DeCola then started scouring for players. Of course, he wasn’t going to get the blue-chippers so he concentrated on the Dead End Kids of college football; players who might have had trouble with a coach at another school. He ended up with 48 players. Players such as Steve Evans.

“Yeah, if there are any dissatisfied players out there that would like to play some good football, give us a call,” DeCola said.

The Evans-DeCola connection actually started long ago. Evans, who was born in nearby Springfield and grew up in Urbana, played his freshman and sophomore years for DeCola at Urbana High before moving to California.

It just so happened that the Evans family had moved back to Urbana at about the time DeCola was forming the team.

Evans, 23 and out of football for more than three years, decided to give it a try.

It hasn’t been easy. The layoff has added pounds to his waistline and stripped him of his quickness.

“It’s been frustrating,” said Evans, who is primarily a blocking back. “I enjoy blocking but then again, you’d like to show what you have, also. But I’m not here only to help myself or my team, but also to help the coach get the program started. This is my hometown. He helped me, so I thought maybe I could help him.”

Evans had rushed for 299 yards in his first six games. Statistics for the last two games weren’t readily available. Computer breakdown. You know how that goes.

Evans, the former star quarterback, threw one pass this season. It was intercepted.

No, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill football program.

The Blue Knights’ defensive end, Martin Radosevic, also is sports editor of the school paper, The Lancer. Radosevic didn’t play much this season, but that could change since he buttered up the coach in one of his recent columns. “I’m very happy playing under the guidance of Coach DeCola,” Radosevic wrote.

The Blue Knights finished the season with a 5-3 record. Their last game against the Ashland College junior varsity was rained out.

And although the Urbana booster club will never be mistaken for any in the Southwest Conference, it did earn enough money from popcorn proceeds to buy the team a new washer-dryer to launder uniforms.

Next year, the schedule will get tougher. DeCola vows that there won’t be another jayvee patsy schedule against the likes of Dayton, Wittenberg and Bluffton.

And Urbana hopes to have its own home stadium soon, complete with aluminum seats.

Jim Karsatos, who threw for 275 yards and 3 touchdowns in Ohio State’s victory over Northwestern last Saturday, hasn’t seen Evans since the 1981 Orange County All-Star game at Orange Coast College.

“That’s weird,” Karsatos said, when told that Evans was at nearby Urbana. “I had no idea where Steve was.”

Evans hasn’t been to an Ohio State home game this season. He’s been meaning to look up Karsatos but can’t seem to find the time.

“If he wants to come to the Wisconsin game, that would be great,” Karsatos said. “I’ll get him tickets to the game and show him around town.”

Evans doesn’t sound envious of Karsatos, but . . .

“It was tough coming back here with him at Ohio State,” Evans said. “I kept thinking maybe I could have been a starting quarterback and gone to the Rose Bowl. Everything back here revolves around Ohio State.”

Karsatos can’t say exactly why his story turned out differently.

“Going to the right program has a lot to do with it,” Karsatos said. “Plus, there’s the temperament of the person. You have to learn how to be patient. You have to wait.”

He should know. Karsatos, only a junior, will celebrate his five-year high school reunion in 1986.

He missed his first season at Ohio State because of injury and was redshirted the next season. Then, there were two more years on the bench.

“It was very frustrating,” he said. “Without my parents and friends I don’t know if I would have stuck it out. But I had patience.”

In high school, Evans and Karsatos faced each other often. Both were quarterbacks in football and forwards in basketball.

“He was a great all-around athlete,” Karsatos said of Evans. “It was always me against him.”

Karsatos led the county in passing his senior season. Evans was second.

Karsatos was named first-team all-county at quarterback. Evans was second team.

Evans, though, was also a great pitcher in baseball and he had a decision to make.

“All I ever wanted to do was to go to USC,” Evans said.

But the Trojans weren’t as interested so Evans decided to go to the only school that would allow him to play two sports, Arizona State.

Of course, it was mistake.

Evans was switched to linebacker early in the season and struggled in class. He began hearing whispers in hallways about his playing two sports. His relationship with Rogers quickly soured.

It got ugly.

“He said I was the biggest drug pusher on campus,” Evans said. “He told people to stay away from me. I don’t know why he picked me. If he had a reason why, he didn’t tell me.”

After ASU, Evans began skipping around. His family moved to Oakland for a while, and Evans went to Diablo Valley College, and played some baseball. Then, his family moved to Mesa, Ariz., and Steve tried playing baseball at Grand Canyon College. Last March, Evans moved back to Urbana.

“No,” he said, “I haven’t lived a boring life.”

Meanwhile, Jim Karsatos and the Buckeyes march on toward the Rose Bowl.

And all Steve Evans can say is thanks for the memories.

“I had a good high school career,” he said. “It was a thing I did for enjoyment. It’s nothing to get mad about, whether someone made it or someone didn’t. If I didn’t enjoy this, I wouldn’t do it. Besides, you can’t do this forever.

“Sometimes one guy gets a break and the other guy doesn’t. I guess it’s the luck of the draw. Some guys are in the right place at the right time.”

And some end up in Urbana.