Generational talent

By USC Athletics Black History Month

February 28^th, 2019

by Jordan Moore

American industry was built by names like Carnegie, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. They were family businesses which gave generations of the men and women who carried that name wealth and opportunity.

Athleticism may not be as tangible as steel or have the global value of oil, but the world of sports is big business and second or third generation athletes have a distinct advantage, both in knowledge and genetics.

USC senior Randall Cunningham II is a two-time national champion high jumper. His father, Randall, was an All-Pro NFL quarterback. His mother, Felicity, was a ballet dancer. His sister, Vashti, is an Olympian. His uncle, Sam, is etched in Trojan lore.

“My family, we push our kids in sports and we believe that they are going to be a B student or above, but we put a lot of emphasis on excellence in sports,” said Randall Cunningham, a four-time Pro Bowler with the Eagles and Vikings. “We are kind of that sports family. There are some families that are all doctors or attorneys, but we are more in the sports arena.”

Michael Pittman Jr. led USC in receiving yards as a junior and earned All-Pac-12 First Team honors as a sophomore. In his senior season, he will compete against his brother Mycah, a Top 100 player, who chose to play ball at Oregon. They are the sons of Michael Pittman Sr., a Super Bowl champion running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“Honestly, the Pittman side of the family, we were blessed with athletic talent,” said Pittman Sr., who played 11 years in the NFL. “I am not trying to sound arrogant, but sometimes in life you have to use your gifts to get ahead and that’s what we did. We were not Einsteins or politicians, we were a very athletic family and that’s what we did to get scholarships.”

Khalia Lanier is an All-American outside hitter for USC women’s volleyball. Her father, Bob, is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“His career made it possible for me to go to USC and to have the funds to play on a club team,” Khalia said. “He grew up in Buffalo, New York, and he couldn’t afford new shoes, but he always had a plan.”

The plan has worked successfully for the Cunninghams, Pittmans and Laniers. Sports is the family business and business is good.

However, despite the superlative DNA, the road can be bumpy trying to follow in the footsteps of a legend, especially one that carries the same name.

Khalia Lanier is 6-foot-2 now, and she was a budding basketball talent as a teen just like her father.

Bob did not push Khalia into hoops, but he coached her hard, and while she enjoyed that coach-pupil relationship, it blurred the lines between father and daughter.

“I used to have this huge complex about pleasing him,” Khalia recalled. “After one of my YMCA basketball games, he said, ‘I’m proud of you.’ I remember breaking down crying.”

The moment led to an important conversation between the Laniers about sports culture and how rarely a coach expresses admiration for a player, but a daughter needs that kind of thing. With that in mind, Khalia quit basketball and focused her attention on volleyball.

While Bob wholeheartedly believes she could have been a Division 1 hooper, he encouraged his daughter to follow her passion and escape his shadow on the hardwood.

“It was definitely a lot of pressure having the ‘Bob Lanier’s daughter’ thing in my head when I played basketball and that was a big reason that I went off from that sport and played another one,” Khalia admitted. “I like it way more now that we are in different sports.”

Randall Cunningham II also switched sports. He grew up in football locker rooms and rolling around on NFL fields. He loved being in the mix with his dad’s NFL buddies and teammates.

The elder Cunningham tutored his young son in the art of quarterbacking. He was not forceful, but he was not messing around either.

“It was a good thing,” Cunningham II said. “It wasn’t always fun. Growing up with an All-Pro quarterback as your dad and you want to play quarterback, it’s going to be serious and intense.”

“It’s always been great because he’s a great listener,” Randall said. “There were times when he was quiet. And then there were times when he needed me to speak to him as a dad and a pastor. Sometimes it has to be dad first.”

The mix worked. Randall II was well on his way to becoming an elite signal-caller and a two-sport athlete in college given his knack for high jumping, which his dad also excelled at in high school.

But when he took his trip to USC and met with Director of Track & Field Caryl Smith-Gilbert, he decided to narrow his focus and set a goal to qualify for the Olympics.

“I wasn’t going to tell him that you have to be a football player because I was a football player,” Randall said. “He decided he wanted to be an Olympian one day, so he’s on that tour for himself.”

Randall II has chosen his own path, but the name follows right along with him. He embraces the legacy.

“I got used to the pressure,” he said. “I grew up Randall Cunningham II, so based on my name, it was always going to be there regardless of if I played football or ran track.”

Michael Pittman Jr. thought everybody’s dad played in the NFL. He was little during those years, so he took it for granted, but he idolized his father.

“I wanted to play because he played,” Pittman Jr. said. “I wore the same number up until my sophomore year of high school. I always just wanted to be like him.”

Pittman Sr. saw a lot of himself in his first son. They both are naturally reckless with their bodies on the football field and play the game with their heart.

Despite his son’s protestations, he moved Michael Jr. from running back to wide receiver. He knew all too well the physical pounding that came with being an NFL tailback, so he made a decision to protect his son, which worked out nicely since Pittman Jr. grew to 6-foot-4, four inches taller than his father.

Now thriving at USC, Pittman Jr. not only leans on his father’s experience, but he’s also started appreciating what it took for his father to have an extended NFL career. As a sophomore, the first year that he was a major contributor over a 12-game schedule, he realized that going through 20 NFL games (preseason plus regular season) must be an incredible grind, one that his father managed for 11 years.

Sacrifice is a through line in all three stories.

The Cunningham’s tale is well documented.

“My dad was coming up in a time where they didn’t really feel like a black quarterback could be successful and play the game at a high level, so there were struggles that he faced coming up,” Randall II said. “I know there were struggles that my uncle faced when he was coming up. Sports was the way for them to make it out.”

Athletics not only lifted Randall to professional success, but it built the Cunningham name into one that resonates throughout the sports world.

“It’s a blessing to have my dad be who he is, to have the name,” Randall II said. “There’s a lot of people that respect him. Once they hear who I am, a lot of doors can be open just from the respect that people have for my dad.”

The parents’ efforts have also inspired the kids to pay it forward. In a historically white sport, Khalia Lanier always did what she needed to do to fit in, which included straightening her hair, an arduous process.

Finally, she hit a breaking point and went to the hairdresser with her dad. Bob could see his daughter struggling with the decision. He told her, “Whatever you do is going to be alright. You don’t have to beat yourself up about it.”

Ultimately, Khalia went with her natural look. In doing so, she has become a role model in her sport for young African-American girls.

“Changing my hair was a like a revolution for me,” she said. “I don’t have straight hair, so why am I wearing straight hair? I had so many moms come up to me and say, ‘You don’t realize how much you helped my daughter go natural with her hair and realize that it’s okay not to put extensions in her hair or straighten it every day, and she’s so happy now with the way she looks.’”

Lanier loves the impact that she can have on kids through volleyball, but she has gone back and forth on whether or not she wants to play professionally. Pittman is dogged in his pursuit of the NFL, but also open-minded to life outside of football, including his passion for finance and stock trading. He wants to use the sport as a springboard into the business world.

“Football can give you that initial wealth and then you can expand off that,” he said. “I hope to make more money off the field than on the field. I want to be the guy that goes in and helps people start businesses. I have a passion for starting things up.”