DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Dick Evans, Past President and Life Member of the Bowling Writers Association of America, died Sunday, July 4 at the age of 78.
Evans had the distinction of being the first daily newspaper reporter inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame (1986) and the American Bowling Congress' Hall of Fame (1992). Among his many awards, Evans received the Billiards' and Bowling Industry Service award in 1986. He was also awarded the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America V.A. "Chief" Wapensky award in 2007, which recognizes an individual who has made a major contribution to the advancement of the bowling industry.
He was named the official bowling writer for the Knight-Ridder News Wire in the early 1980s and in 1972 was sent to St. Louis to receive the bowling industry's media award on behalf of the Knight-Ridder chain at the Salute Dinner. His weekly bowling stories were sent out over the Knight-Ridder news wire and went to 144 daily newspapers with a daily circulation of over 10 million.
At time of death, Evans was the leading award winner in the Bowling Magazine Writing Contest for stories that appeared in both The Miami Herald and Daytona Beach News-Journal. He was the top winner in the Professional Bowlers' Association's writing contest, which was discontinued in 2001. Evans was named the top tennis writer in Florida in 2002 and at the USA Tennis Florida Convention in Daytona Beach.
Evans, born on September 20, 1931, began his 60 year journalism career at the age of 12, delivering the Miami News. The youngest of three Evans brothers to write for The Miami Herald, at age 14 he was hired to take greyhound racing results and write headlines for short stories. At age 17, he officially joined the Miami Herald staff when he was hired as a copy-boy. At age 20, he was added to the Miami Herald's sports department staff.
For the Miami Herald, Evans wrote about all high school sports, college football, boxing, bowling, golf, tennis, water skiing, wrestling, horse/dog/harness races, jai-alai and also spent 14 months serving as interim religious editor.
He once organized and ran a Dade County High school baseball tournament that featured North Miami High's Steve Carlton (a Hall of Famer) and Fred Norman, a future star with the Chicago Cubs, in a taut pitchers duel at Miami Stadium before 3,000 spectators. During the Baltimore Orioles spring training season in Miami he organized a practice session with the O's for all of Dade County's high school baseball prospects.
His most successful promotion came when he teamed with Joe Tanenbaum of Gulfstream Race Track, drawing 56,000 entries from South Floridians to pick the best horse ever to run at Gulfstream. But his forte was bowling, a sport that he started covering for The Miami Herald in 1957.
Evans retired from The Miami Herald Dec. 31, 1989. However, the native Miamian continued to cover the bowling beat for The Herald until he decided to end his Miami Herald career 20 years later.
Two of his brothers, the late Luther Evans and Lee Evans, founder of the Tournament of the Americas, also wrote sports stories for The Miami Herald. Thus stories under the byline of an Evans brother appeared in The Miami Herald from 1937 until 2009 except for two years during World War II (1943-44).
Evans was hired by the Professional Bowlers Association in 1990 as its media director for the PBA Senior tour. He worked 77 tournaments over the next seven years before stepping down.
In 1999, The Daytona Beach News-Journal asked Evans to write local bowling stories - one of these stories won the feature story division in The Bowling Magazine's national writing contest.
He continued to write tennis and bowling articles and stories for the Daytona Beach News-Journal until his death. His bowling stories have appeared in every national bowling magazine published plus many local bowling publications. His stories have appeared on www.Bowlingdigitial.com for more than a decade which resulted in email comments from readers in Europe, Israel, Canada and Asia.
Dick Evans is survived by his wife Joan Gano Evans, son, Richard V. Evans, an attorney in Louisville, Ky. and three grandchildren - Peyton, Carter and Walker.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to the University of Miami, where Dick Evans attended on a scholarship while working full time at The Miami Herald. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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