Episode 9: Bubba Cunningham, Director of Athletics, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

The X Factor: The Human Performance & Leadership Podcast with Dr. Stephen Long

Since Lawrence R. (Bubba) Cunningham officially began his duties as Carolina’s director of athletics on November 14, 2011, UNC has graduated over 1000 student-athletes while consistently competing for championships in an array of different sports – exciting, motivating and influencing along the way. Under Cunningham’s leadership, the athletic department has accomplished numerous academic and athletic achievements:
- The Tar Heels have won 13 national titles and made an additional 12 runner-up finishes.
More than 2,700 student-athletes have made the ACC Academic Honor Roll -- which requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better for the year – each of the past six years.
- More than 40 student-athletes have been named to Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
- Ten student-athletes have been NCAA Elite 90 recipients.
- Carolina’s APR has steadily risen, and 15 teams scored a perfect 1000 in 2017-18. In 2018-19, nine teams received APR recognition, which marks the third consecutive year UNC has won the most recognition awards among public schools in the ACC and a first-place tie for the most teams honored among public schools in the Power 5 conferences.
- The Tar Heels finished in the top 10 of the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup six times.
-And student-athletes have logged more than 40,000 hours of community service, helping at hospitals and local schools, and partnering with a variety of local and national groups.
Among Carolina’s many achievements during his tenure are a partnership with Disney to enhance customer service and organizational practices; the development of the Student-Athlete Academic Initiative Working Group; a compliance review by an outside firm; a student-athlete degree completion program called Complete Carolina; a master plan for UNC’s athletic facilities; and the creation of the RAMMYs -- an innovative end-of-the-year awards show popular with Carolina’s student-athletes and staff.
Cunningham’s leadership has also extended outside of Chapel Hill. In 2020, he was named to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, and he also earned the 2019-20 AD of the Year Award from The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA). In 2018 he accepted an invitation to serve on the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Advisory Council. He is the past president of NACDA and sits on the board of LEAD1, an association representing the ADs from the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools. He is in his eighth year on the ACC Television Committee, which helped lead the launch of the ACC Network in the fall of 2019. He also is currently serving on the ACC Autonomy Committee and has served on numerous NCAA committees over the last two decades.
Cunningham, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from Notre Dame in 1984 and 1988, respectively, worked in his alma mater’s athletics department from 1988-2002. A former member of the Irish golf team (1982-83), Cunningham served as Notre Dame’s Associate Athletics Director for finance and facilities from 1995-2000 and was the Associate Director of Athletics for external affairs from 2000-02.