ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF
TORONTO – If admission into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame was similar to that of the Baseball Hall of Fame, then it is difficult to decide which team hat Don Matthews would wear. One could make an argument that he could go in as an Edmonton Eskimo, where he won a total of five Grey Cups as an assistant, or perhaps as a Montreal Alouette, where he had four East Division titles and captured the 2002 Grey Cup along with posting a 58-28 record.
It is unlikely that Matthews would wear an Argos hat into the Hall if it were designed, but what can’t be denied is what he did in his four-and-a-half seasons in Toronto.
After coaching one season in 1990, Matthews’ true legacy can be found over the two year period he spent guiding the 1996 and 1997 Argos teams, both of which finished in first place and captured Grey Cups. One of the most explosive and entertaining teams in club history, the two squads combined for a 30-6 record under Matthews’ watchful eye.
With a roster that featured the likes of Adrion ”Pee Wee” Smith, Michael “Pinball” Clemons, Paul Masotti, Don Wilson, Robert Drummond and a seemingly endless list of supporting talent, the Argos dominated the CFL over the course of two seasons.
There was one player, however, that not only led the team but gained respect from Matthews as the greatest player he ever coached.
“Doug Flutie would have to be the special one player that I remembered controlled the outcome of the game more than anyone,” Matthews said on Friday via teleconference.
“There was a magic about Doug Flutie that permeates the team that he was on and they really believed that if Flutie was on their team, they were going to win. He influenced the game not only with his skill but by being himself.”
Along with the titles, Flutie would win back-to-back Most Outstanding Player trophies and cement himself as one of the best players to ever take a CFL field.
“Those years in Toronto were special,” Matthews remembered.
However, a full dismantling of the club followed the ’97 season, primarily due to free agency and option year contracts that led some players south of the border, paved the way to a 1998 season that failed to live up to the product that Argos fans were used to in the two years previous.
After guiding the Als to numerous first place finishes and prematurely exiting the coaching ranks due to health concerns in 2007, Matthews resurfaced, briefly, for the second half of the Argonauts’ dreadful 2008 season. He could not, however, turn any of his final eight games into wins.
Once all was said and done, Matthews’ tenure in Toronto was brief but long-lasting in the memories of many Argos supporters who saw him put together some of the more exciting squads in recent memory.
Finishing with an Argos regular season coaching record of 49-31-0 and an overall head coaching record of 231-133-1, he will enter the Canadian Football hall of fame along with Danny McManus, Terry Vaughn, Ken Lehmann, Gino Fracas and Chris Flynn on weekend of September 14 in Calgary.