Matty Bell
Introduction
Madison A. "Matty" Bell (February 22, 1899 – June 30, 1983) was an American football player, coach of football and basketball, and college athletics administrator. He played for Centre, captain of its 1918 team. He served as the head football coach at the Haskell Institute (1920–1921), Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin (1922), Texas Christian University (1923–1928), Texas A&M University (1929–1933), and Southern Methodist University (1935–1941, 1945–1949), compiling a career college football record of 143–87–16. His 1935 SMU Mustangs, which have been recognized as a national champion, went 12–0 in the regular season before losing to Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Bell was also the head basketball coach at Texas Christian for six seasons from 1923 to 1929, tallying a mark of 71–41. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1955. After retiring from coaching following the 1949 season, Bell served as the athletic director at Southern Methodist until 1964. He died in 1983 in Dallas, Texas.
Head coaching record
Football
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | AP# | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haskell Institute Fighting Indians (Independent) (1920–1921) | |||||||||
| 1920 | Haskell | 2–2 | |||||||
| 1921 | Haskell | 2–3 | |||||||
| Haskell Institute: | 4–5 | ||||||||
| Carroll Pioneers (Independent) (1922) | |||||||||
| 1922 | Carroll | 3–4 | |||||||
| Carroll: | 3–4 | ||||||||
| TCU Horned Frogs (Southwest Conference) (1923–1928) | |||||||||
| 1923 | TCU | 4–5 | 2–1 | 3rd | |||||
| 1924 | TCU | 4–5 | 1–5 | 8th | |||||
| 1925 | TCU | 7–1–1 | 2–0–1 | 2nd | |||||
| 1926 | TCU | 6–1–2 | 1–1–2 | T–3rd | |||||
| 1927 | TCU | 4–3–2 | 1–2–2 | 5th | |||||
| 1928 | TCU | 8–2 | 3–2 | T–3rd | |||||
| TCU: | 33–17–5 | 10–11–5 | |||||||
| Texas A&M Aggies (Southwest Conference) (1929–1933) | |||||||||
| 1929 | Texas A&M | 5–4 | 2–3 | 5th | |||||
| 1930 | Texas A&M | 2–7 | 0–5 | 7th | |||||
| 1931 | Texas A&M | 7–3 | 3–2 | 3rd | |||||
| 1932 | Texas A&M | 4–4–2 | 1–2–2 | 4th | |||||
| 1933 | Texas A&M | 6–3–1 | 2–2–1 | 4th | |||||
| Texas A&M: | 24–21–3 | 8–14–3 | |||||||
| SMU Mustangs (Southwest Conference) (1935–1941) | |||||||||
| 1935 | SMU | 12–1 | 6–0 | 1st | L Rose | ||||
| 1936 | SMU | 5–4–1 | 2–3–1 | 5th | |||||
| 1937 | SMU | 5–6 | 2–4 | 6th | |||||
| 1938 | SMU | 6–4 | 4–2 | 2nd | |||||
| 1939 | SMU | 6–3–1 | 4–2 | T–2nd | |||||
| 1940 | SMU | 8–1–1 | 5–1 | T–1st | 16 | ||||
| 1941 | SMU | 5–5 | 2–4 | 5th | |||||
| SMU Mustangs (Southwest Conference) (1945–1949) | |||||||||
| 1945 | SMU | 5–6 | 4–2 | 2nd | |||||
| 1946 | SMU | 4–5–1 | 2–4 | T–5th | |||||
| 1947 | SMU | 9–0–2 | 5–0–1 | 1st | T Cotton | 3 | |||
| 1948 | SMU | 9–1–1 | 5–0–1 | 1st | W Cotton | 10 | |||
| 1949 | SMU | 5–4–1 | 2–3–1 | 5th | |||||
| SMU: | 79–40–8 | 43–25–4 | |||||||
| Total: | 143–87–16 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title | |||||||||
| #Rankings from final AP Poll. | |||||||||