Northeastern University Athletics

Carolyn Sullivan, a native of Cambridge and currently living in Foxboro, Mass., has been elected to the Northeastern University Varsity Club Hall of Fame for excellence in the sport of ice hockey. Sullivan, Class of 1985, will be inducted along with four others in formal ceremonies at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena in Boston, Mass. on Thursday, April 14.

Sullivan was the first woman to join Northeastern hockey’s “Century Club” with 148 points over her four-year collegiate career. She scored 87 goals in 88 career games.

Sullivan boasts three varsity letters in both softball and field hockey from Arlington High School. As a sophomore she was named to the All-Greater Boston League softball team; in field hockey, she earned All-League honors in both her junior and senior years. She captained both teams her senior year. Sullivan also became the first girl to play on the boys’ ice hockey team, as well as the first to play in the Greater Boston League, when she made the boys’ freshman team in 1977. She remains the only field hockey goalie in school history to score a goal.

Sullivan came to Northeastern with the strongest credentials the game could offer. As a nine year-old in 1971 she joined the Massport Jets, a select all-girls team founded in East Boston the previous year. She would be honored as the team’s Rookie of the Year that season, and in 1977 earned the Jets’ Seventh Player Award. Sullivan led the Jets to the Women’s National Ice Hockey Championship every year from 1971-1978. The team still holds the women’s record for most consecutive games without a loss, going unbeaten with just two ties over an astonishing 214 games from 1971-1977. In 1988 Sullivan, as a member of the Jets, was inducted into the New England Sports Museum.

The transition from the Jets to college hockey was seamless, and Sullivan would go from prep star to true pioneer of collegiate women’s hockey. As a freshman during the 1980-81 season Sullivan led the Huskies with 41 points, and from there her career took off. In 1983 her 59 points were second in the nation, and she earned E.C.A.C. honors her freshman, junior and senior seasons. Sullivan twice captained the Huskies in 1982-83 and 1983-84. As a senior she led the team to its third Beanpot championship, in which the Huskies outscored Boston Univserity and Harvard by a combined 21-0. She ended her collegiate career as Northeastern’s single-season and career leader in points, goals and assists.

Since matriculation Sullivan has not strayed from the Husky community. She graduated in 1985 with a degree in accounting and earned a Masters in Business Administration in 2001. For 15 years she worked as an accountant in the Northeastern Finance Office. For the last ten years she has worked as the Treasury Manager in the Office of the Senior VP of Finance and Administration.

Sullivan currently resides in Foxboro, Massachusetts.