Bubba Cunningham doesn't like goodbyes. The outgoing athletic director, who will complete his final day at Ball State today and head for Tulsa on Friday, would rather just move on instead of saying goodbye.
"It is awkward," he said. "I'm uncomfortable. It's been a great place to work, and I'd be happy to talk to you professionally about work all day long, but talking about personal feelings make me very uncomfortable.
"It's very difficult because you build relationships, and you truly enjoy the people you work with, people you see everyday. You move - particularly in this case, quite a ways away - and you may not have the opportunity to visit with them anymore."
Cunningham said he was able to avoid any sort of goodbye party when he left Notre Dame to come to Ball State, but he wasn't able to avoid one this time.
"The transition from Notre Dame to here was shorter, so we really didn't have time to plan it," he said. "Although I stalled and said I couldn't do it and then finally I moved. But [Ball State President Jo Ann] Gora wouldn't let me off the hook."
Gora said she felt it was important to have one final chance to have a final farewell.
"At Notre Dame, where he spent 15 years, he managed to get out of them doing anything for him, and I told him, 'Not under my rein do those things happen,'" Gora said. "It's important to say thank you and goodbye. And even though it's sad, and people are regretful that he's leaving, and he's a little funny about leaving after only three years, it's still important to say goodbye and recognize the fact that he made a lot of friends and a lot of relationships here, and we want to celebrate that."
At a ceremony on Tuesday, a crowd of coaches, faculty and administrators gathered to bid Cunningham a final farewell.
Cunningham spent three years at Ball State before today and is credited by Gora for changing the attitude around Ball State sporting events.
"He was instrumental in making athletic activities a community event in bringing more people out to them," she said. "He introduced new ideas in scheduling, such as night games."
Ken Brown, who will hold the interim athletic director position, said he will miss Cunningham as a person first.
"First of all, you are losing someone with a lot of experience in athletics and a really good human being," Brown said. "Someone who is really strong in the community. He said he wanted to change the culture in the athletic department, and I think he accomplished a lot of those things. [He's] just a really good person and a really good family man.
"I'm disappointed. He's a great guy to work with, but I understand he's going on to something he considers a bigger and better job."
As a part of a ceremony, Cunningham was presented a framed artist's rendering of the stadium renovation project as his departing gift.
"It's always hard because what can we give him that he can use?'" Gora said. "We can't give him a Charlie Cardinal for his desk [at Tulsa]."
So the decision was made to give Gora the framed rendering of the stadium, which Gora described as the "crowning glory of his achievements."
"Although Bubba didn't make the formal ask on any of the biggest gifts, he was an instrumental part and played an incredibly important role in the cultivation of those relationships," she said. "And it's the development of those relationships that brings people to the point where they're willing to say yes on a gift."
Brown said that the stadium will be linked to Cunningham's legacy at Ball State.
"I think a lot of [his legacy] will be the stadium," he said. "Bubba was the one who really got it started. I've been here since 1991, and we've tried to do that for many, many years, and for whatever reason haven't been successful, so I really think it's going to be the stadium."
Cunningham will finally get to start his tenure at Tulsa. His family will wait until the end of the year before joining him at his new location.
"The people that we've been able to meet are what we're really going to miss," Cunningham said. "The transition of campus is happening right now. The campus is going to be very dynamic for the next five or six years, and it's only going to get better, and I think continuing to what the possibilities are and what this institution will become is the real challenge - and then trying to finance. It's an exciting time at Ball State. That's probably what I'm going to miss the most: is seeing all those plans come together by '07 or '08, and I won't be a part of that."
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