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Montevallo High School honored the life and legacy of Korey Cunningham during a special pregame ceremony ahead of the Bulldogs’ football game against Northside as the community remembered one of its kindest souls and greatest ambassadors. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – Standing at midfield with her family at Theron Fisher Stadium on Friday, Sept. 6, Kathy Cunningham looked toward heaven with tears in her eyes.

As the Montevallo Bulldogs honored the life of her son Korey Cunningham during a special pregame ceremony, she reflected on the countless days she spent in those stands watching her son play the game he loved on Richard Gilliam Field in a town he loved in Montevallo.

“I just kind of started having flashbacks about being there on Friday nights and being either there or when he was playing in college,” Kathy said. “I just pictured him out on the field just really grinding and playing his heart out.”

Korey died on April 25 at the age of 28 after a five-season career in the NFL with the New York Giants, New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals. He also played college football at the University of Cincinnati.

Before all of that success, he was first and foremost “Big Country,” a proud Montevallo native, a two-sport letterman in football and basketball, and to the friends and family who knew him best, an outstanding person.

Those were the traits that Montevallo honored ahead of its game against Northside. During the ceremony, MHS head football coach Garrett Langer and athletic director Jim King presented the Cunningham family with a Bulldogs helmet featuring the No. 9 sticker that all players will wear this season.

The Cunninghams also served as honorary coin toss captains shortly after the presentation.

Longtime Montevallo head volleyball coach Tena Niven said that the planning process for how to honor Korey started back at his funeral as they sought a way to help his legacy live on at his beloved alma mater.

“We knew we wanted to do something as soon as the football season came around because football, that was obviously his sport and that’s what he loved,” Niven said. “He loved playing for Montevallo.”

Big Country, big heart

Many of the people who knew Korey remember him as a kind person. He also loved the beauty and calmness of the outdoors and enjoyed hunting and fishing, which gave him the nickname “Big Country.”

Even more than his excellence on the football field as a tight end or as an All-County Honorable Mention player on the basketball court, he left a mark on the community with his personality.

That personality garnered him friends wherever he went, from Cincinnati to when he was drafted by the Cardinals to his later stints with the Patriots and Giants.

Cunningham became an offensive lineman after he signed with the Giants, and while his career ended in 2023, he continued to live in New Jersey until his death.

He also remained close to his Giants teammates while he lived there. Former teammate Justin Pugh even shared that Korey was still part of the weekly linemen team dinner even after he was cut in 2023 simply because people enjoyed being around him.

As a result, many of his former teammates from college and the NFL, including Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, attended his funeral so that they could show their support to their beloved friend.

“He was a friend to everyone,” Niven said. “He treated everybody the right way, and people loved and enjoyed being around him because he liked to kid around, and he liked to talk and he loved hunting and fishing and sports and he was just himself. He never had to try to put on any type of airs with anybody.”

Niven credits a lot of his discipline to his mom Kathy who teaches first grade at Creek View Elementary School in Alabaster. She also said the way he carried himself in every aspect of his life made him a great person for kids to look up to.

“Probably because his mom was an educator, he had to do everything in the classroom the right way as well as on the field and on the court,” Niven said. “So, he was a good role model for our students to look up to.”

One of those characteristics that made him someone to look up to was his humility. When he returned to Montevallo in the offseason, he was still the same man that people knew from when he was younger.

While fame changes some people, especially when they become professional athletes, Niven said that he remained humble and did the same things that he always did.

“He was a humble man,” Niven said. “If you met him on the street and you didn’t know him, you wouldn’t even know he was in the NFL because he was just an ordinary guy who enjoyed hunting and fishing, hanging out with his childhood friends around here, and that’s what he did. He was a kind of a homebody. He didn’t go out and do flashy things.”

He also didn’t spend his money lavishly and instead gave back to his community throughout his life.

Korey regularly ran free youth football camps in Montevallo where he would even bring his friends from the NFL and his agent back to his hometown to invest in the youth. He also read to younger kids to remain involved in the community.

One of the more high-profile ways he supported Montevallo was when he rush-ordered 175 Bulldog sweatshirts in December 2021 so each athlete at MHS could have a present under their tree on Christmas Eve. He also footed the bill for meals for the football and basketball teams.

However, not all of Korey’s charitable efforts were visible. Kathy said that he typically liked to give back in a way that didn’t put the spotlight on him. As a result, she and her family are still discovering all the ways he gave back in the months after his death.

“Korey was humble,” Kathy said. “He didn’t like to draw a lot of attention to himself and he probably did things that we don’t know about to help others, and there are things that he has done that we’ve learned since his passing and that he didn’t share with us, but that was just because he just did things from his heart and not for an outside show to the world. It’s just the type of person he was. He was very humble.”

Giving back was a part of Korey’s nature and something that those close to him said came easy for him.

“He’d give you the shirt off his back,” Niven said. “He was just that kind of a guy.”

An undying legacy

Shortly after Korey’s funeral, Langer and King approached Niven about creating No. 9 helmet stickers for each player to wear during the 2024 football season.

There was also talk about retiring the No. 9 in Korey’s honor, but the three decided to go a different route: making No. 9 an honor jersey to keep his memory alive.

“If you retire it, you kind of forget about it,” Niven said. “They came up with the idea of, ‘Hey, let’s make that an honorary jersey from now on, and it will be a special young man with the kind of characteristics that Korey portrayed that will be allowed to wear that jersey from now on every year.’”

Starting in 2025, Montevallo will pass on the No. 9 to the player who best exemplifies Korey’s values.

The hope is that by making the jersey a special honor to wear, the school can help others look up to Korey and the example that he set.

Kathy said that students have already told her how much they look up to Korey as a person and that his jersey inspires them to dream big.

“We’ve had guys who’ve shared with us that seeing that (jersey) and knowing what he accomplished helps them to try harder to try to achieve those goals as well,” Kathy said.

Kathy’s hope is to carry on his memory by continuing the youth football camps that he ran and setting up a scholarship to help other kids achieve their dreams.

While she knew about the honor jersey and about the banner that Niven and the school made, she was caught off guard by the coaches presenting her family with the helmet and painting his No. 9 on the 25-yard line, as well as Niven’s tribute message that she read over the loudspeakers before a family member showed it to her on Facebook ahead of the ceremony.

“I knew about the banner, but as far as the helmet on the field and them presenting us with the helmet, that was a total surprise, but it was a gracious surprise,” Kathy said.

Kathy is grateful for the outpouring of support that she and her family has received from the Montevallo community. She said it’s helped them grieve knowing that the town loves Korey as much as he loved it.

“It has been overwhelming, and in a great way, just the overwhelming love that they’ve shown has kind of really helped us navigate through the process a little bit better,” Kathy said. “I know he’d be pleased and looking down and smiling to know that his community loved him just as much as he loved them.”

As she continues to remember her son taking the field at Theron Fisher Stadium and the kind of person he was off of it, she hopes that people will look to Korey as proof that anything is possible.

“No matter where you come from, your dreams can come true,” Kathy said. “Don’t give up on your dreams. Always dream big. Whatever you do in life, go at it and give it all that you got. All that you have.”

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