More than a decade after leaving West Texas A&M, former Buffs’ head football coach Don Carthel will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Champions.
WTAMU announced Carthel’s induction on Monday afternoon alongside seven other members who will make up the 2025 Hall of Champions class. The school called it a “long overdue honor” in a social media post.
Carthel came to WT after coaching stops at Floydada, Lubbock Christian, UTEP, Eastern New Mexico and even a stint with the Amarillo Dusters, among others. The former Buffs’ head coach is originally from Dimmitt, and played college football at Eastern New Mexico.
Carthel spent eight seasons at the helm in Canyon, compiling a 79-22 record and leading his team to six playoff appearances, including a run to the national semifinals in 2012. Carthel was named Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year four times and helped grow the popularity of the Buffs’ football program during his time at WT.
Cathel’s son, Colby Carthel, took over as the Buffs’ defensive coordinator in 2006, working alongside his father to bring the school one of its most successful stretches as a football program.
In 2013, though, West Texas A&M fired Don Carthel.
According to Michael McBroom, who was the school’s athletic director at the time, Carthel had broken NCAA Division II Bylaw 10.1, which says, “Individuals employed by (or associated with) a member institution to administer, conduct or coach intercollegiate athletics and all participating student-athletes shall act with honesty and sportsmanship at all times so that intercollegiate athletics as a whole, their institutions and they, as individuals, shall represent the honor and dignity of fair play and the generally recognized high standards associated with wholesome competitive sports.”
According to Carthel, he and two of his players went to a Texas Rangers baseball game in the Summer of 2013 while in the DFW area for Lone Star Conference Media Days. Carthel paid for the tickets, but asked his players to reimburse him for the cost when they returned home to avoid violating NCAA rules.
McBroom asked Carthel if the reimbursement had been made prior to the baseball game, and the former Buffs’ head coach assured him they had, and instructed the players to do the same.
Yet, years later, it appears that WTAMU is attempting to mend a relationship that went sour under new leadership in the school’s athletic department.
Even after leaving the Buffs, Carthel managed to find another job in the college ranks.
Colby Carthel was named the head coach at East Texas A&M (formerly known as Texas A&M-Commerce) in 2014 and brought his dad on staff as a quality control coach in 2015. Together, the two helped lead Texas A&M-Commerce to a national championship in 2017.
A few years later, Colby was named the head coach at Stephen F. Austin State University, a Division I FCS program in Nacogdoches. Carthel was hired at SFA to join his son, taking on a similar quality control position.
McBroom has since taken over as the athletic director at SFA, working alongside two of the same coaches that were on staff during his time at West Texas A&M.
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