(May 6, 1935 – November 8, 2006) Dewey Sullivan coached football at Dayton High School from 1965 to 2006, compiling a record of 352-84-2. He was a positive influence on hundreds of young boys during his four decades at Dayton, and an equally influential icon to his fellow coaches. During his coaching career, Dayton teams won five state titles and made a record twenty-five straight football playoff appearances. Sullivan won 24 Coach of the Year awards while at Dayton. In 2001 he was named the National High School Coach of the Year the National Association of Interscholastic Coaches. As of 2006 Dewey Sullivan is the winningest high school football coach in Oregon history. He is among the 10 winningest high school coaches in the nation and among the top-20 all time.
Sullivan was born in Geary, Oklahoma, on May 6, 1935, and was a graduate of Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado in 1959. He came to Dayton in 1965, to teach and coach football. Dewey’s teams played a conservative brand of football that took on their coach’s no-nonsense personality. Sullivan’s fullhouse-T offense had but a handful of plays, but when executed to his satisfaction, it made the Dayton Pirates almost unstoppable.
Dewey Sullivan passed away on November 8, 2006.