Contributed photo by Steven Colquitt

Damon Evans made Southeastern Conference history on July 1, 2004, when he succeeded the retiring Vince Dooley at Georgia to become the league’s first black athletic director.

Nearly five years later, Evans has witnessed nine Georgia national championships and continued success in football, the school’s most prominent sport. He has been recognized as one of the nation’s most influential people under 40, and his department’s surplus of $23.9 million during the 2005-06 fiscal year was the largest in the NCAA.

Georgia has produced a surplus of at least $17 million each year under Evans, but hurdles remain. The men’s basketball program is again floundering at the bottom of the league, and rival Florida has become the envy of just about everybody.

Evans took time out this past week to discuss Georgia athletics.

Q: What pleases you most about these first five years?

A: “First and foremost, I like the staff that we’ve been able to put together. I like the people that I work with. Any time you come in as the new head or leader of an organization, you try to establish somewhat of a different culture. That’s not to say that the culture that was here before was bad, but you try to put your imprint on that culture. I feel like with the people that we have — the coaches, the staff and the student-athletes — we’ve made some inroads as far as getting people to buy into what we’re trying to accomplish not only from an athletic perspective but an academic perspective.

“I also believe we’re in an unbelievable financial position. We’ve always done a good job of managing our financial affairs here and being fiscally prudent. Frank Crumley and his staff do a tremendous job, and that has been an area that continues to really, really stand out for us.”

Q. The football program is 50-14 the past five seasons and Mark Richt is beloved by the fan base, yet Florida has won two national titles in this same stretch. Are you concerned that the gap may be widening between the two programs?

A: “This is my thing. There is no doubt we have a class guy in Mark Richt. He is the right man for this job, and I sincerely mean that. When you look at a program in totality, you want to make sure that you have an individual to where the wins are great but one who also makes sure the student-athletes will grow and mature, providing them all the tools they will need to be successful when they leave here. That’s one thing I believe Mark Richt does an excellent job of, and in addition to that he’s done a good job on the field of play.

“Now, would I like to see us be achieving greatness? Become the elite of the elite and be in that top five each year and to be mentioned in the national championship hunt each year? Yes, I would. I think Mark has brought us to some levels that we haven’t seen in our program in quite some time. I think the challenge now is to take that next step. Florida has obviously been able to have a lot of success as of late, not only in football but in basketball as well. They have set the yardstick and are the barometer in which programs can measure themselves, and I look to see what they’re doing. I want to make sure we keep ourselves in the same competitive arena that they’re in, and we’ll continue to strive to be the best we can be and to surpass all our competitors.”

Q. So you obviously have no problem admitting you make comparisons to your chief SEC rival?

A: “Florida has done a tremendous job. I don’t think we can shy away from that. Two national championships in football the past three years. They had two back-to-back national championships in basketball. I think you have to give credit where credit is due. Right now, Florida is one of those institutions in our industry that has had a great deal of success, a level of success that not too many institutions have had. You’ve got to give them credit for that, but at the same time we’ve got to realize that we can achieve that same type of success, if not more.”

Q: The men’s basketball program made five NCAA tournament trips from 1983 to ’91 yet has made five trips in the 17 seasons since. Why has this program been mostly mundane in a talent-rich region?

A: “If I look back historically, there are times in our program when we’re about to make some wonderful strides, and then something happens. Case in point, I think Tubby (Smith) did a tremendous job while he was here, and then Kentucky comes calling, so you lose a coach in Tubby who had started building the program back again. From that point, we took some steps back, and then you have someone like (Jim) Harrick who comes in. Under Harrick, things had started going in the right direction. The coliseum was filling up, we were getting some great wins and were becoming a tournament team. Then, unfortunately, those incidents happened. It seems like when we gain some momentum with the program, there is something that halts that momentum. We’ve got to overcome those things and fight through those things and build this program to where it should be and give our fans something for which they can be proud of.”

Q: The SEC is about to receive roughly $205 million a year for the next 15 years through new CBS and ESPN television contracts. That obviously is a lot more money available to member institutions that wasn’t before. Have you earmarked where that will go?

A: “With the way the economy is, there couldn’t be a better timing for those new moneys. While we’re looking to earmark those moneys in certain places, we also need to make sure we don’t have any shortfalls. Will there be less revenue that comes in because of the economic situation in our country and our state? What we’re really preparing for is to see if we have any downturns in the budget. For instance, our ticket priority revenue that’s generated — are people going to give what they normally do? We may have to make up for shortfalls with those new revenues coming in. From there, whatever we have left over, we haven’t clearly identified what we want to do.”

Q: What do you envision accomplishing the next five years?

A: “I envision us transforming this department from good to great. I think we’ve done a lot of good things here, but I want to achieve from top to bottom a level of greatness that has not been seen by our fans. When I say a level of greatness, that includes an academic perspective and an increase in our graduation rates and APR rates. I want to see our programs continue to compete at a high level, but I also want to see some championships in some sports that we haven’t had championships in quite some time. At the end of the day, I want Georgia people to have a sense of pride in this athletic association and know that we do this with a high level of integrity and that we always have the best interests of the students of this university at heart.”

Q: You’re an admitted yard hound who cuts his lawn twice a day from different angles. Have you done that since becoming AD?

A: “No, I haven’t. That’s something that’s kind of gone by the wayside for me. I still love my lawn and still get out there, but I’m not able to do things I used to at one point in time. Make no mistake about it, it’s still a passion of mine.”