Roy Evans

Robert Roy Evans

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 180 lb.
• School Kansas State Normal School
• Debut May 15, 1897
• Final Game August 1, 1903
• Born March 19, 1874 in Knoxville, TN USA

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Biographical Information

Roy Evans was the first major leaguer to come out of Emporia State University (known as the Kansas State Normal School at the time), where he attended in 1893-1896. No Emporia State player came to the majors until more than 50 years later, when Fred Kipp came up in 1957.

Although Evans started with the 1897 St. Louis Browns, he appeared in only 3 games before moving over to the 1897 Louisville Colonels, where he and Honus Wagner were both 23-year-old rookies. Evans pitched for 6 teams in his 5-year major league career.

He was long thought to have died in the 1915 hurricane that leveled the town of Galveston, TX, although this was not the case. In fact, in November of 1920 he was convicted of bigamy in Fort Worth, TX and sentenced to two years at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, KS. Newspaper reports of the time indicate that he had been married at least three times during the previous year, and had violated the Mann Act by bringing a schoolteacher from Georgia into Texas. Prison records indicate that he was released in 1922 after serving his full sentence, but his trace disappears after that. He was evidently disowned by his father, Judge Edward N. Evans of Emporia, KS, as there is no mention of Roy in his father's obituary published in 1930.

Further Reading

• "My Favorite Wife", in Bill Carle, ed.: January/February 2009 Report, Biographical Research Committee, SABR, pp. 3-4.

Related Sites

• Roy Evans at the SABR Bio Project