Don Matthews won 231 games in the CFL, the second highest win total by a head coach in the league's history while leading four teams to Grey Cup victories.
32 Facts About Don Matthews
1.
2.
Don Matthews was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in September 2011.
3.
Don Matthews was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, the son of Canadian-born parents, Ida, from Tracadie, New Brunswick, and Fred Don Matthews, a steel mill worker from Prince Edward Island.
4.
Don Matthews returned home and earned his high school diploma and then on the advice of a teacher, ventured west in 1960 as a 21-year-old freshman to Moscow, Idaho.
5.
Don Matthews earned three letters and was a team captain in his senior season of 1963, when the Vandals, in their second year under Dee Andros, achieved their first winning season in a quarter century.
6.
Don Matthews graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in education in 1964.
7.
Don Matthews was a graduate assistant for the Vandals in Moscow for the 1964 season under Andros and freshman coach Bud Riley.
8.
Don Matthews then coached high school football in Nevada at Ely for four years and won a state title.
9.
Don Matthews relocated to eastern Washington at Spokane in 1969 as head coach at Ferris, where he led the Saxons to the city title in his second and final year.
10.
Two years later, Robbins was fired following the 1973 season and Don Matthews moved to the Portland area.
11.
Don Matthews took over a winless program at Sunset High School in Beaverton and won consecutive state championships in 1975 and 1976, going undefeated in his third and final year.
12.
Don Matthews left Sunset after the 1976 season to become a CFL assistant coach in Edmonton, Alberta.
13.
In 1983, Don Matthews was hired as the head coach of the BC Lions by general manager Bob Ackles.
14.
Don Matthews won his first Coach of the Year Award and Mervyn Fernandez won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award.
15.
In 1987, Matthews started the season as BC's head coach, but was fired during the season and replaced by Larry Donovan.
16.
Don Matthews became a defensive assistant coach with Edmonton in 1989.
17.
In 1990, Don Matthews was hired by the Toronto Argonauts to be their head coach.
18.
Don Matthews guided the team to second place in the East Division.
19.
Don Matthews was the head coach of the Orlando Thunder of the World League of American Football in 1991.
20.
In 1999, Don Matthews was hired by Edmonton for his third stint with the team, but his first as head coach.
21.
In October 2006, Don Matthews stepped down as head coach of the Alouettes expressing undisclosed health issues that were "affecting his ability to perform".
22.
In that press conference, Don Matthews revealed that the major health reason that caused him to step down as head coach of the Alouettes was an anxiety disorder.
23.
Don Matthews went further to say that he had been prescribed to some medication and the anxiety attacks are now under control.
24.
In May 2008, Don Matthews was announced as an advisor to the Jeff Hunt-led group's conditional Ottawa franchise.
25.
The Montreal Alouettes announced on July 30,2014, that Don Matthews had joined the team in a coaching consultant role for the second consecutive year.
26.
When Don Matthews' head coaching career was complete, he was the winningest head coach in CFL history.
27.
Don Matthews won 10 total Grey Cups, 5 of which came when he was an assistant coach in Edmonton.
28.
Don Matthews was selected for induction in the Builder category into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame on February 10,2011.
29.
Don Matthews has an additional five Grey Cup titles as defensive co-ordinator of the Edmonton Eskimos.
30.
Don Matthews' mother, Ida, was a francophone from Tracadie, New Brunswick, while his father, Fred, was from Prince Edward Island.
31.
Don Matthews lived in Beaverton, Oregon, with his wife Stephanie and stepson Blaze.
32.
On November 5,2012, Don Matthews announced he was battling cancer and therefore would not be able to participate in any of the festivities for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto.