Alumnus and former Sacramento State football coach Bob Mattos (’65, Physical Education) will be awarded the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service during the University’s commencement ceremonies next week. Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez will present Mattos with the honor at the College of Health and Human Services ceremony at 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 24 at Arco Arena.
Mattos has the most wins of any coach in the history of the Sac State football program. He has also raised nearly half a million dollars for the new Edythe and Eli Broad Fieldhouse on campus.
Coach Mattos played on the Hornet football team as a student in 1962-63 and later came back to coach the team from 1978 to 1992, taking it to a Western Regional championship in 1988.
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, as a coach into the La Salle Club Hall of Fame, and into his high school’s Hall of Fame as a quarterback. Another tribute came recently when 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 in 1978, Mattos coached at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, Orestimba High School in Newman, Turlock High School and Stagg High School in Stockton, where he won three straight league championships. Mattos also coached the Canadian Football League’s Sacramento Gold Miners, and before retiring in 2002 was the athletics director for the Elk Grove Unified School District.
Media assistance is available by contacting the Sacramento State public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.
