Profile: Norm and Bobbie Evans
April 30th, 2009 | By: Fred Nystrom
A great many young athletes have the dream of playing their chosen sport at the professional level. They envision this as the pinnacle of personal and athletic achievement. For those very few who do make it to the top level in their sport after years of dedication, pain and total focus, too often the pressure to perform, coupled with new found wealth, ends up doing the athlete more harm than good.
It is far too common to read about Pros who abuse drugs, are charged with domestic violence or simply fall off the deep end. They sadly end up reaching their goal only to see it all slip away.
Few people know this better than Norm and Bobbe Evans. These Issaquah residents have been working with professional athletes and now with coaches for over 35 years helping them to develop the character they need to become positive examples rather than another statistic of failure.
Norm and Bobbe married young while Norm was playing football at Texas Christian University. “If we can just make it to the Pros” they said to each other, “all our problems will be over.” Well, they did make it and Norm played football for 14 seasons with the Houston Oilers and then the Miami Dolphins where he was a part of the 1972 Perfect Season team. Norm earned two Super Bowl victories and went on to complete his career with the Seattle Seahawks.
As a young married couple the Evans saw far too many newly professional athletes face sudden celebrity, wealth and lifestyle choices they were completely unprepared to deal with. In 1971, Norm and 34 other NFL players came together to show other football players how to be better role models and to apply faith-based principals in a practical way.
By 1974 the effort to help athletes and their spouses was expanded to baseball and other professional sports. Norm and Bobbe have lived in Issaquah since 1977 and so hey ended up moving the headquarters of PAO- Pro Athletes Outreach to a small second story office above the Mail Clinic on Sunset Avenue, where they still are to this day.
Since forming this outreach program, Norm and Bobbe have both been very involved in hosting conferences around the country to work with professional athletes and their families. Keeping to the tradition of athletes helping one another, much of the cost of these conferences is underwritten by the Pros. The Evans recruit volunteers like Jim Zorn, Steve Largent and Dan Wilson to help present at the conferences
In 1999, responding to a growing awareness of the impacts that coaches can have on kids, Norm and Bobbe started the first conferences for junior high and high school coaches. That led to the establishment of Coaches Time Out, an organization dedicated to teaching coaches character and values so they can multiply the positive effects on young athletes. Again, caring Pros step in to help subsidize the costs of the conferences they host around the country.
For the past 14 years, Norm and Bobbe have also been involved with The Taste of NFL, a fund raising party the night before the Super Bowl. This NFL sanctioned event raises $800,000 to feed the hungry in the home city of each team playing in the Super Bowl.
Gaining the support of a legendary basketball coach, they established the John R. Wooden Coaches Wall of Honor to publically recognize great coaches for positively impacting their communities and developing character values in their athletes. They honor “intentional” coaches for their positive influence and spotlight their example for other coaches to follow. With over 11 million American youth in enrolled in sports programs, it is imperative that coaches receive support and training to help mentor young athletes and strengthen their character and values.
Visit www.coachestimeout.org to learn how you can nominate a coach for this honor just as recently deceased Issaquah High coach Gary Moore was honored. In keeping with the spirit of the Evans, you will notice that this is a Wall of Honor, not of fame. We are lucky to have such positive and relevant support of your athletes, their coaches and their families right here in our community.
