Pat Sullivan Honored in Tampa

When Pat Sullivan arrived at Auburn in 1968, freshmen weren’t allowed to compete on varsity teams. Sullivan shined on the “Baby Tigers” freshman team, despite the 3-5 record, and perfected his chemistry with wide receiver Terry Beasley.

Sullivan, along with Beasley, would go on to cement a legacy at Auburn. Sullivan would win the Heisman Trophy in 1971 and set numerous records on the Plains. The duo would finish their careers as the most prolific duo in Auburn history.

Shug Jordan and Pat Sullivan plan for the rest of the game.

On and off the field, Pat Sullivan was beloved. A fierce competitor with a calm demeanor on the field, Sullivan quickly earned the respect of his teammates and coaches. He was courteous to all who approached him off the gridiron, especially the young Tiger fans, often spending much of his time signing autographs for all around.

Following his time on the Plains and a six-year career in the NFL, Sullivan spent five years calling games on the Auburn radio network. In 1986, he joined Pat Dye’s coaching staff as a quarterback coach, leading the likes of Jeff Burger, Reggie Slack, and Stan White.

In 1992, Pat Sullivan would get his first head coaching job at TCU, a program that had been riddled with probation. The Horned Frogs would finish 7-5 in 1994 to share the conference title, the program’s first since 1959. Sullivan’s time at TCU would end following the 1997 season after two losing records, but would set the Horned Frogs up well with a stud at running-back – future Hall of Famer, LaDainian Tomlinson.

Sullivan would wind up at UAB as offensive coordinator and quarterback coach in 1999. Four years later, he would be diagnosed with throat cancer. Coach Sullivan would be cleared of cancer just seven months later, but would fight the disease for much of the rest of his life.

Two years after his cancer diagnosis, Pat Sullivan was named head coach of the Samford Bulldogs in 2006. The Bulldogs would join a new conference in 2008, and win their first Southern Conference title in 2013. Sullivan would resign following the 2014 season.

On December 1, 2019, Patrick Joseph Sullivan passed away from a long battle with cancer. He was 69 years old.

As the 2019 Auburn football team was preparing to take on Minnesota in the Outback Bowl, senior leaders approached the coaching staff with ideas to honor the late Coach Sullivan. On the final night of 2019, some hours before kickoff, Auburn would announce that plan.

(image via Adam Sparks, 247 Sports)

Auburn would open up the 2020 calendar year with a special uniform tweak to honor one of the most beloved Auburn men of all time. The Tigers were planning to wear a #7 decal on the left side of the helmets, paired with a grey facemask. The helmet’s right side would feature the traditional AU logo.

From 1958 until the 1965 season, Auburn wore player numbers on the football helmets. In 1966, the Tigers would wear the AU logo for the first time.

Freshman teams would often wear old varsity equipment and would therefore lag behind in terms of uniform design. The “Baby Tigers” wouldn’t wear AU logo decals until the 1968 season – Pat Sullivan’s freshman season. Sullivan would wear #10 during his first season on the Plains. He would wear a #12 jersey during the 1969 spring game before adopting the soon-to-be-retired #7 that fall.

Early helmet facemasks were typically a grey color, as manufacturers struggled to match the mask to the desired team colors. In wouldn’t be until 1974 that the San Diego Chargers would wear football’s first colored mask.

Throughout his entire career at Auburn, Pat Sullivan wore a white helmet with orange and navy Northwestern stripes, the rather new AU logo, and a grey two-bar facemask. Excluding that one two-number season on the frosh team, Sullivan would stick with #7 for his three varsity seasons.

On New Year’s Eve, the Auburn Football social media accounts posted a video that would eventually reveal the new helmet design. Sandwiched between highlights from Pat Sullivan’s playing career were images of a jersey with the #7 and “Sullivan” sewn onto the nameplate. Sitting above the jersey in the locker was the helmet, complete with #7 decals and grey decals.

This would mark the first time that Auburn had deviated from the traditional helmet design since 2007. Auburn hosted Vanderbilt for homecoming, and would honor the 50th anniversary of Auburn’s then-only national championship team from 1957.

