Robert L. Mathews

Robert Lee "Matty" Mathews (c. 1887 – September 1, 1947) was an American football player and coach. He was the head coach at St. Edward's College (1911), Kenyon College (1912–1914), Willamette University (1915–1920), the University of Idaho (1922–1925), Saint Louis University (1926–1927), Gonzaga University (1929), the University of Portland (1937–1942), and Lewis & Clark College (1945–1946).

Born in Leadville, Colorado, Mathews played college football at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, as a freshman then transferred to the University of Notre Dame in 1908 and played three seasons for the Fighting Irish in South Bend, Indiana. During his senior season in 1910, future coaching legend Knute Rockne was a freshman end.

In Mathews' four seasons at Idaho, the Vandals' first years in the Pacific Coast Conference, they won three consecutive rivalry games over Palouse neighbor Washington State. Idaho lost the other, Mathews' first in 1922, by a single point. The Vandals made significant use of the forward pass under Mathews, who was also the athletic director at Idaho.