Princeton University Athletics
Wednesday TigerBlog - RIP Chuck Sullivan
November 19, 2025 | Tiger Blog
TigerBlog took Joanna Dwyer to lunch yesterday.
It was the last time they'd both be in Princeton prior to Dwyer's leaving to begin her new job, in athletic communications at the University of Southern California. Her last weekend at Princeton will see her on the road with her men's water polo team, who will be at Brown for the NWPC tournament.
TB, for his part, left yesterday with the field hockey team for the Final Four at Duke, where the Tigers will play Friday at noon against Harvard in the first semifinal, followed by UNC-Northwestern in the other. The winners will meet Sunday at 1 for the national title.
It was really nice to have lunch with Joanna before she moved on in her career. She'll have gone from graduating from Elon in 2024, to nearly 1.5 years at Princeton and now on to USC, where she will cover water polo and swimming and diving.
TB told her something that he thinks is important. Make sure, he said, that no matter where your career takes you that you remember your time at Princeton with great fondness, and not as something you had to have on your resume to get your next job.
There have been a lot of people who have come through Princeton Athletics during TB's years here. Some have indeed cherished their experience. Others have been box checking.
One of the people in that first group was named Chuck Sullivan. No matter where he went or where he worked, he took a piece of Princeton with him.
Have you enjoyed reading TigerBlog all these years, or anything else TB has written? Did you enjoy the women's athletics history book?
You can thank Chuck Sullivan for all of it.
Actually, you can't anymore. Chuck passed away earlier this week, at the age of just 54. Melanoma did him in.
TB didn't even know Chuck was sick. It had been too long since he had spoken to him.
Who was Chuck Sullivan? At the time of his death, he was the assistant commissioner for communications at the American Conference. Before that, he had been at Harvard, Bryant and UMass-Boston. And before that, he was a member of the Princeton Office of Athletic Communications.
Chuck was an intern when TB first started on the Princeton payroll back in 1994. At the time, TB knew very little about athletic communications, other than what he'd seen during his five years of covering Princeton at the Trenton Times. He knew nothing of computers, let alone desktop publishing.
He is not overstating things in the least to say that were it not for Chuck Sullivan, TB never would have lasted more than a few months at Princeton. Chuck taught TB how to use a Mac, starting with the most basic part of turning it on. He basically held TB's hand those first few months, until TB started to get a feel for how the OAC worked.
That's just how Chuck was. He didn't wonder why some guy from the newspaper got a job that he was probably more qualified to get. He just helped.
Chuck was a gentleman, and a gentle man. He was kind and caring and compassionate. He loved the experience at Princeton and the athletes with whom he worked.
He was also funny. He had a dry sense of humor and an understated laugh, but he would certainly make TB smile, even more so with every mistake he made back then. Remember earlier this week, when TB forgot that Trevor Tierney had been first-team All-Ivy League as the son of a Princeton head coach, like Sam Vigilante — son of men's head track and field and cross country coach Jason Vigilante — was this season in men's soccer?
Chuck would have shrugged his shoulders at TB and offered up a engaging smile, gestures that would have at once made fun of TB while making him realize it wasn't the end of the world.
TB and Chuck stayed in touch through the years as he moved along his career trajectory. They'd text several times a year, usually about something related to a current event that sparked a memory the two had shared way back when.
The news of his death hit TB hard. It came on a group text with former Princeton OACers Chuck Yrigoyen, Kurt Kehl and Mark Panus, all of whom were also stunned by what had happen — and all of whom, like TB, regretted that they hadn't spent more time through the years staying in touch.
TigerBlog has his surgery for his own melanoma this coming Monday. It was only caught because he regularly makes trips to the dermatologist, something that he's been urging everyone he sees to do.
Sadly, that warning comes too late for Chuck Sullivan.
TB sends his condolences to Chuck's wife Renee and his sons Orry and Owen. It's of little comfort now for them to know just how many people loved Chuck Sullivan and are deeply mourning his passing.
TigerBlog is just one of those people.
He wants to pick up his phone and reach out to Chuck, thank him again for all he did for him all those years ago (something he is very glad he did many times in the decades since) and apologize for not being better at having stayed in touch.
He knows he can't though. It's horrible, tragic news.
A wonderful man has been taken decades before his time.
