Thomas Sullivan (born April 18, 1950) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and college coach.

Playing career

Sullivan grew up in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He played collegiately at

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

and was a four-year letterwinner from 1968 to 1969 through 1971–72, playing the

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

position. As a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

, Sullivan was the

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

. He guided Fordham to a berth in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

where they would lose in the first round to

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

. At the end of that season, Sullivan was presented with the

Haggerty Award __NOTOC__ The Lt. Frank J. Haggerty Award is given to the All-New York Metropolitan NCAA Division I men's college basketball player of the year, presented by the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) ...

, given annually since 1935–36 to the top male collegiate basketball player in the greater New York City area. He was the co-recipient with

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Richie Garner Richard Garner (born in Mount Vernon, New York) is an American former basketball player who is best known for his NCAA Division I career at Manhattan College. Garner played for the Jaspers between 1969–70 and 1971–72. During his four-year care ...

, becoming the first duo to share the award in its history up to that point. Following his career at Fordham, Sullivan was chosen in the 1972 NBA Draft by the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

. He was taken in the ninth round (139th overall). Although he was drafted, Sullivan never played in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. Instead, he went to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

to play professionally in 1972–73, took the following year off to coach back in the United States, and then spent the 1974–75 playing again, only this time in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. After two seasons in three years playing as an

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

professional basketball player, Sullivan returned to the United States to pursue coaching full-time.

Coaching career

Sullivan began his coaching career as an assistant at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

during the interim year between professional seasons. His next job came as an assistant coach at New Hampshire College (now

Southern New Hampshire University Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private university between Manchester and Hooksett, New Hampshire. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education, along with national accreditation for some hospitali ...

) during 1975–76, and after only one year at the school he became its full-time head coach in 1976. Sullivan stayed at New Hampshire College from 1976 to 1977 through 1984–85 and also concurrently served as the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

for much of his tenure. During his nine-year career at the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

school, he compiled an overall record of 152–99, including three 20-win seasons. Sullivan led the team to two Division II New England Region championships (1980, 1981) as he earned regional coach of the year honors both of those years. He left New Hampshire College to take the reins at

Manhattan College Manhattan College is a private, Catholic, liberal arts university in the Bronx, New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, it was la ...

in which he compiled a 2–26 overall record his first year there. Sullivan only stayed one season, however, and left to become P. J. Carlesimo's assistant at

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan u ...

between 1987–88 and 1993–94. During this seven-year stretch, the Pirates made six NCAA Division I Tournaments, including a national championship game appearance in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, which they lost to

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

in overtime. When Carlesimo left after 1993–94, Sullivan was a finalist for the head coaching vacancy. The position ultimately went to

George Blaney George R. Blaney (born November 12, 1939) is an American former basketball player and coach. Blaney played high school basketball at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City. After playing basketball at the College of the Holy Cross durin ...

from Holy Cross. After a one-year absence from coaching, Sullivan became the new head coach at

UMBC The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

in 1995. Over the course of his nine-year coaching career at UMBC, he compiled an overall record of 106–145, becoming the second coach in program history to amass 100 wins. He named the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

Coach of the Year in 1998 after an eight-game improvement from the season before, and in 1999 was named the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

Coach of the Year. The school had switched conferences between years, and the 1998–99 season saw the Retrievers set a league record for consecutive wins to begin a season (15) en route to the conference regular season title. Three years later, and for the first time in the program's Division I history, UMBC won 20 games in a season under Sullivan's guidance. After that season he signed a contract extension to be effective through the 2006–07 season. However, after a 7–21 year in 2003–04, Sullivan resigned. His career college head coaching record is 260–270 in 19 seasons.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Tom 1950 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Switzerland American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball players from New York City Centers (basketball) College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Fordham Rams men's basketball players Hunter Hawks men's basketball coaches Manhattan Jaspers basketball coaches New York Knicks draft picks Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball coaches Southern New Hampshire Penmen athletic directors Southern New Hampshire Penmen men's basketball coaches Basketball players from Baltimore Sportspeople from the Bronx UMBC Retrievers men's basketball coaches