Francis Sullivan (ice hockey)
Francis Cornelius Sullivan ( born June 7, 1917 in Regina, Saskatchewan, † January 5, 2007 in Calgary, Alberta ) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. At the Olympic Winter Games in 1952 he won the gold medal as a member of the Canadian national team. His son Danny Sullivan was also ice hockey player and played among others in the World Hockey Association.
Career
Francis Sullivan began his career as a hockey player in 1935 at the Regina Christies from the Regina Junior Hockey League, but moved after only three games already on the Regina Aces. Even there, he completed only four junior games, before he was admitted to the seniors team the Aces. He remained there for the entire 1936 season / 37. He then joined the Yorkton Terriers of the Southern Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League, for whom he played from 1937 to 1940. During this period he was also in a game for the Tulsa Oilers in the American Hockey Association on the ice. From 1940 to 1942 he ran for the Kimberley dynamiters before he spent the season 1943/44, at the Ottawa RCAF in the Ottawa National Defense Hockey League and the following season with the league rivals Ottawa Uplands HQ. In 1945 he entered once for the Seattle Ironmen in the Pacific Coast Hockey League. From 1945 to 1954 Sullivan played again for the Kimberley dynamiters whose captain he was from 1946 to 1951 and in the season 1953/54. During his time with the dynamiters he represented in 1952 as a guest player with the Edmonton Mercurys Canada at the Olympic Winter Games. From 1952 to 1953 Sullivan was head coach of the Swiss national ice hockey team. In the 1954/55 season he played for the Kimberley Legionnaires. After a year break, he spent the season 1956/57, as player-coach at the Cranbrook Selkirk in the Alberta - British Columbia -Montana League.
Internationally
For Canada, Sullivan participated in the Olympic Winter Games in 1952 in part in Oslo, where he won the gold medal with his team. In eight games, he scored five goals and five assists.