By Kim Mcevoy
Stephen Ross McEvoy was born in Mt Isa on 16 March 1960, to Jean and John.
He was second in the family to his older brother John, younger brother Michael, and youngest sibling Debra. They spent their early years in Mt Isa before moving to Brisbane. He attended St John’s primary school. His report cards constantly had that he talked too much. No surprise to anyone I’m sure. He attended Hendra High School where he was allegedly the captain of every team in the school including apparently diving and skiing. Haven’t been able to find anyone to confirm this though.
His love of football started as an under 7 at Mitchelton, and continued at North Star Football Club, where he would become an integral part of the club and form lifelong friendships. For a number of years, Steve was coached by his father, who showed him the importance of fostering a strong work ethic and club culture– lessons Steve would later put into practice in his own coaching career.
At North Star, he was part of the team to elevate North Star to the top division in Brisbane. He was highly respected at the club and was one of four people who opened the new clubhouse.
If ever you were lost in Brisbane, Steve would always be able to orientate you based on the nearest soccer oval, where’d he would tell you he scored countless goals and helped his team to glory.
Steve and the family would take holidays at Cotton Tree, where they would camp for a month at a time. According to Steve, he was a keen fisherman on these trips – telling many he lived off the land for four weeks. A budding Bear Grylls in the making. Much to our disbelief, these stories have been corroborated – to an extent – by his siblings. Seems strange that in recent years he couldn’t bait a hook.
One of Steve’s fondest childhood memories was his trip to Ireland where he first met most of his extended family. He simply loved meeting new people and cherished the time that he had over there visiting places where his father grew up. One of Steve’s cousins from Ireland said that the country’s biggest regret was allowing Steve to kiss the Blarney Stone as he never shut up since.
Steve’s job with the Commonwealth Bank saw him move to Stanthorpe in 1981. He quickly made his mark on the local sporting community. He joined with International Football Club, becoming captain coach, and also played in the Stanthorpe rep football team.
They convinced him to play for the gremlins with the enticement that we will put you on the wing and you can do the goal-kicking. Anyone who saw Steve kick knew that any penalty within 60 metres of the posts – we were taking the two. It wasn’t too long into his career that he was shifted to the second row. In true Stevo style, he became the local hero after kicking them to victory late in the game to win the Houghton cup. I must say I did have a little case of hero worship and that day was the beginning of our relationship and as they say the rest is history.
His flat in Connor Street was renowned for throwing the best parties in town. When Steve was heading home to one of the parties with a friend driving they got pulled over by the police. When they pulled over they were told that they couldn’t park there due to a “No Standing” sign and Steve got out and pulled the sign out of the ground and threw it in the car. Steve said “How about now? Are we fine now?”. The policemans response was “yep that will be fine”. When Steve finally made it home that night he tried to get into his flat and there was no room. Someone opened the door and said sorry mate you can’t come in there isn’t enough room for you and he said “I bloody live here”.
He got a transfer in 1984 to Emerald and we had to do a long-distance relationship until he moved back to Brisbane in 1986. As you could imagine, we ran up quite a few decent phone bills over those years. While Steve was in Emerald he started the football competition, a pretty decent effort as it was a strong rugby league community.
When he came down for Christmas in 1985 is when he asked me to marry him. This is when he used the classic line from Rocky 2, which he saw in the cinema 32 times “I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind marrying me very much”. I didn’t mind and we married the following year.
When he was back in Brisbane in 1986 he re-joined his beloved North Star for another run with the club. They managed to snare the third division title that year. The following year he returned to play for the Gremlins, which involved travelling back from Brisbane most weekends.
Our first son Christopher was born in 1987 much to our great delight. When he was still in his capsule, Steve took him to the tab and only realised when he got back to the car that he left Christopher in there.
In 1988 we were blessed with our second son, Brett. When Brett was only a couple of months old we moved back to Stanthorpe. Steve immediately joined the board of the Stanthorpe Gremlins rugby league, firstly as treasurer before becoming president a couple of years later. During this time, he was also instrumental in getting the broncos out to play a few trial games in Stanthorpe and also helped organise the 75-year Gremlins reunion.
