Don Matthews Passes Away

[Tracker]

We are all destined to disappear into history, but what we leave behind is what matters.

[SpeedFlex27]

5 hours ago, iHeart said:

how so, I wasn't around during his time

iHeart, seriously... sometimes it's best to not say anything at all if you don't know the answer. Do you even know who Don Matthews was? How many games he won, where he sits on the all time coaches winning list & how many Grey Cups he won? How many teams he coached in the Grey Cup? Maybe you should look it up instead of one of us telling you.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2017 by SpeedFlex27

[SpeedFlex27]

iHeart, maybe I came down a bit hard on you but you can see from the reaction of the CFL, the comments here & on facebook as well as twitter he was a special coach. I apologize if I came off like a jerk.

[kelownabomberfan]

3 hours ago, johnzo said:

I'll never forget the home game vs. the Lions in 1984 .... our D got on a tear and sacked Dewalt a bunch ... the Lions ended the first quarter with -50 net yards ... Mervyn Fernandez was owned by the Bomber secondary.  The stadium was sold out and the crowd was losing its mind chanting BC SUCKS.

That was one of the very few times we beat a Matthews / Dewalt BC team.  Just like Calvillo and Trestman always had our number.

I was at that game. Dewalt must still wake up in a cold sweat after nightmares of Ty Jones bearing down on him with murder in his eyes. Jones was unstoppable that game.

[johnzo]

I downloaded that game from YouTube last year ... should re-upload it as a tribute...

You guys remember what Philip Hunt did to Glenn in 2010?  This was even more of an asswhupping, against the best team in the league.

Edited June 15, 2017 by johnzo

[rebusrankin]

R.I.P. Don Matthews, one of the best coaches in CFL history.

[Taynted_Fayth]

7 hours ago, iHeart said:

how so, I wasn't around during his time

thats his record just as a head coach, the guys been a staple in the cfl for decades up until around 2008.

The guy knew how to win plain and simple. Tho i remember when the Als got caught video taping one of our practices back in 2004 trying to steal our signals, Matthews response is what pissed me off the most.

Quote

"We are distracting them," he said. "I'm delighted with the attention people are placing on it in the media. They probably aren't aware of the fact that they're helping me, because now everybody's concentrating on different things rather than my football team. And if that's the case, that's delightful."

I think that's when I started calling them the dirty birds cuz they were playing dirty,  followed up by years of players playing dirty (especially Diamond Ferri's suplex on Charles Roberts).. it was a fitting moniker... dirty bush, dirty ferri, dirty cox,  dirty sanchez... they had some awesome names tho

Edited June 15, 2017 by Taynted_Fayth

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I was at that game. Dewalt must still wake up in a cold sweat after nightmares of Ty Jones bearing down on him with murder in his eyes. Jones was unstoppable that game.

Winning that game was so sweet! First Grey Cup berth in 22 years. Especially after 1983 in the WCF when Tom Clements separated his shoulder in the 1st half.

[SpeedFlex27]

2 hours ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

thats his record just as a head coach, the guys been a staple in the cfl for decades up until around 2008.

The guy knew how to win plain and simple. Tho i remember when the Als got caught video taping one of our practices back in 2004 trying to steal our signals, Matthews response is what pissed me off the most.

I think that's when I started calling them the dirty birds cuz they were playing dirty,  followed up by years of players playing dirty (especially Diamond Ferri's suplex on Charles Roberts).. it was a fitting moniker... dirty bush, dirty ferri, dirty cox,  dirty sanchez... they had some awesome names tho

Matthews won 5 more Grey Cups as an assistant coach & DC with the Eskimos from 1978-82. Ten Grey Cups. That's mind boggling just in itself.

[17to85]

yeah the man was a prick of the highest proportions but damned if he didn't know how to win. It's always a loss when the CFL loses legendary figures like that. 

[SpeedFlex27]

I have a Don Matthews story. I was a volunteer at CJUM FM in 1978 when I was a student at the U of M. I was sent to a news conference the day before the Bombers hosted the Eskimos during that season. I was the last guy to interview Esks Head Coach Hugh Campbell as I wanted to hear what the other media people were asking before my turn. Plus I was a rookie & a little nervous so I didn't want to just jump in there.

Started interviewing Campbell & Matthews kept interrupting in the background yelling, "Let's Go Coach!! Let's go!! Everytime he did that I had to stop my tape recorder & start over. This happened about 3 times until one of the media people there told him to be quiet & knock it off. Gotta say that Campbell knew I was doing this as a volunteer & not being paid & he gave me some really good answers to probably some bad questions. That was Matthews though. The Don.

Interviewed Ray Jauch & he was gracious & helpful as well.

Edited June 15, 2017 by SpeedFlex27

[Guest J5V]

Don't know how I missed this but very saddened to hear of his passing. RIP Don and thanks for being a part of the game we all love.

[wbbfan]

On 6/15/2017 at 0:05 AM, SpeedFlex27 said:

Matthews won 5 more Grey Cups as an assistant coach & DC with the Eskimos from 1978-82. Ten Grey Cups. That's mind boggling just in itself.

i wonder how many franchises have less then he had. I know of one for sure. 

[SpeedFlex27]

38 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

i wonder how many franchises have less then he had. I know of one for sure. 

Montreal has 8 I think. Ottawa has 7 or 8. BC has 5 (?). Bombers have 10. Saskatchewan has 4.

[WBBFanWest]

22 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Montreal has 8 I think. Ottawa has 7 or 8. BC has 5 (?). Bombers have 10. Saskatchewan has 4.