This Day in Four Rivers History: The Sullivan Blackface Incident

Ten years ago, the young women of Sullivan High School assembled on their football field for the highly controversial 2014 powderpuff game. In this case, specifically, we are referring to the senior girls, who ran onto the gridiron in full blackface. And, according to a 2014 Riverfront Times article, this was the principal’s reaction:

“‘Oh, they don’t mean anything by it. Just let it go. No one thinks anything of it.”

– Jennifer Schmidt, former Sullivan High School principal

Yeah. Not good.

Allegedly, they were only doing this to “intimidate the underclassmen.” Don’t get me wrong, I love bullying freshmen, but blackface isn’t the way to do it. And yes, I know this happened 10 years ago, and that nobody currently at Sullivan was involved, but to commemorate SULLY WEEK!!!!, I have decided to bring it up anyway.

According to that same article, none of the students involved were punished. This is just the icing on the cake of stupidity that the Eagles have baked. A cake whose flavor has not been forgotten, despite having been baked a decade ago.

Pacific returns to the Nest Friday night at 7PM. HBS will be covering Sullivan Week in the days leading up to the game. Stay tuned.

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