Newly hired Air Force men’s basketball head coach Joe Crispin has begun to fill out his staff, announcing Carson Cunningham as his first staff addition as associate head coach. Cunningham comes to the Academy from Missouri State.
“I have had the pleasure of knowing Carson for almost 30 years,” Crispin said. “We competed against each other, with each other, and now have the the pleasure of coaching together. He loves the game, loves others, and is all-in on the mission of the Academy. We are happy to welcome him, his wife Christy, and the entire Cunningham family to Colorado Springs.”
With two decades of coaching experience, including 15 as a head coach, Cunningham spent the previous two seasons, from 2024-26, at Missouri State as an assistant. Prior to his stint at Missouri State, he spent one season on the coaching staff at Army West Point in 2023-24.
Cunningham spent 10 seasons as a collegiate head coach, most recently with Incarnate Word from 2018-23. He was the head coach at Carroll College in Montana from 2013-18 and led them to two NAIA Final Eight appearances.
With an overarching coaching philosophy of competing hard, studying and serving, Cunningham’s took over at UIW after it had won three Div. I games. His teams at UIW were consistently among the nation’s top academic programs, earning the NABC Honors Court distinction multiple times, while boasting prolific national rankings in shooting categories.
In season one, he guided the Cardinals to the top free throw percentage in Div. I (.810). In Cunningham’s second season (2019-20), Keaston Willis earned Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, a first in program history. In year three (2020-21), UIW turned in a 3.37 Fall GPA and qualified six players for Academic All-Conference consideration and qualified for the conference tournament. In Cunningham’s final season, UIW again made the conference tournament and boasted three academic all-conference players.
Prior to his arrival at Carroll College, the program had only two wins the previous season. Five years later, his team was enjoying its third-straight appearance in the NAIA Division I national tournament. In five years with the Saints, Cunningham’s teams were a combined 107-52 (.673) overall, reaching the 100-win plateau in just 150 games. His teams enjoyed four consecutive winning seasons, won two Frontier Conference regular season titles, two conference tournament titles, three NAIA National Tournament berths and a pair of Final Eight trips.
Cunningham’s playing experience includes earning Freshman All-America status at Oregon State in 1997 before helping lead Purdue to the NCAA Sweet 16 twice and the Elite Eight once, from 1998 to 2001. As a freshman, he broke Gary Payton’s OSU freshman scoring record. Then at Purdue, under Gene Keady, he was a three-year starter and earned Academic All-America honors twice. All told, in college he tallied 1,289 points and 444 assists. He later played professionally in the CBA and in Estonia and Australia.
Cunningham served as an instructor in the history department and later the department of cinema and digital media at DePaul from 2006-13. He also coached the varsity boys’ basketball team at Andrean Catholic High School, his alma mater in Merrillville, Ind., where he guided the 59ers to 43 wins over their last 50 games.
He earned a Ph.D. in history from Purdue in 2006 and an MBA from DePaul in 2013. He is the author of six books, including the definitive work on U.S. Olympic basketball history and of Fallen Stars, about the lives of the five war-hero athletes who died in military service (TX A&M Press). Cunningham and his wife-Christy, a former volleyball player at Purdue, have six children: daughters Caroline, Catie Joy, and Mabeline Lucille, and sons Case, Indiana, and Bennet.
Carson Cunningham
Career Coaching Resume
2008-13 – Andrean Catholic High School – Head Coach
2013-18 – Carroll College – Head Coach
2018-23 – Incarnate Word – Head Coach
2023-24 – Army – Assistant Coach
2024-26 – Missouri State – Assistant Coach
2026-Present – Air Force – Associate Head Coach
