Sacramento State football legends Bob Mattos and Gary Quattrin have been friends for nearly 50 years. Their lives collided by fate and resulted in the true meaning of friendship and success.

Mattos and Quattrin played on the Hornets’ first winning football team in 1963, and they have played a prominent role in maintaining Sac State’s football program ever since.

Quattrin was recently awarded the first Golden Hornet Award from the Sacramento State Alumni Association Football and Friends Chapter, which he and Mattos helped create.

“Now, Gary may be too humble to tell you about this but this award is given to the person who contributes the most time, passion, dedication and support to the program and its advancements to the best of their ability. Gary got a hands-down vote from our chapter committee,” Mattos said.

Quattrin’s hard work and dedication to the future of the Sac State football program earned him a unanimous vote for the inaugural award. The Golden Hornet will be awarded every other year.

Quattrin was a standout defensive end for the Hornets in the mid-1960s. He was a volunteer assistant coach when Mattos returned as head coach of the Sac State football team from 1978-92. Mattos led the Hornets to the Division II Playoff Semifinals in 1988, where they eventually lost to North Dakota State. Mattos is still the winningest head coach in school history.

“It started off as a bad situation. They hired me late in the season and it was a mess. The coach before had only led the team to one victory. We had to start from scratch, and it took a while to get it. Once we got it, we were a great team. It is the same situation (head coach Marshall Sperbeck) is faced with right now. His team is on its way to be a great program. It may even begin this season,” Mattos said.

Both men were raised in agricultural small towns, with the same passion for football and a higher education.

“We got here in 1962. Bob was the first person I met. We were waiting in line to get our physicals done in order to play football. Almost immediately, we found out that we both needed a roommate and neither of us knew anyone else on the football team. Soon after, it was Bob, myself, and two other teammates living together. We played under (head coach) Ray Clemons for the 1962-63 season. I had such a great experience here. It was just the right place at the right time,” Quattrin said.

Mattos remembers the series of events that day similarly.

“I, too, saw it as a great experience. We didn’t know anyone. One of us said that he was looking for a roommate and the other said me too. There were four of us in our first apartment. During that time, Sac State had just started its football program. Only 5,000 students were enrolled here. We formed a great friendship that still exists today,” Mattos said.

Their families are extremely close; they both serve as godparents to each other’s children, they attended each other’s weddings, they travel to most of Sac State’s football games together and as time goes by they even attend funerals together of former teammates who have died.

“Our bond instantly became so close because both of us were the only child within our families. He’s my brother,” Quattrin said.

Mattos and Quattrin have been inducted into the Sacramento State Football Hall of Fame, Mattos as a coach and Quattrin as a player. The hall of fame wall is inside the Alex G. Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex, another aspect of the football program Mattos and Quattrin helped fund.

Both men are so passionate about what bonds came out of their time while at Sac State.

“The most significant part about being a Hornet was the people, players and coaches that I met. The coaches were mentors to me. They were just outstanding people. We must have left that experience with 20 of the closest friends I’ve ever had,” Quattrin said.

Mattos said also it was the relationships he formed with coaches, players and teammates that are still most important to him.

“For me, it was definitely the players, people and coaching. We were part of the first winning team in 1963. Seventy percent of those people are still a part of those Sac State friendships that have been paramount to my success,” Mattos said.

Mattos still works at Sac State as a consultant for the university and Quattrin is a lawyer.

Mattos and Quattrin continue to brainstorm fundraising ideas for the Sacramento State Alumni Association Football and Friends Chapter. Both men still have strong ties to the football program and they are compelled to keep the memory of past Hornet football players alive for future generations to see.

Britney Rossman can be reached at [email protected]