The UNLV track & field team announced a high-profile addition to its staff just before the 2023-24 indoor season as former Rebel and NFL star and College Football Hall of Famer Randall Cunningham will join the staff as an assistant coach for jumps.
Outside of his record-setting collegiate and professional football career, Cunningham has recently served as coach of high-caliber athletes in the track & field realm. He has coached with the Nevada Gazelles Track Club in Las Vegas and holds coaching experiences at two different Olympic Games and seven different World Championships.
In his first academic year coaching the Rebels, Cunningham coached his daughter, Grace, to a Mountain West gold medal at the conference's indoor championships in the high jump. Grace would shine at the championships with a new personal-best height of 1.80m (5-10.75), becoming the first UNLV student-athlete to medal in the event since he 2017 season. Randall would help her reach that same height during the outdoor season, being one of the top competitors in the region and earning a spot at the NCAA West Regional Championships.
Cunningham coached his daughter, Vashti, who would go on to set the national high school record in the high jump in 2015. She won the U.S. Junior National Championships later that year, she also won the gold medal in Edmonton at the Pan American Junior Championships. Vashti signed with Nike in 2016 as a professional before winning the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland, a silver medal at the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham and a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.
He also coached his son, Randall Cunningham II, to an incredibly successful high jump career, which included being named the 2013 Nevada Track & Field Gatorade Athlete of the Year. He won three different Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) high jump titles in high school, the 2012 National AAU Junior Olympic Games high jump and set the Junior Olympic record. He attended USC where he became a two-time NCAA Champion and five-time NCAA All-American for the Trojans.
After being named a two-time All-American at UNLV as a quarterback and punter in 1983 and 1984, Cunningham, who is the only football player in school history with his jersey number retired, was the first quarterback selected in the 1985 NFL Draft by Philadelphia. After a storied career with the Eagles, he joined the Minnesota Vikings in 1995 and helped the franchise set the NFL record for most regular season points scored as he was named the NFL Player of the Year. He also spent time with the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens before retiring in 2002. Cunningham became the first UNLV player inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2016 and served as the team chaplain for the Las Vegas Raiders from 2020 to 2022.
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