The Tigers would wear their white jerseys at home for the first time since 1968. The 1957 team wore white jerseys with orange and navy Northwestern stripes on the sleeves, but the navy jerseys featured zero striping. Auburn would remove the AU logos from the helmets and wear grey facemasks to best mimic the helmets worn by Shug Jordan’s greatest football squad.

(image via Greg McWilliams, OA News)

Shortly after the video was released, a higher-quality image was shown of the new helmets. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that the #7 decal was slightly different than what was originally shown. The #7 was taller, thinner, and better matched the jersey font.

Pat Sullivan’s #7 would be retired soon after his time at Auburn. The Sullivan Tribute helmets would be the first time that any player had worn the Heisman Trophy winner’s number since. This would also be the first time that the #7 had been worn on a helmet, as no Tiger wore the number during the eight-year span of helmet numbers being utilized.

The 2020 Outback Bowl would feature many more firsts for Auburn uniforms. It would be the first time the grey facemasks were paired with a navy jersey since 1978 – the last year grey masks were used full time. It would mark the first time ever that Auburn had worn an asymmetric helmet, with the left and right sides not matching. Despite having worn multiple memorial decals on the helmets, Auburn had never utilized prime real estate to showcase one.

Jeremiah Dinson told members of the media following the loss to Minnesota that the players were getting to keep their helmets from the game. Typically, player’s equipment is recycled year-to-year, especially the helmets, which are sent off for reconditioning. Auburn often rewards exiting seniors with their helmet and a framed jersey from the season. It’s not often that the entire team walks away from the season with such a substantial piece of equipment.

Helmets aren’t cheap, with the now-out-of-business Vicis helmets costing upwards of $1,500. It’s unclear as of now whether Auburn ordered a new inventory of helmets specifically for the game or used a player’s helmet from the remainder of the season.

What’s Next?

Alternate uniforms are often a topic of discussion – and discord – among Auburn fans. Auburn hasn’t had a true alternate jersey since the Doug Barfield orange jerseys, which are continuously riddled with falsities. In the 53 years since the AU first donned a helmet, the Tigers have only had a handful of relatively minor uniform changes – player names on back, orange drop-shadow numbers, orange and eventually navy facemasks, the wordmark being added to the chest.

Auburn has been more unlikely to tweak the uniforms than other traditionally-viewed teams such as Alabama and Penn State, who have each worn alternate uniforms in the last 15 years.

(image via Douglas Defelice, USA Today Sports)

It’s often a thought that wearing an alternate uniform element just once is enough to swing the gates wide open for all sorts of other designs. That may be true for some programs and some sports, but it simply hasn’t been the case with Auburn football.

After the Tigers wore the 1957 throwbacks in 2007, nothing else happened. The closest that Auburn came to “messing with the uniforms” was wearing white at home once more in 2008, and changing Under Armour templates three times since. It took 12 seasons before another design change would take place.

(Some may point to the 2011-2014 uniforms as a “design change,” but that was simply a template-induced result. The tapered pants stripe and truncated shoulder stripes were not a design decision by Auburn – Under Armour’s latest uniform template, similar to a car’s chassis, forced those adjustments.)

Pat Sullivan was a special man – an Auburn man, the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner, a record-breaking athlete. Sullivan left his mark on Auburn University and Auburn football. This was a wonderful gesture by the current players to want to honor someone who meant so much to this program.

But how will Auburn honor the other two Heisman Trophy winners in the future? Will Bo Jackson get a similar uniform tribute? Cam Newton’s #2 isn’t even retired at Auburn. What about Terry Beasley, the only non-Heisman Trophy winner to have their number retired at Auburn?

Despite Auburn’s overly traditional approach to the football uniforms, it’s difficult to say what they will do in these scenarios. Hopefully those questions don’t have to be answered any time soon, though Beasley’s health hasn’t been the best in recent years.

For other alternate uniforms? I wouldn’t bet on anything. This is the same team that has only had two special occasion uniform changes since the turn of the century.

But, as mentioned in the Orange Jersey History article, there is an interesting detail about next season’s Chick-fil-a Kickoff Game. Auburn and North Carolina will meet in Atlanta, and some information mentioned that Auburn, as the home team, would wear “orange or white jerseys.” North Carolina would wear “blue jerseys.”

Either stress about the coming orange jerseys or chalk it up to legal contract language. We’ll all find out in about nine months.

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