By Jarrid Denney
Randall Cunningham couldn’t stop looking at his phone Friday afternoon.
His daughter, Vashti, is just days removed from her high school graduation, and was less than 24 hours away from her debut at Hayward Field, where she will compete in the high jump Saturday at the Prefontaine Classic. At just 18 years old, Vashti sprang onto the world stage with a victory at the IAAF World Indoor Track and Field Championships in March, and her career trajectory has been skyrocketing ever since.
But right then, the former All-Pro NFL quarterback was concerned with the status of his other child — Randall Jr., a freshman jumper at USC who is competing at the NCAA West Preliminary Championships in Lawrence, Kansas.
“He’s supposed to be jumping and they moved it indoors because of the tornadoes in Kansas,” Randall Sr. said. “I’m trying to figure out ‘Are they all right? Are they going?’”
Friday was the most hectic day so far in a year that has been full of hectic, successful days for the Cunninghams. Vashti signed a pro contract with Nike in March and chose to forgo a collegiate career, and Randall Sr. has continued working as her full-time coach. Meanwhile, Randall Jr., during his freshman season with the Trojans, has experienced a breakout year in his own right.
Randall Jr. owns an outdoor season-best jump of 7 feet, 3 ¼ inches, and at an indoor meet in January, he cleared 7-5, good for the fifth-best mark by an American this year.
He has a strong chance of nabbing one of the 24 qualifying slots for U.S. Olympic Trials, meaning there would be a Cunningham kid on both high jump runways this July. There was one point where Vashti thought they would also be competing for the same school.
“I really loved USC because my brother was there,” she said. “It was very comfortable there, and I really knew the team well.”
Instead, Vashti chose to sign a contract that Randall Sr. called “very lucrative” at the time of the signing while choosing to not disclose the details. After her victory at indoor worlds, Vashti was in place to collect a $40,000 prize, but could not take her winnings without surrendering her amateur eligibility.
“I decided that I really wanted to go pro after world indoors,” Vashti said. “I was talking to USC and Georgia a lot; I was talking to Oregon a lot. But it kinda just seemed like it fit me better to just go ahead and turn pro, seeing that I was doing well already, instead of going down to a different level or risking my safety in college.”
Vashti and Randall Jr. have been competitive with each other since grade school, and Vashti recalls one occasion when she insisted that she could beat her brother in a foot race. Her mother put a prize on the line and told them to settle it in the backyard.
“She was like, $100 to whoever wins,” Vashti said. “He ended up beating me because I fell, but I still think I could have beat him.”
As it turns out, Vashti was the first of the two to turn her talents into a full time, money-making profession, and that now means Randall Sr. is traveling with her full time. He made the decision early on that he would oversee her training, while Randall Jr. worked exclusively under USC jumps coach Sheldon Blockburger.
“Sheldon’s there; I need to be here for her,” Randall Sr. said. “It’s really a professional decision.”
Vashti hopes to watch Randall Jr. jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June if he qualifies, and after that it is possible that the next meet on each of their lists could be the U.S. Olympic Trials. For the first time in months, Randall Sr. would finally have the luxury of watching both his kids compete on the same day.
But until that point, one of the most successful track and field families in the world will have plenty of more days like this.
“It’s like this every day,” said Stacy Julian, who works as Randall Sr.’s assistant and serves as the youth pastor at the Remnant Ministries, the church that Randall. Sr. leads in Las Vegas. “(Vashti) is a professional now and knows that she just has to do what she has to do.”
