Retiring Dickson teacher guided Hollywood actors, was football voice.
Countless people who’ve set foot in Dickson County know Randy Sullivan.
Maybe it’s Sullivan’s nearly 40 years teaching. After all, former students and fellow educators continued to be impacted by Sullivan’s instruction. He was named the top teacher last year for the entire Dickson County Schools District.
Or, some may know Sullivan for his public address announcing at Dickson County High School football games the last two decades. Admitting he initially was “not a football guy,” Sullivan was drafted into the role and he’s been part of many memorable Cougar games.
Now, Sullivan, 62 who teaches English at Dickson County High, is retiring at the end of this school year from a career he describes as his dream job.
So, how did Sullivan, a Dickson County native raised by hard-working, factory worker parents who weren’t as arts-focused become a self-described “theater kid?” How did an outdoorsy teacher who looks forward to “bushhogging” in retirement come to revere the stage so much and affect the lives of many, including Dickson County native actor Anson Mount?
“A bunch of my friends were doing a play and I wanted an excuse to hang with them more,” said Mount recently about his high school teacher. “I auditioned for my first play and I have no doubt that I was terrible. Randy (Sullivan) saw in me an enthusiasm for the work that he wanted to nourish.”
For Sullivan, that passion for theater, too, started at Dickson County High School.
Opryland to high school theater
Sullivan’s freshman year he took speech, was part of his first play, and was a part of the school’s forensic team. Theater and public-speaking continued all through his high school years and continued at Austin Peay State University where he majored in theater.
After graduation, Sullivan worked at the Opryland theme park in Nashville for more than a year “building scenery and working shows backstage.”
In 1984 started teaching math at Dickson County High.
“I couldn’t get in the door in any county with speech, theater and English at the time,” said Sullivan about his two years instructing arithmetic.
By the fall of 1985, Sullivan was directing theater. Drama was a club, not a class, at the time.
That changed in 1988 when Sullivan convinced administrators that drama was needed as a class. Also, his wife, Glenda, also a Dickson County High teacher, had been working to restart the forensics, which team debate and speech competition. There was some crossover between the two groups with the spouses helping each other – though Sullivan said the school’s forensics program was Glenda’s “baby more than mine.”
“She was one of the best in the state,” Sullivan said.
‘Every kid…can find their niche’
Once Sullivan advanced the school’s theater program, he stayed more involved. Instructing student actors and organizing the shows took most of his spare time.
“I was in charge of set building, acting, rehearsals, everything,” Sullivan said.
There’s a saying among coaches, he said, that they do most teaching “after three o’clock”
“It’s certainly the same way with theater,” Sullivan said.
Students learn not only acting skills but also carpentry, painting, and managing people and deadlines.
“Every kid, I think, can find their niche somewhere in the drama club or in the theater program,” Sullivan said. “The goal was just to be there and let the kids find their way.”
Among those students was Mount who has now starred in a multi-season hit AMC show as well as played a lead protagonist in both a Marvel and Star Trek series.
“He really…he gave me a shot when maybe I didn’t deserve it,” Mount said. “If he had not done that I would not be where I am today. I wouldn’t be doing this. I would probably be some disgruntled attorney somewhere. I really have him to think for this path.”
Sullivan remembers the “Hell on Wheels” star being more of a natural from the start.
“(Mount) had a small role in his first show. By the time he was a senior, he was carrying the leads. He certainly grew a lot,” Sullivan said.
He credits Glenda with helping Mount. Glenda, who is now an assistant principal at White Bluff Elementary, guided the forensics team in which Mount competed in dramatics interpretation and attended the 1991 National Forensic League National Tournament his senior year.
“Glenda really worked with him closely with the one-on-one preparation for the speech and debate stuff,” Sullivan said.
Other Sullivan students have also gone on to gain national attention.
Sunita Mani, a 2004 Dickson County High School graduate, was in the hit Netflix series GLOW for three seasons as well as “Mr. Robot” and various other series. More recently, she had a lead part in the Amazon/Blumhouse horror movie, “Evil Eye.”
Sullivan said Mani was part of the forensics team and helped with plays but most of her high school arts energy was focused on Mrs. Amy’s Dance.
“I’ve had a lot of kids that have gone to be theater teachers, directors, or have gone into acting, at least as a hobby,” said Sullivan who was the school’s theater director for 23 years.
Voice of Cougars football
Sullivan took over Cougars football PA announcing in 2002. Previously, Richard Jones had the job for 30 years, from the year the school opened. But when his wife, Janie, took over as principal at Creek Wood, Jones wanted to spend his Friday nights in Charlotte.
“I was not a football guy, by the way. I was kind of scrawny. I was a baseball guy in school,” Sullivan said.
Nevertheless, Sullivan was asked. He accepted.
“I’ve been doing it ever since,” Sullivan said.
Once he settled in behind the mic, Sullivan was informed about an additional unforeseen challenge. Sullivan was also the Cougars’ stats guy.
“I didn’t know anything about football stats, so that was quite a learning curve,” Sullivan said.
The most exciting games, Sullivan said, have been the playoff games and the county rivalry game versus Creek Wood.
Sullivan described the events as “kind of like a county fair.”
This past season was his last announcing. But even after retiring from education, Sullivan said he might still help with building sets, “possibly as a hobby.” He only occasionally has helped with the theater program in recent years.
“The older I get, the more my truck wants to turn right out of the parking lot,” he said, laughing.
“My goal right now is to give it all I’ve got right now and be the best English teacher I can be,” Sullivan added.
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