Bubba Cunningham

Lawrence R. "Bubba" Cunningham is an American college athletics administrator. He was named athletic director for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011.^[1] He was previously athletic director for Ball State University from 2002 to 2005 and for the University of Tulsa from 2005 to 2011.

Early life and education[]

Lawrence R. Cunningham was born in Flint, Michigan and was later raised in Naples, Florida. He attended the University of Notre Dame, playing golf there and getting his bachelor and masters degrees in 1984 and 1988, respectively. Cunningham also began his career as an athletic director at Notre Dame, being their associate athletics director from 1995-2002. ^[2]

Athletic Director[]

Ball State[]

Cunningham was for the first time made athletics director at Ball State in 2002. His biggest accomplishment at Ball State was a $12 million campaign to renovate their football stadium.^[3]

Tulsa[]

Cunningham accepted his second athletics director job at Tulsa in 2005. He was Tulsa's athletic director during their transition to Conference USA. While being the athletics director, Tulsa won 34 league championships in various sports, more than any other school in his tenure. He was honored as the 2008-09 FBS Central Region Athletics Director of the Year, an award given by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.^[4]

North Carolina[]

On November 14, 2011, Cunningham accepted his current athletics director job at North Carolina. He has enjoyed a successful tenure as the athletics director, being awarded the 2019-20 AD of the Year Award from The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and being appointed to various prestigious committees. ^[5]

Personal life[]

Cunningham is married to Tina Cunningham, and they have four grown children: Matthew, Michael, John and Sarah. ^[6]

References[]

External links[]

• North Carolina profile