As a kid, my heroes were always the wide receivers. Those guys that ran across the middle and made the circus catches in traffic. Or, those guys that just could flat out run and could beat just about anyone deep. I loved the guys with the great hands, or the great speed. Guys like Bob Hays, or Lance Alworth, or Lance Rentzel were my heroes. I also liked guys like Cotton Speyrer, and Johnny Rodgers. They were game breakers that could change the outcome of a game in the blink of an eye.
I wanted to be a wide receiver when I grew up. When I had gotten a little older, guys like Kirk Gibson caught my eye. These were the guys I really wanted to be, not some quarterback.
Quarterbacks get all the glory, but without the offensive line, running backs and wide receivers, the quarterback can only do so much. I was taught as a young kid that when the ball is in the air, as a receiver, it’s all yours. The same is true of a defensive back. The ball is all yours. Go and get it.
Terry Beasley was one such receiver. It was said that Beasley could run the 40 yard dash in the 4.2s. I don’t know if that can be verified, but I would imagine back in that day and age that the 4.2 range was hand held. Supposedly, you add .24 to a hand held time which still places Beasley in the 4.4s which is still flying. Teammates say he could stand flat footed and jump over a Volkswagen. It was also said that he preferred track to football and he thought he had a legitimate shot at making the Olympics as a sprinter. But, I am unable to locate any track times.
Terry Beasley was a bonafide deep threat any way you want to slice it. There weren’t a lot of guys running those kinds of times back in this time period and especially in the SEC.
In the same recruiting class as Beasley was a quarterback that would be very well known, but a large part of his success would also be because of his speedy teammate.
Beasley grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and attended Lee High School. As all southern schools named Lee are, it took its name from the famous Rebel General Robert E Lee.
Lee has a strong football reputation and has won 7 state championships, although they won zero while Terry Beasley played there. The recruits that Lee has produced have gone to Auburn, or Alabama, about equally.
The same is true about Birmingham which is located much closer to Tuscaloosa than to Auburn. Many think that Birmingham is a Crimson Tide town, but they have also produced many Auburn players over the years.
The quarterback attended John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, Alabama.
I don’t know why the quarterback, Pat Sullivan, decided on Auburn instead of Alabama. Hey, I was 8 years old when he signed with Auburn, so give me a break, would you?
Sullivan and his teammate at John Carroll, wide receiver Dick Schmalz, signed with Auburn and
were going to tear it up there as something of a package deal. Auburn was coached by their own legend, Ralph Shug Jordan.
Shug Jordan coached at Auburn for 25 years and posted
Both the quarterback, Sullivan, and the speedy receiver, Beasley, moved right into the starting lineups as sophomores in 1969. Sullivan was the team leader from day one and led the 1969 version of the Auburn Tigers to an 8-3 record.
The Tigers had started the season ranked 20th and they absolutely clubbed Wake Forest, 57-0. Now ranked 17th, the flow changed directions really quickly when they traveled up to Tennessee. The 19th ranked Vols just hammered the Tigers like a hapless school boy, 19-45. It happens.
Auburn fell completely out of the polls, but then they just destroyed Kentucky and Clemson by a combined score of 95-3. Auburn was then the 15th ranked team in the country and they barely survived a bad Georgia Tech team, 17-14.
The 14th ranked Auburn Tigers traveled to LSU to face the 9th ranked Tigers and barely lost by a single point, 20-21.
With Pat Sullivan at quarterback, this was a dangerous Auburn Tiger team and after their LSU loss, they hosted the 7th ranked Florida Gators and just cold cocked them, 38-12.
They scored 52 while beating Mississippi State and then they beat 16th ranked Georgia, 16-3.
For the times, the Iron Bowl was a blast. With time running out, Auburn had a 42-26 led over their hated rivals the Crimson Tide of Alabama. Auburn punter, Connie Frederick, all on his own decided to go for it on 4th down. He was standing on his own goal line and showing surprising speed and athletic ability, Frederick ran the ball 100 yards for a touchdown. Although he will only get credit for an 84 yard touchdown run, he did actually take it an even 100 and just almost blew past people.
Alabama fans fumed at Auburn coach Shug Jordan, but it was all the punter’s idea, it’s said.
