Lucas: A Lifetime Tar Heel

By Adam Lucas

In 15 years as Carolina's athletic director, Bubba Cunningham was part of some of the biggest events in college sports. He saw 24 Tar Heel national champions, sold-out football games in front of nationally televised audiences and some of the best college athletes in the world on the biggest stages in sports.

Cunningham is preparing to relinquish the athletic director's chair in the upcoming days. As he's pondered his decade and a half in the role, he's consistently remembered a 2018 afternoon in Chapel Hill that wasn't televised, was lightly attended, and would barely draw a footnote in any recitation of Cunningham's career achievements.

On that February Sunday, Ron Miller's Tar Heel program won the first ACC women's fencing title in league history. It was Miller's 51^st year as Carolina's head coach, and it was a shining example of everything Cunningham has enjoyed about his 15-year tenure.

Cunningham's signature phrase has been the athletic department's mission statement since the first strategic plan established under his direction: "We educate and inspire through athletics."

"Sometimes inspiration comes in moments we wait a lifetime to see," he says. "Ron Miller had 51 years of commitment and showing up and believing in North Carolina. There may not have been many fans in the building when we won that ACC championship, but the emotion in Carmichael that day was incredible. It's one of the most inspiring moments I've ever experienced in athletics. Persistence matters. Commitment matters. Belief matters."

As the athletics landscape changes around him, Cunningham's belief in the importance of college sports has never wavered. Sure, he spends more time than he used to on revenue generation and payment for student-athletes and media rights.

But his face still lights up when he talks about the joy of eating a meal at the Blue Zone training table while surrounded by current student-athletes. He is still delighted by the opportunity to dress up and gather the entire department at the annual Rammy awards.

And in a time when the discussion of the Carolina family has been a frequent topic, Cunningham—who had no background at all in Chapel Hill and now seems as entrenched as Rameses, one of many campus luminaries who has enjoyed a trademark forehead selfie with the athletic director—has relished being the ultimate Tar Heel. Conversations with him are peppered with references to Carolina luminaries he's worked with and befriended. "You know," he might mention, "Anson (Dorrrance) always says life is a never-ending ascension."

Despite one of the most impressive contact lists in college sports, Cunningham still seems just as impressed by a chat with Chloe Humphrey as he does an audience with any of the Tar Heels' elite alumni. "I'm not even really sure why I was invited," Cunningham said with a conspiratorial grin during a graduation weekend dinner that featured several UNC luminaries. Even after 15 years, he doesn't see himself in that same light. He's too busy trying to make the next day a little more impactful for Carolina's 750 student-athletes.

"My very first job in higher education was in the Notre Dame alumni association," he says. "And my boss told me, 'Alumni don't interrupt our business. They are our business. And in my job now, students don't interrupt our business. They are our business. Everything we do is for the good of the student."

There have been hurdles. Cunningham arrived and immediately had to deal with an NCAA investigation. Relationships with athletic department figures have consistently appeared seamless—a testament to his people skills—but have often required behind the scenes maintenance and compromise. He navigated the department through a pandemic.  The years since COVID-19 have been rife with change and the world of college sports evolves on a daily basis.

And yet he seems as captivated by being a Tar Heel as he did in his very first night on the job, when he compared Carolina athletics to some of the biggest brands in the world and expressed excitement about his opportunity to be a custodian for that legacy.

"The passion for this place permeates the people who are here," he said in a recent Carolina Insider interview. "When you're here, you get hooked and you want to stay here. It's a great place to work. It's a great place to live. There are so many good things about it, and that's why we win at a much higher rate than we invest. We invest a lot—we're a $200 million budget and that's a lot for 28 teams, although it's not nearly what our competitors are doing. But we have that passion and that feeling and sense of duty for everyone to do everything they can to make this place better."

Cunningham wants to continue to bring that passion for the place to his next role—working with chancellor Lee Roberts on a variety of projects that include Carolina North (fitting for someone who has overseen dramatic facility upgrades throughout the department). He'll have a teaching role in the graduate sports administration program and possibly a similar slot in the Kenan-Flagler Business School. And he wants to be involved with making sure Carolina has a leadership role in the continuing national conversation about the evolving structure and oversight of college sports.

That's a full plate for someone who has already undertaken such high-profile jobs as chairman of the NCAA men's basketball tournament selection committee and a role on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Board of Directors. Those are some of the most prestigious jobs in the world of sports.

But not any more meaningful than a fencing championship in front of Cunningham, Larry Gallo…and not very many others.

"You don't get into this business so you can figure out media rights," he says. "You get into this business so you can create opportunities for someone to do something they didn't think they could do."

University of North Carolina Athletics

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