Pat Sullivan

Patrick Joseph Sullivan (January 18, 1950 – December 1, 2019) was an American professional football player and college coach.

Although a talented baseball and basketball player, he chose to play football for Auburn University where he would become the starting quarterback in 1969 under the tutelage of head coach Ralph Jordan.

Over the next three seasons, the 6ft 0in tall and 190 lb Sullivan would break school and NCAA records for passing while leading the team to a 26–7 record.

In 1970, he led the NCAA in total offense with 2,856 yards and set an NCAA record for most yards per play with 8.57.

In his career, he was responsible for 72 touchdowns (54 passing/18 rushing) to tie the NCAA record.

In his senior season, Sullivan completed 162 passes on 281 attempts for 2,012 yards and 20 touchdowns.

An All-America quarterback for the Auburn Tigers, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1971 and then played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins.

This performance was enough to edge out Ed Marinaro for the 1971 Heisman Trophy.

Also an excellent student, Sullivan was named an Academic All-American and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration in 1972.

Sullivan finished his college career with 6,284 passing yards and 54 touchdowns, along with another 18 touchdowns on the ground.

He was selected to play in the Senior Bowl, where he led the South to victory over the North and was given the game's Most Valuable Player award.

After college, Sullivan had a six-season professional NFL football career.

He was a second-round selection (40th overall pick) of the 1972 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons.

Sullivan played with the Falcons from 1972 to 1975.

He played in 30 games.

In 1974, Sullivan started three games for the Atlanta Falcons, losing all three.

He completed 48 of 105 passes and one touchdown.

In 1975, he threw for 3 touchdowns, completing 28 of 70 passes.

He signed with the Washington Redskins as a free agent in 1976 but was cut before the start of the season.

He signed with the Chicago Bears in March 1977 but was sold to the San Francisco 49ers in June, and then cut by the 49ers before the start of the 1977 season.

Sullivan left football to enter private business in Birmingham, where he worked in insurance and as a tire company executive.

Sullivan spent five seasons doing radio color commentary for Auburn football games before joining the staff at Auburn in 1986 as quarterbacks coach under head coach Pat Dye.

He worked with Auburn quarterbacks Jeff Burger, Reggie Slack, and Stan White during his six years at Auburn.

During his time as an assistant Auburn won, or shared, three Southeastern Conference championships and had a four-game winning streak against archrival Alabama.

He inherited a team still reeling from probation imposed by the NCAA in 1986.

Most seriously, the Frogs had been limited to 25 scholarships in 1987 and 1988.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1991.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Sullivan began his athletic career as a three-sport star at Birmingham's John Carroll Catholic High School.

He was previously the head football coach at Texas Christian University (TCU) from 1992 to 1997 and the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 1999 to 2006.

On January 2, 1992, Sullivan became the 27th head football coach of Texas Christian University.

By the time Sullivan arrived in Fort Worth, the sanctions had taken their full effect; TCU would not have a full complement of scholarships until 1993.

After two losing seasons, he led TCU to a 7–5 mark in 1994 to win a share of the Southwest Conference championship, the school's first SWC title since 1959.

Following the 1994 season, prior to the Horned Frogs' appearance in the Independence Bowl versus Virginia, Sullivan agreed to become the head coach at Louisiana State University (LSU).

However, LSU refused to pay the $400,000 buyout of Sullivan's TCU contract, and the Tigers hired Vanderbilt University coach Gerry DiNardo three days later.

The next season produced another winning record of 6–5 before TCU joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1996 and fell once again on hard times.

Losing seasons in 1996 and 1997 resulted in Sullivan's resignation in October 1997 with an overall record of 24–42–1.

However, he is best known for having recruited LaDainian Tomlinson to play at TCU.

In January 1999, Sullivan became the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of UAB.

He helped develop Darrell Hackney into the best quarterback in UAB history who was able to make it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent picked up by the Cleveland Browns.

Sullivan was a head football coach at Samford University, a position he held from 2007 to 2014.