Robert Sullivan (born c. 1937) is an American former college football coach. He was the head football coach for Carleton College from 1979 to 2000.

Sullivan played college football for Saint John's for his freshman and sophomore year.^[1]

As a junior at Saint John's in 1957, Sullivan was told by coach John Gagliardi that he would be better off as a coach rather than a player, so he helped coach the freshman football team.^[1] As a senior in 1958, he was the head freshman coach.^[1] In 1959, he began his high school coaching career as the head football coach for Hill High School.^[2] He led the school to two state championships and were runner-ups four times. After eleven seasons, in 1970 he became the head football coach for Cooper High School.^[2] He ended his tenure with Cooper winning twenty of his last 23 games. In 1979, he was hired as the head football coach for Carleton.^[3][4][5][6] In 22 seasons as head coach he led the school to a 101–114 record. In 1979 he led the team to a Midwest Conference (MWC) Blue Division title.^[7][8] In 1992, he had his best season as he finished the year going 9–2 and won the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) alongside a trip to the NCAA Division III playoffs.^[2] He resigned following the 2000 season.^[9][10] From 2001 to 2018 he served as a volunteer assistant coach under his son for Northfield High School.^[11]

In 2002, Sullivan was inducted into the Carleton 'C' Club.^[12]

In 2022, Carleton's football field was renamed in Sullivan's honor to Bob Sullivan Field.^[11][13][14]

• Carleton profile