The 8-2 Tigers earned a Bluebonnet Bowl game berth in Houston which was a home game for the University of Houston Cougars who would be their opponents in the game. People didn’t know much about the Houston Cougars back then and they just destroyed the Tigers. Auburn was crunched 7-36.
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Sullivan threw for 1,686 yards and 16 touchdowns.
In spite of returning stars Sullivan and Beasley and a successful 8-3 record in 1969, the Tigers were unranked going into 1970. That turned out to be a mistake, because they were really good.
The unranked Auburn Tigers beat Southern Miss in their opening game fairly easily and then they beat 17th ranked Tennessee, 36-23. That would turn out to be Tennessee’s only loss for the season. The Tigers were then ranked 12th and they beat Kentucky, Clemson and 16th ranked Georgia Tech. But, then, they lost to 14th ranked LSU at home, 9-17.
They took their pain out on Florida the following week, whipping the Gators, 63-14. After obliterating Mississippi State, 56-0, Auburn again lost and this time it was to the Georgia Bulldogs, 17-31.
Chances are, and I would not argue at all, Auburn had their eyes focused on the Iron Bowl game against Alabama and were not thinking of the Georgia Bulldogs which was a huge mistake. However, they came through in the Iron Bowl and beat Alabama again, 33-28, to finish up their season with a nice 8-2 record.
The Gator Bowl was an interesting game in the 1970 season. It featured two of the college game’s best quarterbacks in Pat Sullivan and Archie Manning. In something of an unusual matchup, the Gator Bowl picked Auburn to play Ole Miss. Auburn came in with their 8-2 record and the Rebels were 7-3 behind senior quarterback Manning.
Archie Manning was an incredible quarterback and at the time, he was the best these young eyes had ever seen.
The game was everything it was expected to be with Auburn coming away with an exciting 35-28 victory.
Sullivan was nothing less than spectacular in 1970 throwing for over 2,500 yards and 17 touchdowns. Helping Sullivan’s passing totals was our guy Terry Beasley who caught 52 passes for 1,051 yards
and 17 touchdowns. Those were pretty impressive numbers for 1970 with Beasley using that speed to average over 20 yards per catch.
With the return of now senior quarterback Pat Sullivan and wide receiver Terry Beasley among others, the Tigers started 1971 season ranked 7th in the polls. They clubbed a miserable Chattanooga team, 60-7 which dropped them to 5th in the nation.
Auburn went on a roll, winning their first 9 games, but only 2 ranked opponents and they stayed at 5th most of the season. At 9-0, the 5th ranked Tigers marched confidently into the Iron Bowl against the 3rd ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and promptly got destroyed, 7-31. Alabama’s new Wishbone offense just ran all over them.
Quarterback Pat Sullivan won the highly coveted Heisman Trophy and led the Tigers into the Sugar Bowl against 3rd ranked Oklahoma. Another Wishbone team ran all over the Tigers and the Sooners had more speed than Alabama winning 22-40.
Heisman winner Sullivan threw for over 2,200 yards with 21 touchdown passes.
His top target, Terry Beasley hauled in 61 receptions which were good for 963 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Beasley was one of the great Auburn receivers of all time and still holds 9 Auburn receiving records. His 2,507 total receiving yards are still a record as are his 30 touchdown receptions.
The San Francisco 49ers picked Beasley in the first round of the 1972 NFL Draft. He hated the city from the beginning because of the lack of morals. His NFL career was a major disappointment, but mostly because of the injuries. It’s said that Beasley has had over 50 concussions in his career starting during his playing days at Auburn.
Since leaving the game of football after his third year in the NFL, Beasley has had way more than his share of health problems. That is putting it mildly.
The quarterback, Pat Sullivan, lasted until the second round. He was listed as 6 foot tall, and he was probably shorter. He could hum that football, but he was just not the size that the NFL craves and he didn’t play much. He lasted four seasons with the Falcons and another two with the Washington Redskins.
After football, Sullivan got into coaching and had a 71-85-1 all time record at TCU and Samford.
Sullivan has had more than his fair share of health problems as well.
Sullivan to Beasley was the most deadly passing combination in the history of Auburn football and their memories will live on forever from both their fans and opponents.