Bubba Cunningham is a lifetime Tar Heel
After 15 years as Carolina’s athletic director, he’s about to take on a new role at the University.
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.
But one of his best memories is of a lightly attended, untelevised afternoon event in 2018, when Ron Miller’s Tar Heel program won the first ACC women’s fencing title in league history. The win, in Miller’s 51st year as Carolina’s head coach, was a shining example of everything Cunningham has enjoyed about his Carolina tenure.
“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.”
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.”
As the athletics landscape changes around him and he turns over the AD role over to Steve Newmark, Cunningham’s belief in the importance of college sports has never wavered.
“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. He navigated the department through a pandemic and a college sports world evolving daily.
And yet he seems as captivated by being a Tar Heel as ever.
“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.”
In his next role, Cunningham will work with Chancellor Lee H. 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 UNC 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 U.S. 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 a few fans.
“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.”
