Friends Cue Up To Remember ‘Sully’ Tourney Encompassing 22 Bars Recalls ‘Sweetest, Nicest Guy’ Who Died In Car Crash

Silver Valley pool players roamed from bar to bar Saturday, reminiscing about an old friend and trying to win $1,000.

The first Pat Sullivan Memorial Three-Ball Scramble started Saturday and continues today.

The event commemorates the life of 34-year-old Patrick “Sully” Sullivan, who was killed in June in a car accident.

Some 22 bars, stretching from Rose Lake to Prichard, participated. Competitors have to visit every bar over the two days and hit in two sets of three balls. The lowest cumulative score will win. Anyone who sinks three balls with one shot qualifies for a special $550 “Ace” prize.

“It’s nice that people thought so much of Pat,” said Sullivan’s mother, Judy Sullivan, as she took her shots at the Sunshine Inn in Kellogg. She wore her son’s black Budweiser racing hat for luck.

“I thought it’d help, but it ain’t helping at all,” she said, laughing. Most of her early scores were 6, the maximum number of shots allowed.

Sullivan moved to Cataldo with his family in June 1985 and quickly endeared himself to people throughout the valley. A self-employed carpet installer and tile layer, Sullivan also was an avid pool player, bowler, NASCAR fan and skier. He was described as a friend to everyone.

“Sully was the sweetest, nicest guy,” said Teresa Peterson, owner of the Wheel Bar in Smelterville. “He’d do anything for you.

“He was too young to die.”

Peterson remembered playing in a pool league with Sullivan. Her team placed near last, but Sullivan was ranked as one of the top players.

“Any individual sport, he excelled,” Judy Sullivan said. “Pool, bowling, skiing … ” At the Pine Creek Tavern in Pinehurst, a group of men wore shirts from the bowling league they competed in with Sullivan. The team once placed second in a national tournament in Las Vegas.

Jim Nickerson wandered into the Sunshine shortly after 11 a.m. He, like several others, described Sullivan as “one of my best friends.”

“I spent a lot of time with him. I miss him. This is a good cause,” he said.

The event came together due largely to the efforts of Roger McIntire, bar manager of the Sunshine. The more he talked up the event, the greater the number of bars that wanted to help.

“It was pretty much, let’s do something for Pat,” said Tom Chilcott, owner of the Inland Lounge in Kellogg.

But icy roads put a damper on the tournament, which originally expected 200 players. Early registrations came from as far as Missoula, Mont. But only about 50 or 60 players braved the snowy conditions Saturday.

Still, organizers hope to hold the tournament again next year, perhaps in the spring or summer.

“There will be some changes next year,” said McIntire.

“We’re not going to have it in the middle of the winter like this.”