Don Carthel

Degree: Physical Education
Year: 1975

As an 18-year-old freshman, he remembers taking an introduction to physical education class in which the professor wrote on the chalkboard how many hours a coach would work and urged students to really think about coaching before deciding to become one. Nevertheless, Carthel had no doubt that he would become a coach.

Of his days as the head football coach for ENMU from 1985-1991, Mr. Carthel says, “I had the time of my life here at ENMU as a football coach.” The Greyhounds won the Lone-Star Conference in 1991.

As a student athlete at Eastern, Mr. Carthel says he learned from the best. “Eastern was good to me and I had a good time as a player and student. ENMU has a great tradition of sending out the best teachers and coaches.”

Putting in all those hours as a coach paid off. Before coming to Eastern, Mr. Carthel coached at various high schools in Texas and elsewhere. After retiring from coaching at Eastern to help his aging father with the family farm in Friona, he has returned to the sidelines as the general manager and head coach of the new Amarillo Dusters professional arena football team. In the inaugural year of the new league, the Dusters won the championship.