Clive Sullivan
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Clive A. Sullivan | |||||
| Born |
9 April 1943 Cardiff, Wales |
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| Died | 8 October 1985 (aged 42) Hull, England |
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| Playing information | ||||||
| Rugby union | ||||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| Army Rugby Union | ||||||
| Rugby league | ||||||
| Position | Wing | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1961–73 | Hull F.C. | 352 | 250 | 0 | 0 | 750 |
| 1974–81 | Hull KR | 213 | 118 | 0 | 0 | 354 |
| 1980–81 | Oldham | 18 | 3 | 9 | ||
| 1981–82 | Hull F.C. | |||||
| 198?–84 | Doncaster | |||||
| Total | 583 | 371 | 0 | 0 | 1113 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1967–73 | Great Britain | 17 | 13 | 40 | ||
| 1969–79 | Wales | 15 | 7 | 21 | ||
Clive A. Sullivan MBE (born 9 April 1943 in Cardiff, died 8 October 1985 in Hull) was a Welsh rugby league player. A Great Britain and Wales international winger, he played with both Hull F.C. and Hull Kingston Rovers in his career, and also for Oldham and Doncaster. Captaining Great Britain in 1972, he was the first black captain of any British national sporting side. He was part of the Great Britain team which won the 1972 Rugby League World Cup. His son, Anthony Sullivan, had a successful career with Hull Kingston Rovers, St Helens, Wales in both rugby league and union, and Cardiff RFC.
Whilst growing up in the Splott district of Cardiff as a young teenager, he required operations on his knees, feet and shoulders. Due to the extent of these operations, a rugby career seemed unlikely. In 1961 he joined the army after leaving school and working for a while as a motor mechanic. He was posted to Catterick in North Yorkshire and while there was picked for an inter-corps rugby match on account of being Welsh. Sullivan chose to play in the match as admitting to having a major injury would have led to being invalided out of the army. His plan was to deliberately play badly to avoid being picked again. However, instinct took over and after scoring a long distance try with no ill effects, he decided to make the most of the army training to further progress his hopes of playing rugby.
After an unsuccessful trial game at Bradford Northern at the age of 17 he was approached by the touch judge from the game and offered a trial at Hull. His trial at Hull was a different story, dubbed Mr. X by the Hull Daily Mail he scored three tries and signed as a professional the following day.
Sullivan's first three seasons were restricted by army duties, three knee operations, and a nearly fatal car crash in October 1963 although he returned to play again just three months later. He left the army after a spell in Cyprus in 1964. Free of his army commitments he returned to Hull in time to play the last game of the season.
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