We had some great times travelling to and from games on the supporter buses. On one particular occasion, I had Christopher on the bus with me and Steve was in charge of a two-year-old Brett. When the buses dropped us off at Sullivan oval and left, I said to Steve “Where’s Brett” and he responded “You had him didn’t you”, we then received a call from the country club saying that Brett had been found at the back of the bus under a pile of coats. A bit of a theme happening here. We had many great parties up at Sullivan oval on the Sunday nights after the games, which made Monday mornings a struggle for many that had to front up to work.
While he was still involved in rugby league, he had started coaching Christopher and Brett in football. When the boys decided to play rugby league he also took over the coaching reigns up there.
1994, brought about another surprise in the form of our beautiful baby girl, Brittany. Our family was now complete. She was daddy’s little girl and must have been the favourite because he never left her anywhere.
In the late 90s, while the Gremlins were struggling to find a place to play, he spearheaded a push to create a competition for them and the border league was born.
He was president of the border league comp for 15 years, whilst also serving on the South West Qld board for many years. During this time, he was also part of the committee that formed the outback carnival. Whilst being president of the border league he also served as president of football Stanthorpe, both of which he has received a life membership for his services.
In 2001, he took over coaching the Stanthorpe United senior colts team halfway through the season. The following year he joined the committee and a couple of years later the A-grade men’s team were added to his ever-growing list of commitments. He continued to do all three of these roles for the next 15-20 years, which earned him a life membership at the club.
Steve had many on-field successes with Stanthorpe United but it truly was his impact off the field that cemented his legacy as a club legend. He established a culture of working hard for each other and put systems in place where winning was a by-product of commitment. He was responsible for our annual Yamba trip which had some legendary moments.
Anyone who knows Stevo knows how much he loved watching a movie and how much he enjoyed a pizza. This prompted his next Stanthorpe United creation of the pizza and movie days/nights in Warwick as a team bonding exercise.
Steve also served on the Stanthorpe Shire Council from 2004-2008. After a couple of months on the council, I noticed Steve was thoroughly going through the notes for the upcoming meeting. This meeting really seemed to have sparked an interest for Steve, when we asked him about it, he informed us that this was the meeting that they decided on which takeaway place in town they would be getting lunch from for the next six months. A big decision in Steve’s tenure on the council.
Steve’s whole purpose in life was to get as many kids in the district playing sport at the cheapest possible price. His role at the YMCA allowed him to achieve this goal. He managed to get so many different sports up and running over the years. His work in the community as part of the YMCA, combined with his work in rugby league and football saw him receive an Australia Day award for sports administration. There’s no doubt that the thing he was most honoured and humbled to have done in his life was the opportunity to run as part of the Queen’s baton relay for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
And now for a different side of Stevo… The not so responsible side.
While I was away at a basketball carnival in Tenterfield, I received a phone call from Steve asking if it was ok to put coke in 9-month-old Brett’s bottle. I said sure Steve that will be fine thinking he was joking. I came home a few hours later to find Coke splattered all over the room that was left untouched by Steve as he didn’t know where to start.
It was always an experience to come home, when Steve looked after the kids to find out what they were dressed in. In future carnivals I made sure that all of the outfits were laid out, Christopher, Brett, Brittany and Steve. Not only did his outfits need to be chosen but he also needed assistance with actually getting dressed, whether it was putting his belt through the loops, tying up his shoelaces or taking off his socks there was always something to be done. Even his mates weren’t free of these tasks on their trips away.
On one of our many trips to Brisbane, Steve was pointing out the usual sites that put most in the car to sleep. Steve said “Ok if you’re not interested in that, you see that rock up there, that will forever be known as Steve’s rock and you will remember it every time we go past.” An unremarkable white dot in the mountains between Warwick and the gap. It has since become legendary and is used as a measuring stick for most people on trips between Stanthorpe and Brisbane. We would often receive messages from people saying that they were just passing Steve’s rock and many of his mates have since tried to find their own rock but all to no avail.
