CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR BOB MATTOS PLANNED FOR SUNDAY

4/6/2010

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A celebration of the life of former Sacramento State head football coach Bob Mattos will be held on Sunday, April 11, at the Alumni Center. The program will begin at 1 p.m.

Mattos, who played and coached at Sacramento State, lost his battle with brain cancer on March 14. He was 68 years old.

Mattos’ association with the Hornets 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 Sacramento State from 1978-92 and has the most wins of any coach in the history of the 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, 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.

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.