Pilot Hall of Fame: Rob Cunningham -- Newport Harbor

Richard Dunn

Even though Newport Harbor High had been around since 1930, the

school didn’t win any CIF Southern Section championships until the 1960s.

And, like the first of anything, winning the school’s first CIF title

in boys tennis in the spring of 1967 was extra sweet for then-freshman

Rob Cunningham, who grew up with a bunch of Lido Isle tennis hounds.

“Our tennis team was the first team to win CIF, then, real soon, water

polo was right behind us,” Cunningham said, referring to the Sailors’

boys water polo championship in the fall of ‘67, its first of 11 CIF

titles under Coach Bill Barnett.

Known as Robbie throughout his early years, Cunningham felt fortunate

to letter on Coach Wayne Horowitz’s ’67 tennis team, which featured Jim

Ogle and defeated Santa Monica in the CIF Finals, ending the Vikings’

then-unprecedented streak of five straight CIF titles.

“It was tough lettering my freshman year,” said Cunningham, who became

one of the most decorated players in Newport Harbor and Orange Coast

College history, before earning a tennis scholarship to the University of

Arizona.

As a senior, Cunningham captured the CIF doubles championship with

teammate Glenn Cripe in 1970 -- still Newport Harbor’s only CIF doubles

title.

Cunningham, Cripe and Bob Ogle were the keys to the Sailors’ second

CIF team title in ‘70, after two years of playing bridesmaid to Rolling

Hills. Coach Pat Wilson’s Sailors remained a CIF power through 1974.

Cunningham and Cripe also won the 1970 doubles title at the Ojai Valley

Tennis Tournament.

After Newport Harbor, Cunningham played one season at OCC and

dominated the community college men’s tennis scene, winning every title

possible, including the state singles championship.

Cunningham, the South Coast Conference and Southern California singles

champion in 1971, also claimed another Ojai doubles title that year with

Art Rosetti.

Cunningham, who played No. 3 singles for Coach Maurice Gerard’s

Pirates, behind Rosetti and Mike Caro, beat his teammates in the Southern

California final in San Diego (Caro) and state final in Northern

California (Rosetti).

“I guess I must have come on at the end of the year,” said Cunningham,

the only Orange Coast tennis player ever to be voted OCC Male Athlete of

the Year (‘71).

At Arizona, Cunningham and his brother, Lawrie, reached the NCAA Round

of 16 in doubles. Lawrie Cunningham, a Vietnam veteran, was awarded a

tennis scholarship to Arizona after his term in the U.S. Navy.

“We had an opening there at Arizona and I convinced the coaches that

my brother could play,” Rob Cunningham said. “We played No. 2 doubles and

never lost a match in the (Western Athletic Conference).”

The big-serving Cunningham, who also never lost a singles match in the

WAC in three years, enjoyed a post-collegiate tournament at the 1974

Adoption Guild in Newport Beach, winning the men’s open doubles title

with his brother.

Four years later, he won the Adoption Guild mixed open title with

Betty Ann Stuart.

Born in Whittier in 1951, Cunningham and his family moved to Lido Isle

in ’53.

“For my brother and I, growing up on Lido Isle in the ‘50s was like

Tom Sawyer’s Island,” he said. “Linda Isle was just a sandbar. We’d motor

on over to the sandbar and hunt lizards in our sabots.”

These days, Cunningham, his brother and his sister, Sue, operate the

Newport Beach-based family business.

Cunningham’s company, DL Cunningham, Inc., supplies plants and

materials to golf courses, community developments and model homes.

Recently, the company supplied trees and shrubs to the golf course at

Shady Canyon.

Cunningham, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

lives in Laguna Niguel with his wife, Barbara, and three children: Evan,

his 17-year-old son and Dana Hills tennis player, and daughters Sara, 14,

and Tessa, 11.