Local coaches remember state champion coach Floyd Mathews

Floyd Mathews was a coach in the River Region for the better part of 40 years, finishing his time as an assistant with LAMP. He passed away on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 73. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

When Robb McGaughey took over as boys’ basketball coach at LAMP in 2021-22, he also inherited volunteer assistant coach Floyd Mathews, one of the most knowledgeable basketball coaches in the state.

“I can tell you not only the program but personally, he’s been one of the most influential people that I’ve been around in basketball,” McGaughey said. “Not from an X’s and O’s standpoint -- I mean, he knew that, too -- but how he carried himself, how he was reliable, his character was awesome. He just had such wisdom for a guy who had done it so long.”

Mathews was notified in mid-November that he was one of 12 coaches selected for the 2025 class of the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame. Tragically, he passed away unexpectedly on Thanksgiving morning at the age of 73.

Services will be held on Saturday (Dec. 7) at 11:30 a.m., at the Fresh Anointing House of Worship, 6000 Monticello Drive in Montgomery. Mathews coached state championship teams at St. Jude and Sidney Lanier in addition to serving the last 11 years as a volunteer assistant coach at LAMP. Former players are asked to wear their team colors on Saturday in celebration of Mathews’ life and impact as a coach.

LAMP, meanwhile, has canceled its Saturday game with Montevallo to attend the funeral and are planning some type of tribute to Mathews later this season.

“One of the biggest things he did for our program is he was just so encouraging,” McGaughey said. “We don’t have the top talent in the world of basketball, but I’ve got kids who will work hard and give their best effort. Learning how to play at the varsity level is tough but he always had a good way of bringing me back down to reality and not be so stressed and upset. He was so uplifting in so many ways, not just to me but to the players as well.”

Mathews had that type of uplifting spirit from the day he entered school at St. Jude Educational Institute. McGaughey recalled conversations with Mathews where the latter recounted how his parents had always wanted him to attend St. Jude.  

“He was telling me about the Selma-to-Montgomery march, how he wanted to be a part of it when they camped out at St. Jude,” McGaughey said. “But his dad told him, no, you’re going to school.”

Mathews, known locally for his love of basketball, played both football and basketball for the Pirates and was a member of the historic 1968 team coached by Ostell Hamilton that played its home games at Hornet Stadium, but moved the semifinals to Cramton Bowl in a 19-13 victory over Clay County High.

“He actually went to Tuskegee to play football, then ended up transferring to the junior college in Alex City to play basketball,” McGaughey said. “Then he went to St. Bernard College in Cullman for his last two years.”

Upon graduation from St. Bernard in 1975, he entered the coaching profession, serving as an assistant coach in both football and basketball for the Pirates.

He became the head basketball coach in 1983-84 and witnessed some of the best small-school battles in the state between the Pirates and Autaugaville. In 1985, both teams reached the state tournament in Alabama’s Memorial Coliseum, but Autaugaville lost in the quarterfinals to Millport, clearing the way for St. Jude to win the Class 2A state championship with a 75-62 win over Millport.

That summer, he moved on to Sidney Lanier, serving as head track coach and football assistant from 1985-2003 and serving as an assistant basketball coach under John Bricken until Bricken’s retirement in 1993.

He took the reins of the Lanier program the following year and coached the Poets to a 6A state championship in 2000-01 and to the state tournament in 2007-08 and 2008-09. He also served as the athletic director from 2007 until his retirement in 2013, stepping down from the basketball team after the 2012-13 season with 382 wins.

Marcus Townsend, who had played at Carver against Mathews’ Pirates in the mid-1980s, was approached by LAMP principal Mary George Jester, who knew Mathews from her days at Lanier.

“I had been at LAMP for a couple of years,” Townsend said. “He had been at Lanier and Mrs. Jester said, ‘Can Coach Mathews come help you?’ I’m like, ‘No problem, I would love to have Coach Mathews on the sidelines.’ I happened to run into him at Huntingdon at a summer camp and we started talking about him coming to help me 

“She had already mentioned it, but she didn’t have to mention it. I was glad to have him.”

Mathews would serve the next seven years as a volunteer for the Golden Tigers, remaining with the program after Townsend retired in 2021.

“He kept me grounded,” Townsend said. “He was always positive. He knew we  didn’t have the talent he was used to but he was always positive about how you could build young players. And that was something I needed. He really taught me to have patience.

“He had so much basketball knowledge and I just kind of absorbed that. He was more like a father figure to me.”

Both Townsend and McGaughey are thankful for the days they spent getting to know Mathews away from the court. Last month, Townsend and Mathews took a fishing trip together. As usual, the conversation drifted back to Mathews’ favorite topic, high school basketball.

“He never reminded you of how much talent you didn’t have, he always reminded you of how much potential they could have,” Townsend said.

McGaughey and Mathews spent time at a basketball tournament in Orange Beach just days before Mathews’ death.

“We had a great time down there,” McGaughey said. “I spent a lot of time with him down there. When he got accepted into the Hall of Fame, he called me that morning and he was just so excited. My first year, I knew who he was, but I didn’t know him. After I spent a year with him, I told him I was going to nominate him for the Hall of Fame.

“He’s not only an encyclopedia of knowledge but just the impact he’s had on so many people has just been fantastic.”

 Both Townsend and McGaughey said one of Mathews’ favorite duties was driving the team bus, even after he took some time off to battle health issues.

“He loved driving that bus,” Townsend said. “Except for when it rained. Then he let me drive it. But a lot of stories came when we were on road trips.”

Lanier officials beat McGaughey to the nomination process, but anyone that had contact with the veteran coach over the years knew he was deserving of the honor.

“Last year, they found a tumor on his brain and he didn’t finish the season with us,” McGaughey said. “But he called me up in the spring and said, ‘Hey Coach, I want to come back for one more year.’ I said, ‘Coach, you can come back for as long as you want.’

“I think his biggest legacy is all the people he’s impacted. I was talking to Coach Townsend about it the other day and said he’s never heard of anybody that had something negative to say about Coach Mathews. He had so many great stories and impacted so many people. He had such a servant heart. It was never about him, but rather what can you do to help somebody else. And you saw him live it daily.”

The 2025 Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame class will be inducted on March 10, 2025 at the Montgomery Renaissance Hotel and Spa Convention Center. Joining Mathews will be T.R. Miller football coach Brent Hubbert; volleyball coaches Melanie Donahoo of Huntsville High and Tanya Broadway, now at DAR; basketball coaches Emanuel ‘Tubb’ Bell, Robert Burdette; Renard Davis and Mathews; former Auburn High baseball coach Matt Cimo; tennis coach Meridy Lyle Jones; administrator Steve Bailey;  athletic trainer Drew Ferguson; and coach/administrator Hadley Provience.

Bell, Ferguson and Provience are deceased.