TUSCALOOSA ?? Paul Sullivan, who made history at the University of Alabama as the school’s first player to be drafted by the NBA in 1952, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. Sullivan had just turned 77 on May 9.
Alabama’s basketball team and program honored Sullivan on January 1, 2007 at the Tide’s Oklahoma game where Sullivan was in his usual courtside seat.
“He was a great, great man,” said University of Alabama basketball coach Mark Gottfried who knew Sullivan well and saw him sitting front row, cheering courtside, in Sullivan’s TIDE PRIDE floor seats at Alabama’s home games. “He was a great player, but, more importantly, he was a man of character. He loved the University of Alabama and, more specifically, our basketball team. He will be sorely missed.”
The Tuscaloosa native, known as “Tall Paul” because of his 6-foot-8 frame, was an All-Southeastern Conference center in 1951 and 1952 and was named to the All-SEC Tournament team in 1952 as well. Sullivan was the first Alabama basketball player to score 400 points in a season when he scored 401 points in 1952. He was also the first player at Alabama to score 30 points in a game when he scored 30 against Florida in a 1951 game. Two games later, he bettered that mark with 36 points against Mississippi State, including a then SEC record 17 field goals. Sullivan led Alabama’s 1951 and 1952 teams in scoring, rebounding, field goal attempts, field goals made, field goal percentages, free throws made and free throw attempts. He averaged 18.2 points and 12.9 rebounds in 1952.
The New York Knicks drafted Sullivan in 1952, making history at Alabama as its first basketball player to ever be drafted. Since that time, Alabama has had 38 players go on to play in the NBA, though Sullivan stunned all when he declined the offer by the Knicks, then a sum of about $5,000, to instead go to work with Ada Oil Company in Houston and begin a career in business.
“I never gave much thought to the offer from the Knicks,” said Sullivan in a May 2004 interview in the Tuscaloosa News. “I wasn’t that excited about it. I talked briefly with Joe Lapchick (then the Knicks’ General Manager), but they didn’t offer me a guarantee on the salary, and I was looking over the long haul. I didn’t know much about the NBA, and being reared on a farm, I was half-scared of going to New York City.”
Because the company was tied into sports---Ada’s executive Bud Adams would go on to own the Houston Oilers and the Tennessee Titans---the job also entailed playing amateur basketball in the National Basketball Industrial League, a league filled with former college stars.
“What a great guy he was," said former Tide player Leon Marlaire. "He was older than I was so we didn’t play together at Alabama, but I actually had the opportunity to play with him in AAU ball. My senior year at Alabama, in 1956, we were not allowed to play in the NCAA tournament because they had a rule back then about freshman eligibility and we had all played as freshman, so we could not play in the NCAA tournament. Johnny Dee was the coach, and instead we played in Denver in the AAU tournament for ADA oil’s basketball team. And Paul Sullivan played with us on that team. We lost to Peoria in triple overtime in the last game, and the team that won that game was going to represent the U.S. for its Olympic team. So instead of the five of us going to Melbourne for the Olympics in 1956, it was the Peoria team.
“Paul was very strong. He wasn’t that tall, really, because he was only 6-8 or 6-9 but he was a fine player. He had a nice, soft hook shot. He was just a really dynamic, strong fellow. We will miss him, that’s for sure. He and Jack Kubiszyn (All-American, All-SEC at Alabama on Rocket 8 team) and I drove together to Jerry Harper’s funeral (All-American, SEC rebounding all-time leader) a few years ago, and, even though it was a sad occasion, I remember what a wonderful visit the three of us had on that drive. Paul was just a great guy. He was a past A-Club president, and I think he was the first basketball player to become Alabama’s A-Club president. He was just super nice. He has such a fine family and he was such a big Alabama supporter.”
Sullivan is survived by his wife and fellow University of Alabama graduate, Sarah Lee Garrison Sullivan, and his four children, all University of Alabama graduates, Kris, Mark and twins Paula and Barry as well as his grandchildren. He was involved in the Tuscaloosa and Northport communities, serving as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Development Authority Board, director of SouthTrust Bank and even president of the Tuscaloosa Tip-Off Club which supports the Crimson Tide basketball team. His son Mark has also been a past president.
Funeral services for Sullivan will be Sunday, May 20 at 2 p.m. CT at First Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa. Visitation is Saturday evening at Heritage Funeral Home from 6:00-8:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the DCH Foundation Cancer Center or Hospice of West Alabama.
