Thursday, February 19, 1998
No regrets from Olympic vet
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LASTING LEGACY ... Frank Sullivan and his wife Kay. - Darren Makowichuk, Calgary Sun
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By JOE WARMINGTON -- Calgary Sun
The call came in at the beginning of the 1951/52 season and Frank
"Sully" Sullivan flatly turned the offer down.
On the other end were the people from the Edmonton Mercurys trying to
convince the 35-year-old sensational centreman to lead their team at the 1952
Oslo, Norway Olympics as both a player and manager.
"I told them I wasn't going to go," Sullivan, now 80, reminisced yesterday
at the Calgary home of his daughter. "I turned them down four times." At the
time, Sully had just bought a house, was raising four children and was working
for Cominco Mining in Kimberley, B.C.
Months of travelling through Europe before going to the Olympics just
didn't seem responsible.
But then his wife Kay stepped in.
"I told him he should go because it was such a marvelous opportunity to go
to the Olympics," she said.
Now, 46 years later, he jokes he's glad he listened because he was part of
the very last Canadian hockey team to win Olympic gold -- a benchmark he hopes
ends this year with our current Team Canada over in Nagano.
"She was right," Sully said as he smiled at his wife of 57 years. "She's
always right."
Long before the team -- which included Red Deer's Bobby Watt and Tom
Pollock -- scored Olympic glory, they were involved in numerous adventures in
a 51-game exhibition tour through Europe.
The first one started with a meeting in England with a friendly Canadian
air force pilot who came to the team's games and eventually became a mascot.
"He even came with us on the bus," said Sully, who once tried out for the
Montreal Maroons. "He became part of the team."
Then one time, they received a telegram saying: "Have crashed, not hurt --
see you in two months."
It was strange, but it got stranger when Sully was approached by "three
big, tall policemen" at a hotel. "It turns out he was an international crook,"
Sully said, laughing. "We think he was trying to get us to take stuff around
Europe for him. They took him to jail."
Just when they thought they were safe from trouble, about a week before the
Olympics their bus was barrelling down a slippery Swedish highway. "I kept
telling the bus driver to slow down," said Sully.
The boys were crowded in the back playing Hearts when suddenly the "road
was a sharp right and we were going a sharp left. I yelled: `We are going
over.' "
Over they did -- into a deep ravine. The only thing that stopped them from
"going for 50 miles" was a tree. "It was the only one around so somebody was
looking out for us," he said, adding other than a few cuts, no one was hurt.
"You want to see 18 guys walking dazed out of a bus. One guy had the coats
fall on him and he thought he was dead."
Finally, at the Olympics, the Canadian team tied the U.S. in the final game
to claim gold, something that only received marginal coverage back home. It
didn't matter.
"The satisfaction stays with you," he said. "I've got my medal in a special
case for everyone to see."
With Canada playing the Czechs tonight to determine who gets to play for
the 1998 gold medal, Sully says, it's time for another Canadian team to do it
and to share the pride he feels when kids ask him about being part of what has
become known as the forgotten team.
"We've got to hope for them," said Sully, who scored 12 points in his
Olympics. "Being on the last team to win gold isn't such a great thing
anymore. Nobody knows about it, anyway."
2002 Games Men's Hockey Coverage
