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Gary Cunningham was named UC Santa Barbara's Athletic Director on August 3, 1995, bringing with him a well-earned reputation as one of the finest athletic administrators in the nation.
Now in his 13th year at UC Santa Barbara, Cunningham has done nothing to harm his reputation. His first 11 years were marked by numerous accomplishments, including major facility upgrades and additions that significantly improved departmental infrastructure.
In 2000, with Cunningham's vision as the impetus, the UCSB student body passed a fee referendum that funded the construction of a new facility devoted exclusively to intercollegiate athletics. The new facility, which opened during the spring of 2005, houses all of the offices for the school's coaches and athletic personnel as well as a weight room, athletic training room, student-service complex, Hall of Fame and several other amenities. Eight years ago, the UCSB Athletic Department opened the Gino Filippin/Investec Athletic Strength Center, the first true intercollegiate athletic weight facility in UCSB history. That facility remains a satellite facility for the department. In addition to the strength facility, Cunningham spearheaded the development of numerous improvements to the athletic portions of the Thunderdome, including the construction of new locker rooms, a media room and an athletic training facility. Harder Stadium, which houses UCSB's soccer programs, has become one of the premier sites for soccer on the west coast under Cunningham's watch. In addition, he has overseen numerous improvements in the baseball and softball stadiums.
In addition, under Cunningham's leadership, the UCSB athletics department, according to NCAA figures, graduated 80% of its athletes over the most recent tracking period. The 80% figure was the best in the Big West Conference, and it was also higher than the 70% recorded by UCSB as a whole.
Prior to his appointment at UCSB, Cunningham spent nine years as the Athletic Director at Fresno State University. During his tenure at Fresno State, his program experienced unprecedented growth and success, claiming 46 conference championships and setting season or single-game attendance records in six sports. Additionally, Cunningham oversaw the smooth transition of the Bulldog program from the Big West Conference to the Western Athletic Conference.
One of Cunningham's most impressive achievements while at Fresno State was the expansion, improvement and creation of athletic facilities. He oversaw a 10,000-seat expansion of the school's on-campus football stadium and in 1994 he announced a capital fund-raising campaign to enhance a number of the university's athletic venues, including the construction of a state-of-the-art softball facility, a women's locker room, a 10,000 square-foot weight room and a multi-purpose room and locker room for one of the school's gymnasiums. The softball stadium is still considered the finest in the nation.
In the spring of 2003, Cunningham was named the recipient of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics James J. Corbett Award, the highest honor for administrator in collegiate athletics. In June 2005, he became the first-ever recipient of the NCAA Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2006 the honor was renamed the Gary Cunningham NCAA Division I-AAA Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999, for his efforts on the national scene as part of numerous NCAA committees and on the international scene as the president of the USA-International University Sports Federation, Cunningham was selected by NACDA as the NCAA Division I AA/AAA Athletic Director of the Year. It was the first year in which the honor was awarded and only six were given out. In spring of 2001, he was named the winner of NACDA's NIT Award. In the spring of 2006, Cunningham was selected as the Carl Maddox Sports Management Award winner by the United States Sports Academy. In the summer of 2006, the Academy named him to its Board of Trustees.
Cunningham has also been a key player at the national level. He is the past chairman of the NCAA's Budget and Finance Committee. He is also the president of the USA-International University Sports Federation with his term running through August 1, 2012. Among other things, the USA-IUSF administers the World University Winter and Summer Games each year and Cunningham has led the United States delegations as Chef de Mission to the Winter Games in Italy (twice), Spain, Slovakia, South Korea, Poland and Austria and the Summer Games in Turkey, Italy, Spain, China, South Korea and Thailand.
In February 2005, NCAA President Myles Brand invited Cunningham to become a member of the College Basketball Partnership, a group formed to advocate men's college basketball. He remains a member. He is also currently Vice President of the NCAA Division I-AAA Executive Committee and he serves on several Big West Conference committees. He is, in fact, chair of the Championships Committee. Cunningham is a U.S. Sports Academy Trustee and a past president of the 2,300 member National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and he served two three-year terms as a member of the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee, which is faced each year with the task of selecting the field for the 65-team NCAA men's basketball tournament. He chaired the NCAA Division I Basketball Officiating Committee for both men and women, he has served as a member of the prestigious NCAA Committee on Committees, the Basketball Issues Committee, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics and the NACDA Finance and Management Committee. Cunningham has also served on the NACDA Preseason Football Games Committee.
Cunningham has been an athlete, coach and administrator at the collegiate level for many years. Prior to his time at Fresno State, he spent five years as the Athletic Director at the University of Wyoming and two years as the Athletic Director and Chair of Health & Physical Education at Western Oregon State College.
With his appointment at UC Santa Barbara, Cunningham returned to a University of California system that gave him his start in education and athletics. A member of the UCLA Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame since 2001, he began by attending UCLA as a student-athlete on the basketball team coached by the legendary John Wooden. Ultimately, Cunningham entered the coaching field, becoming the Bruins' freshman coach in 1965, posting an overall record of 101 wins and 15 losses. In 1967, he became Wooden's assistant coach, a position he held until 1975. During the ten-year span from 1965 through 1975, the Bruin dynasty won eight NCAA Championships.
After Wooden's retirement in 1975, Cunningham spent two years as the Executive Director of UCLA's Alumni Association. In 1977, he returned to the bench as the head coach of the Bruins, a position he held for two seasons, posting a 50-8 record. He was selected Pacific 8 and West Coast Coach of the Year following the 1978-79 season and his winning percentage of .862 remains a Bruin record. Following the 1978-79 season he gave up coaching and began his career in athletic administration as he was named Athletic Director at Western Oregon State.
Cunningham received his B.S. degree in physical education, his master's in physical education and his doctorate in education, all from UCLA.
