Once Sullivan concluded the brutal pruning of his roaster and outfitted the survivors in the famed skull and crossbones leather helmets, and successfully installed his other worldly offensive attack. He then switched into game mode, the difficult to imagine, this somehow involved a heightened amount of practice intensity, mixed with an added ingredient of paranoia. By the time Sullivan made it to the stadium, he saw total domination of the entire venue. This included psychological control over everyone present, including the opposing team and coaches, as well as game officials and even spectators.
Tommy Davis
We were practicing preparing to play Pearl River. And a plane came over, single engine, Piper Cove,
Tommy Davis
it looked like start surfing.
Tommy Davis
In a minute, he says, I wonder who that is.
Interviewee
Bull said “they’re scouting us” start fighting.
Tommy Davis
And so we ran the next plane we started hitting each other on the shoulder pad and boxing ran. He led out on oath and said I said fight. You
Ernest Moore
grabbed the closest fellas to you and I’m not talking about play fight. I’m talking about you start slugging it out just like you fist fight. When I got up and turned around and somebody put my lights out, they really hit me, hit me and face them but blood going everywhere. And I’m not the only one, it’s just everybody.
Tommy Davis
And I went down seeing stars and all
Ernest Moore
playing mace cup more loops.
Interviewee
Give them a shot. Give them a shot gun. Yeah.
Interviewee
Somebody went down and got a shot gun came back.
Interviewee
He raced in his pocket, they put that chill and there go currently Boom, boom, boom and look around.
Interviewee
And lo and behold, he took that pump shotgun. I looked up at that airplane and shot. not once but twice. In that plane. You could tell then just kind of my little circle it took off.
Interviewee
Boom, blows his roof. Let’s get back to practice.
Charlie Box
But he was always talking about killing people and young guys like us. We didn’t know whether he, whether he meant it or whether he was kidding.
Carles McComb
If he said it once he said at a jillion times I’ve killed enough men to cover this field. One more will make no difference.
Don Edwards
And he would often say we’re just going to go over and kill all of the sob easiest week. You know, we load the bus up, go over and kill him. You know,
Ernest Moore
on Thursday, call us all up. We’re getting ready to go. He calls up on Thursday we’re out on practice field. He said take a knee, and I took a knee you better play the best ball game you’ve ever played in your life. Or you’ll never leave this field and list Over my dead body. He stopped. We were all looking he looked at one of them in our lock and he said and that it takes one mean son of a bitch clubhouse. We beat them three touchdowns. Because we believed we really, we believed that we didn’t play a basketball game we ever played, you know. We would have to kill it first to give walk after (2:29)
Louie Spinks
I coached in high school football and takes it in front of 20,000 people. And I’ve played in stadiums all over the United States. When I was in college. I even played in the Rose Bowl Stadium. But there is nothing. I’m telling you nothing more exciting and going on that field. There. in Scuba and playing for Coach Sullivan.
Colbert Jones
pregame when we went out for pregame with running one big line. And we will all silent we never said a word. And then would form two lines that would face each other then we’d start doing head on tackling.
Robert Morgan
They beg him to get back down and it was 10 or 20 yard. He was just round.
Jimmy Kibe
And all the team I noticed. Instead they quit their warm ups and they start and turn and start looking at us.
Jimmy Gray
Lot of us got hit on the sidelines. haven’t hit on tackling before the game really got started.
Bill Buckner
One of our players, Bobby Morgan, before one of the ball games, he got knocked out, didn’t even know. We was before the ballgame, never played it down. And that was our starting center. So it was no show. It was for real.
Johnny Baker
When I was in high school. It was in watching ballgames down there. I saw him do it and I said what in the world is going on?
Robert Morgan
And people he had finally got to know how they all got fired up. Stanley got fired up
Colbert Jones
Then I’m sure their minds were saying what are these guys doing? And of course, like, they knew that we didn’t wear a helmet or face mask and a helmet.
Interviewee
And he says this demoralizes the other team
Interviewee
while the game’s going up,
Colbert Jones
Coach Sullivan was using psychological warfare you might say at that point in time,
Bill Buckner
but all of it was to distract. And, and I think that gave us an age because he was always thinking about winning.
Johnny Baker
Coach Sullivan was just an in an entertainment attraction to bring people to scuba because of all the things that were going on. The football team half was just scoring touchdowns and he was doing things on the sidelines and
Bob “Bubba” Sullivan
but it was his antics on the sideline that I can’t still believe is what brought people in
Ernest Moore
a lot of times I’d catch myself just watching Coach Sullivan during the course of the game,
Bulldog Coggins
a lot of people came just to see what was going to do. during the ball game,
Bubba Davis
abused, the tantrums, he abused us and you know we were his own players and they might even say something to you if you’re a player on the other team,
Charlie Box
He’lld start with a cowboy hat, nice cowboy hat and a sport coat I mean he looked he was really dapper looking you know and game would start and not the first couple of series of something goes wrong he jerks that sport coat off and he would throw it to the ground
Bob “Bubba” Sullivan
and he had a he had a system that helped him to start the game off first. And he would stomp that and then the coat ended whatever object was around. Sometimes it was people whatever you
Ernest Moore
he just gave referees on short inhale. Oh referee. Oh God, he was hard on ’em
Johnny Baker
And they were just as intimidated by him and
Ernest Moore
man he was cursing them, he had to talk I’m gonna kill you. He’ll kill you too if you messed up.
