‘He leaves a tremendous legacy.’ Legendary Pascagoula football coach dies at 77.
The man who led the Pascagoula High School football program to its pinnacle has died at the age of 77.
Riemann Funeral Home confirmed to the Sun Herald that Bill Matthews died early Friday morning. He had been battling a heart condition in recent months.
Matthews was the head coach at Pascagoula when the Panthers won the 1987 Class 5A state championship with a roster led by a pair of future college football legends and NFL players — quarterback Shane Matthews, his son, and cornerback/kick returner Terrell Buckley.
Matthews, who finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting at Florida in 1991, played for seven NFL teams from 1993-2006. Buckley was the 1991 Jim Thorpe Award winner, which went to the nation’s top defensive back, at Florida State and played for seven NFL squads from 1992-2005.
Pascagoula went 14-0 in 1987 under the direction of Bill Matthews, beating Greenwood 27-7 in the state title game in Clinton.
“We averaged 10,000 fans a ball game — on the road and off,” Bill Matthews told the Sun Herald in 2012. “We went to Clinton and half of Pascagoula left with us. It’s something I wish everybody could experience as a coach.
“It was probably the most talented high school football team I’ve seen in the state of Mississippi.”
Bill Matthews coached at Pascagoula from 1986-1996. He also coached for 11 years at Cleveland and made two other coaching stops at Carthage and West Tallahatchie.
Just in the last week, Buckley took the time to watch film he recently received of the 1987 Pascagoula season.
“Seeing that just brought back a lot of great memories,” said Buckley, who is now a member of the Ole Miss staff. “Today, when I got the news, I always try to think about the good times, and I was thinking about the good memories and the impact that he had, which was tremendous.
“Over the years, every time I saw him he had that loving attitude, the spirit. Outside of the field, he was one of the kindest and nicest guys I’ve ever met. He always tried to help and do good things.”
Donnis Harrison, who is now an orthopedic surgeon on the Coast, was among the players on that 1987 squad.
“I’m biased, but I think he is one of the premiere high school coaches around,” he said. “He really allowed his assistant coaches to coach, but he was the brains in the sense that he had the game plan and told the coordinators to go do it. He managed the team. I guess like good head coaches do, he doesn’t get down in the weeds of individual stuff.”
Harrison said that the coach held each of his players to a high standard of conduct. When Bill Matthews caught one standout hanging out with friends during a practice as opposed to doing extra school work as he’d promised, he sat him out for that Friday’s game.
“That’s a great testimony to him that he’d do it to a star player,” Harrison said. “He punished star players stricter. That was really the reason why we won. Star players knew they had to walk a tight line under Matthews. He treated everybody the same and had a higher standard for guys that were your star players.”
Like his son, Bill Matthews played football in the SEC at Ole Miss. He was a wide receiver and kick returner for the Rebels, catching 19 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns during his career from 1965-67.
Current Pascagoula coach Lewis Sims was stunned to hear of the former coach’s passing on Friday morning, saying that he had just seen the retired coach in the grocery store on Monday of this week.
“He leaves a tremendous legacy,” Sims said. “He was always around the program. He’s a guy that stops by practices, comes to games, comes to the beach and watches us workout. He was always a very supportive voice of the program.
“I am floored because he means so much to Pascagoula. He loved his Rebels, loved his Panthers and loved his family. My condolences go out to his family. The Panther nation lost a great ambassador last night.”
Ricky Alexander, who played linebacker under Matthews at Pascagoula and went on to play at LSU, became Bill Matthews’ son-in-law.
“He was one of the greatest guys in the world,” Alexander said. “He was just a perfect granddad. We had so many great times together.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 12:59 PM.
