Damon Evans says his career goal was never to be an African-American athletics director — just an athletics director.
When the University of Georgia selected him in 2003 to replace Vince Dooley, he had to deal with issues not only of his race but also of his age; at 34, he was one of the youngest ADs in the country. And he was replacing a much-loved legend who was leaving amid controversy.
Bulldog fans will recall that Dooley — who also was the coach for Georgia's 1980 national championship football team — retired as athletics director after a power struggle with university President Michael Adams.
"It's hard to come in behind someone who's done a great job," Evans said. "I wasn't going to replace the guy."
Damon Evans helped the University of Georgia win several of the trophies on display at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall — first as a football player and now as the university's athletics director.
Instead, he said, he fell back on the teaching and coaching he received from Dooley as both a football player and an associate athletics director.
"People asked, 'Is Damon a Dooley man or an Adams man?' " Evans recalled. "I'm a University of Georgia man."
As the trophy cases outside Evans' campus office show, he has continued the university's tradition of success. Since he became the AD, Georgia teams have won six national championships in men's and women's sports, as well as numerous Southeastern Conference crowns.
Evans says his age and his four years on the UGA football team help him relate to student-athletes.
"I am younger. That opens the door for them to be more receptive to me," he said. "I am a former student-athlete. I know what they're going through."
While being an African-American does help him empathize with African-American student-athletes and help them identify with him, "I want all students to have the greatest possible success," he said.
"I hope my role as AD will shed some light," Evans said. "I can show African-American student-athletes opportunities outside professional sports ranks."
Seeing an African-American in a leadership role in the front office can open doors, he said. "They have never seen anyone like them in a position like mine. . . . They say, 'Maybe I can do it, too.' "
While Evans once dreamed of a career in professional football, he said he was well-grounded in his family's value that education was more important.
As a freshman, when other new members of the football team said their goal was to go pro, Evans recalled that he said his goal was to graduate.
"You have to distinguish between your goals and your dreams," he said. "Goals are more attainable."
Evans completed his bachelor's degree in finance in 1992 before his football eligibility expired and earned a master's degree in sports management from UGA's Terry College of Business in 1994.
In his junior and senior years, Evans said he realized that he wanted to work in the business side of sports. During graduate school he decided that he could make the biggest difference by being at the highest levels of athletics administration.
His entire career has been in sports management at the University of Missouri, the Southeastern Conference and UGA, where he was associate and senior associate athletics director.
He continues to be a member of SEC and NCAA committees and has been honored with Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal "40 Under 40 Award" twice. He's been the Terry Outstanding Young Alumnus and was listed among Sports Illustrated's "101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports."
Now that he has become more established, Evans is promoting diversity at UGA.
Last year, he said, he instituted diversity training for coaches and staff. He said diversity training should allow people to view one another's differences and then recognize "how our differences come together and help us to be successful."
In addition, he said the athletics department supports diversity initiatives throughout the university.
Diversity also is part of his hiring process, Evans said. Recently, the university hired Kelley Hester to coach the women's golf team, replacing the former coach, a man. At about the same time, he extended the contract of Andy Landers, the women's basketball coach.
Evans said there are still too few female coaches for women's sports.
"The search process means you get out and search for people," Evans said. "It's important to bring minorities to the table to let them present their case for the job."
The person hired, he said, is the best person for the job. "I will give different groups the opportunity to be interviewed," he said.
He added that inclusiveness is part of diversity. "If people don't feel included, that's a problem."
Ultimately, his decisions as athletics director should lead to higher graduation rates for student-athletes. "That's my No. 1 priority: educating young men and women."
He noted that college athletics can be a tough business, in which coaches' jobs depend more on how many games they win than on how many of their student-athletes graduate.
"We're sending a mixed message," Evans said.
As AD, Evans must deal with educating students as well as satisfying boosters who are looking at wins and losses.
Evans pointed out that nearly all his peers, coaches and colleagues are older than he is. "I've got to be on top of my game . . . and not let this institution, the Bulldog Nation, down."