Jimmy Gray
And you go back doing the same thing I did with him. 15 mow yards 50 mow yards and end up with four to five yards. Yes. Now we’ve not even sent out the ball yet.
Carles McComb
Juicy Scales was the official. He was the referee and juicy was stepping off the fourth 15 yard count. Head is back to Coach Sullivan and he was stepping off the pedal in, Coach Sullivan. He left the sideline and he goes, he’s headed toward coach, juicy scale
Ernest Moore
and the referee set the ball down and he just, boom, he kicked the ball.
Carles McComb
He almost kicked the field though because at this time, then the balls down Up battlenet Goldman
Ernest Moore
that is when the Association got together and said you know, you got to sit in a chair and they put him in a chair on the sideline.
Terry Brown
I mean there’s not a referee out. I knew that was referee and back in those day that wasn’t just totally intimidated by Bull
Bubba Davis
at halftime. You know normally, all the years I’ve coached kids, we go to the dressing room at halftime. with him. You went to ham on Sideline. We didn’t know if we was going to the dressing room or not. We might do three man marine roll right there on the sideline. Or you might say let’s go to the endzone and tackle. I think
Louie Spinks
he was as good as anybody I’ve ever heard before game at hallftime. he knew how to push buttons at the right time the right button at the right time.
Tommy Davis
Coach Sullivan had to have witnessed his for my own eyes fore-armed hit a truck with a form arm after a winch truck parked on the parking lot on the way to the half. Until you get in the part of the hood caved in with a form. (8: 07) He went inside a dressing room
Carles McComb
Had a metal door. He kicked it all the way across route.
Interviewee
He picked up a chair and he hit that stovepipe.
Interviewee
He broke the chair over a table
Interviewee
(8:36) for metal scuba rock,
Robert Morgan
trash can or beige anything, It went up against the wall across the room.
Interviewee
And he cracked that door from top to pass the middle, elbowed that chalkboard and broke it half into
Robert Morgan
I mean, he would destroy some chairs and benches in the dressing room.
Interviewee
And we’d crawl up in a locker so we could kind of get away from him get
Doug Sprout
some distance, you know, but he walked around and he was fore-arming the pipe columns in the Fieldhouse and said that this gave him five minutes out there on the field with the entire Northwest team that wouldn’t be enough to get on the bus to go back.
Carles McComb
Finally he gets up and he tells us if you don’t score 50 points as high. Don’t get dressed, come in and sit down. And when everybody’s gone, we’re going screaming to the sun comes up.
Jimmy Kibe
He had a diary, what happened over there in a month places like this. And he brought that diary and he started reading about some of the things and the point he was trying to make was if you want to win and be a success, you got to do the way these guys did. They gave it out. They gave it up
Don Edwards
and the more he walked across, the closer he gets, he’s all around, and his hat flew off. And you got to shaking your flowers on an island. And I came back to get out there.
Charlie Box
But that night we were all in the dressing room and sitting there and nobody he didn’t come in. In fact, we were all sitting there and it was quiet and we were waiting we know what was going on. And all of a sudden the door opened and in come Coach Sullivan and he had a big overcoat, a good top down he had it pulled up over his head like that. And he was crawling on the floor and he crawled around the whole dressing room he’d crawl up in front of you need look up in your eyes like an old dog, just big and playing, not saying a word but you got the message, he crawled all the way around that dressing room looked at every player crawled out the door, never said a word. We jumped up and up broke the door down trying to get out of the dressing room because we knew what he wanted.
Ernest Moore
If we got up ahead, no 30 points ahead, head start pulling, I thought it’s crazy to the stuff you know, but he wouldn’t. he’lld start putting formations,we may put three wideouts on one side or the backs half backs he had split them out
Bubba Davis
on defence, who they wanted to teach us how to count in Japanese
Tommy Davis
like we’re on double quarterbacks one time quarterback on each side of the summer.
Ernest Moore
We didn’t really think about what he was doing, you know, but I heard him tell one of the other you know other players or coach somebody said they will have to spend time on what on this and then take away time that you know, really what we’re going to do.
Jimmy Kibe
He was brilliant. He was a brilliant man and everything he did had a purpose, all of those things that he annex he did on the sideline was to motivate his team or to put fear in the other team but it was all, he was a great psychologist and he knew how to motivate people and
Carles McComb
after the game was over, Normally he go and shake hands with the other team. He didn’t want us to do that. He wanted, he told everybody to start doing the three man row. It was crazy. It was just that was his coat. So, he wanted to show the other team that we still had energy to burn and we’re out here working right after the game was up.
Tommy Davis
I don’t know if he even shook hands with the coach or not, he might not have, he was not real sociable when being with other coaches and they, I think most of them were probably afraid of him anyway.