Anyone who knows Steve, knows that he has no mechanical or handyman expertise whatsoever. We were heading to Texas for a rugby league trip when we got a flat tyre. We both got out of the car to look at the problem, Steve proceeded to pop the boot and I remember thinking he might just know how to change a tyre after all. However, he was just getting the camping chair out of the boot to read the form guide. Lucky for us a few other guys were heading out for the game and came to the rescue. They just got out of the car and said you’re kidding Macca, but Steve was unphased as he tried to find the next winner.
What Steve lacked in workmanship he made up for with his ability to delegate. He was so good at delegating that he managed to turn a Stanthorpe United working bee into one that took place at his house. All the boys rocked up with whipper snippers and chainsaws to maintain the yard and gardens. He always managed to arrange a BBQ for the boys and a few cartons. Of course, they always had to wait for Steve to get his food first.
Sunday mornings were always a surprise for Steve and I to see how many people had crashed on the floor at our place after the kids had been out the night before. Steve was famous for cooking up huge feasts for all that stayed, which settled more crook stomachs than you could imagine. So many of the kid’s friends still talk about their introduction to bubble-n-squeak as well as Steve’s Samboy BBQ chip rissoles.
Steve was always the master of the sarcastic one-liner. No one had a quicker comeback. Steve referred to this as highlighting concerns.
Everyone marvelled at Steve’s ability to stumble into the most “flexible” jobs imaginable or at least he made them that way. A typical work day for Steve, consisted of him getting up early and turning on the computer before wandering out for his first breakfast. He would then return to the office to answer a couple of emails and back out to the TV to watch Liverpool play. This would be followed by a second breakfast and a swim at the pool. Upon returning from the pool he would have his third and final breakfast for the day.
Steve was always drawn like a magnet towards anyone famous. He was the go-to person for meeting anyone of stature. His theory was that you never know if you don’t ask. One time a mate of Steve’s pointed out Aiden O’Brien, a famous horse trainer from Ireland, who was here for Melbourne Cup. Steve naturally had to break the ice, which gave his mate the opportunity to inform Aiden that his horse wasn’t going to win the Melbourne Cup because his tactics didn’t suit Australian racing. Steve was mortified by this but after Aiden’s tactics did fail, he received a call straight after the race saying that Aiden should have to listened to his mate’s advice.
In 2015, Steve and I were lucky enough to be in Dalby to welcome our first grandchild Zariah into the world. Three years later, Steve received the ultimate birthday present with the birth of two more grandchildren, Freyja and Fallon. Unfortunately for Christopher and Ali, Steve was their biggest advocate and they could do no wrong in his eyes. A good day was one when the girls FaceTimed him, he loved these calls. Steve was forever looking for bargain flights to go up and visit everyone in Darwin. We had already booked our trips up there next year for their birthdays. We loved following the kids around and watching all their sports and activities.
Another proud moment was Brett and Ella’s wedding in 2019. Stevo was still rocking around at 5am on Sunday morning as he didn’t want the day to end. He was even spotted reenacting the odd music clip for the various songs that played throughout the night. More recently the news that Brett and Ella were starting a family of their own had Steve and myself so excited.
He loved his kids and grandkids so much. Despite wanting them closer to home he would always mention to friends and family how proud he was of what they had achieved. His greatest pride, however, was the fact that we had raised three good and caring people that were instilled with a good work ethic and passion for sport. It is a comfort to us all to know that on Steve’s last day he had FaceTimed with the grandkids, made contact with myself and our three children and was settling in with good friends for his favourite time of year (the spring racing carnival).
Steve would be humbled by the amount of people in attendance here today. It’s a testament to the man he was and all he achieved. His passing has left a huge hole in all our lives, and no words can describe how much we’re going to miss him. I love you and miss you so much. RIP Steve.
