
Brian Sullivan, who worked in Connecticut for several years in the 1980s, died unexpectedly Monday at his home in Pittsfield, Mass. (Photo courtesy Berkshire Eagle, 2006)
All that is left is the memories and the lessons. I’ve been searching through old boxes and a file cabinet in my basement full of files and old newspaper clippings. But I can’t find what is in my mind’s eye.
It’s a photo of Brian Sullivan sitting in a dugout in Torrington’s historic Fuessenich Park in a New York Giants sweatshirt with sunglasses on. He has a scorebook in one hand and looks so content. The photo is part of a full page ad from the Register Citizen newspaper in Torrington in 1987 talking about the members of the sports department team.
I just want to see it. I want to see my friend as he was more than 25 years ago. It’s been 25 years?
Brian passed away earlier this week at the age of 62 in his hometown of Pittsfield, Mass. For most of his adult life, he was a writer. From 1989 to 2011, he worked at the Berkshire Eagle, the paper he grew up reading in Pittsfield, Mass. He was the sports editor form 2000-08 before transferring to the news desk.
He left the Eagle in 2011 and worked with the local school system as a paraprofessional. But it gave him to the opportunity to do what he did best – write stories about people. He became a weekly columnist with the Eagle with a popular column about Pittsfield called “The City I Love.”

Brian Sullivan with the Register Citizen softball team in the mid-1980s. (Photo courtesy Kevin Hutson)
Earlier this week, the Eagle wrote that Brian would “wax nostalgic about his life growing up in Pittsfield, commenting on current events and often highlighted people who have made positive contributions, from athletes and coaches to educators and other community leaders.”
But for a short time, he made a difference here in Connecticut, primarily in the northwest corner.
He was a freelance writer for the Register Citizen in the early 1980s before getting hired full time in 1984. He found time to cover the Hartford Whalers for a year in 1986-87 for Hartford Sports Extra, a weekly sports publication distributed throughout central Connecticut. He was named sports editor at the Register Citizen in 1987 before returning home to Pittsfield and the Eagle in 1989.
Brian was a storyteller. He had an easy-going attitude that served him well. In the late 1980s, high school and local sports was the focus at the Register Citizen and Brian loved writing about the kids, their achievements and their accomplishments. Oh, he would get the score of the game and the key facts but his stories were generally about the people and how the game impacted them.
Brian gave me by first full-time daily sportswriter position, hiring me at the Register Citizen in 1987. He gave me room to grow, try new things. He wasn’t a micromanager. He gave us direction and let us spread our wings.
He encouraged me to shoot photos. He didn’t hesitate to let me cover the UConn men’s basketball team in Jim Calhoun’s first year with Torrington’s own Murray Williams on the roster. He allowed a co-worker to cover Whalers games. He let us cover Celtics games when Boston was playing a few games a year at the Hartford Civic Center. I saw Larry Bird square off against Michael Jordan at the Civic Center.

Brian Sullivan in his days as sports editor of the Register Citizen from 1987-89 in a rare moment when the phone wasn’t ringing. (Photo courtesy Kevin Hutson)
Many other editors wanted to be at the big games. Not Brian. For the most part, he was content to take calls in the office, get kids names in the paper and cover as many local games as he could get to. He was a regular at Torrington High contests and Housatonic Valley football games.
He enjoyed the annual Berkshire Bowl battle on Thanksgiving morning between the Housatonic and Gilbert football teams. His football beat was covering Housatonic. My beat was covering Gilbert football. I don’t think the Mountaineers ever lost to Gilbert with Sully on the sideline.
The sports department at the Register Citizen was squeezed into a corner of the newsroom where with two desks were pushed together. There was a small, 10-inch black and white TV on a swivel so we could keep an eye on the national sports scene – if the news department didn’t need to watch anything. We spent hours on the phone, taking results of the day’s high school action from coaches from throughout northwest Connecticut.
After a challenging day, he might tell me that we had hit a home run with our work on that day. Other days, we just singled or grounded out to shortstop. Not every day was going to be spectacular. But we needed to keep coming to the plate every day and take our cuts.
He taught me about teaching and leadership. Not with lecturing – but by his actions. We had a few freelance writers and photographers. Few had any experience. They just had the desire. Brian nurtured them and most flourished.
It was no problem for him to drive a few hours to cover a game and write a story. In the mid-1990s, I was the sports editor at the New Britain Herald and needed a writer to cover a few games. Brian had an off day so he drove to New Britain from Pittsfield to cover a high school game – not a state championship game, just a normal Friday night contest. One afternoon, he drove down to cover a girls swim meet. He loved to write.
He seldom frowned and there were plenty of laughs about ourselves, our work and sports, in general. And every once in a while, we would reference Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and chuckle. He was the first co-worker of mine that knew as much about Star Trek as I did.
Brian would be the first to say that this is about 900 words too long and to move on. He may not have been in Connecticut for very long but he had an impact. Working with Brian made us better and there are times when I hear myself repeating the lessons he shared with me years ago.
So, in the coming weeks I will continue to look for that picture of Brian. Perhaps, I will find an old clipping from his days at the Register Citizen and relive some of the magic that he spun for a short time here in the Northwest corner.
I will miss him. All of us will.
Editor’s note: I worked at the Register Citizen from 1987 through 1995, succeeding Brian as the sports editor in 1989. Click on the link for Brian’s obituary. Here are some links to other stories about Brian.
Berkshire Eagle, July 21: Brian Sullivan, longtime Eagle sports editor and columnist, dies at age 62
Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 30 years.


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