Michigan legend Kevin Sullivan returns, named M Cross Country head coach
The greatest runner in Michigan Cross Country history and one of the greatest Michigan athletes to ever letter is returning to become the next head coach for Michigan Men's Cross Country, as well as the distance assistant coach for Track.
From 1993-94 - 1997-98, Kevin Sullivan's overall resume-
Track & Field-
- 4-time NCAA National Champion
- 16-time B1G Champion
- 14-time NCAA All-American
Cross Country-
- 4-time NCAA All-American
- 4-time NCAA Regional Champion
- 4-time B1G Champion
- 4-time B1G Athlete of the Year
- 4-time All-B1G First Team
- 1993 B1G Freshman of the Year
- 3-time Academic All-American
- 1998 B1G Medal of Honor Recipient
Despite having no head coaching experience, Sullivan did serve as a volunteer assistant at Michigan (1999-2002), Illinois (2003-2007) and Florida State (2007-2013).
"It is an honor and privilege to be coming back to the University of Michigan as the head men's cross coach and assistant track coach," said Sullivan."As a former Wolverine student-athlete, I truly understand the pride and passion one has to compete with the block 'M' on their chest and I intend to bring the same pride and passion to my coaching.I have been blessed over the past 20 years to have both been coached by and coached alongside some of the great distance minds in NCAA and international track and field, and I look forward to bringing real melding of coaching strategies to this program. I also want to thank Coach Clayton for having the belief and faith in me to lead our Michigan distance runners."
Sounds good to me. Go Blue!
...now Leader.
so wait.. does that mean he's in the division with indiana or not?
MGoBlog should hire you as an intern
Hopefully we can get the track and field program up and running again.... (see what I did there) but in all seriousness T&F needs to improve drastically.
Awesome hire it sounds like.
4 time NCAA All-American but only a 3 time Academic All-American. Mr. Sullivan tsk tsk!
If it's the same as when I ran, freshman aren't eligable for Academic All-American awards because the cross country season concludes in November - you know, before you actually have any grades on your transcript.
He got an A in the Technical Communications class we were in together. A VERY smart dude, unlike the gold medal winning swimmer that was in my freshman English class...
Hopefully this gets us........... (puts on sunglasses)............back on track!
YYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I may be totally misremembering this, but didn't he also work as a bartender at Fraser's Pub for a spell?
In any event, he truly was a great runner who represented the school well. Glad to see him on board, and I wish him and the team the best. Now maybe they can recruit the wunderkind Grant Fisher from Grand Blanc who seems cut from the same cloth!
That must have been the year he wasn't an academic All-American.
Interesting choice, certainly he has the career pedigree and Michigan connections. I do hope that on the gradient from Warhurst (all about Mid-distance and overall low mileage philosophy) and Gibby (very high mileage, and focus on XC/10K), he can find the right balance to move the program forward both in terms of XC and in track. Warhurst failed at XC and Gibby failed at track, especially mid-D. No reason Michigan can't be a top 10 team in both.
I was a decent track guy in HS and my daughter probably became interested because of that. I take her to the indoor meets in A2 and I'm surprised by the generally poor results behind the first athlete or 2 for each school. I hope we get good.... Track was always a big priority for Canham.... But track just doesn't seem to be a priority outside the SEC and the Pacific northwest. Go Blue
If you've been to an indoor meet in the past few years and watched the 800/1K/mile/3K, it is generally not very impressive and the depth is pretty bad. Michigan's track results at the B1G Championships in these events for the past few years has been atrocious. Pathetic given what we were in the Brannen/Willis years.
Sullivan to me is a shift back towards track, but I defintely have hesitiations gievn that Gibby transformed the quality of the XC squad and seemed to help with our development in the longest distance track event. I'm guessing Sullivan will help more with recruiting, and talent generally wins out so my concerns will be eased if he starts recruiting like a champ.
I would say Pacific, not Pacific Northwest. USC has a pretty damn good track team, and always has. Stanford as well. Really the whole Pac-12.
hopefully makes for an equally great coach. he is definitely a 'michigan man'. go blue!
Kevin is a real class act. I had to do a project when I was in 5th grade or so on a great Michigan athelete. I looked up the name 'Kevin Sullivan' in the phone book and called all the numbers asking if this was the Kevin Sullivan who ran for Michigan. After a couple calls I got him and asked him some 5th grade level interview questions. I don't remember much about the interaction other than that I came away from it thinking he was a great guy.
Kevin was a great guy and great athlete. Hopefully he transitions to great coach quickly.