Coach Bob Mattos
SLIDESHOW: Coach Mattos receives President’s Medal for Distinguished Service
Sacramento State alumnus and former football player and coach Bob Mattos died Sunday, March 14. He was 68.
Mattos’ association with Sacramento State goes back more than 45 years. He was a Sacramento State football player from 1962 to 1963 and graduated with a Physical Education degree in 1965.
Mattos coached the Hornets from 1978 to 1992 and has the most wins of any coach in the history of the Sacramento State football program, compiling an 84-73-2 record. In 1988, he coached the Hornets to a 10-3 season, including a pair of NCAA Division II playoff wins.
After stepping down as coach of the Hornets, Mattos coached the Canadian Football League’s Sacramento Gold Miners and continued with the team when it moved to San Antonio as the Texans. Mattos later returned to Sacramento and was the athletics director for Elk Grove High School until 2002.
In 2006, Mattos became a special consultant for Sacramento State’s Development Office and helped raise nearly half a million dollars for the new Edythe and Eli Broad Fieldhouse.
He was awarded the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service in 2008. That same year, a group of former players named a room in the Broad Fieldhouse in Mattos’ honor-the Robert J. “Coach” Mattos Head Coach’s Office.
”Coach Mattos was a beloved figure at our University. As a coach, booster, volunteer and staff member, he always put the students first, and he inspired countless young people to achieve their dreams,” says University President Alexander Gonzalez. “His love of the Hornets, and of Sacramento State, began during his time as a student, and we will forever remember him as the epitome of Hornet Pride. ‘Coach’ will be deeply missed, and our hearts go out to his family and friends.”
Before taking the head football coaching job at Sacramento State, Mattos coached at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, Orestimba High School in Newman, Turlock High School in Turlock and Stagg High School in Stockton, where he won three straight league championships.
In 1987, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Sacramento State Alumni Association. He was inducted as a coach into the Sacramento State Football Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2009, he was inducted into the Stockton Athletic Hall of Fame.
The University has set up a memorial fund in Mattos’ name. Donations can be sent to the following address:
The Bob Mattos Fund
c/o Marshall Sperbeck, head football coach
Sacramento State University
6000 J Street
Sacramento, Calif. 95819
Mattos is survived by his wife, Maureen, and two adult children, Doug and Bruce. A viewing will be held 5-7 p.m., Thursday, March 18 at St. Joachim Catholic Church, 1121 Main Street, Newman, Calif. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m., Friday, March 19, also at St. Joachim Church.
For more information on Coach Mattos, contact Terry Wanless, Sacramento State athletic director at (916) 278-6348. Media assistance is available by contacting the Sacramento State public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.