by Steve Stowell

The September 17th edition of InsideLowell’s Daily Pulse Podcast featured an interview with Patrick Sullivan, the former General Manager of the New England Patriots and a member of the Sullivan family which not only founded New England’s football entry, but also has roots here in the Mill City.

The wide-ranging interview brought back memories of a 2021 social media post by the Lowell Historic Board involving the team’s origins and link to Lowell.

Originally known as the Boston Patriots, Boston business executive and Lowell native William “Billy” Sullivan and Lowell’s Sullivan Brother Printers, owned by Joseph Sullivan, were awarded the eighth and final franchise of the developing American Football League on November 16, 1959.

In the team’s early days, several preseason games were actually played in Lowell at the Lowell Stadium, later Cawley Stadium, including ones with the New York Titans (now Jets) in 1962 and Houston in 1963.

The most memorable of those was a 1964 preseason rookie game in Lowell, which featured a NY Jets rookie quarterback named Joe Namath. The game was part of an annual Lowell Sun Charities exhibition game series played at what’s now known as Cawley Stadium. It was Namath’s first ever professional football game, and it elicited a humorous exchange between Broadway Joe and Pat Sullivan, which Sullivan recounted on the Daily Pulse Podcast.