Basketball Coach, Athletic Director (1937-67)
Bloomer Sullivan was born in West Virginia on May 3, 1901. He was an outstanding athlete at Ardmore, Oklahoma and was named to the Ardmore High School Mid-Century Football team.
Coach Sullivan joined the Southeastern faculty in 1930. He became the Director of Athletics and Head basketball coach in 1937 and held that position until his retirement in 1967. During his career he coached all Southeastern sports at one time or another.
He was one of the nation’s great college basketball coaches. He won 662 college games, thirteen Oklahoma Collegiate Conference Championships, and his teams participated in the NAIA national playoffs more times than any other Oklahoma college teams. Three of his teams reached the NAIA national finals (1941, 1955, and 1959) and another team (1962) finished third in the national tournament.
Coach Sullivan was named NAIA Coach of the Year in 1957. He was named to the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame in 1959 and in 1971 he was the first person inducted into the Oklahoma Athletic Hall of Fame.
Among his players were a two-time Olympic basketball coach, a captain of the U.S. Olympic team, several All-Americans, and numerous All-Conference players.
Bloomer Sullivan’s success as a coach placed him among the nation’s all-time elite of college basketball coaches. He was inducted as a charter member of the Southeastern Athletic Hall of Fame on January 29, 1977.
