Keagan Cunningham has been writing the script for his life since he sang his first note<\/p>\n
The TCU wide receiver and singer-songwriter has embraced a philosophy that preparation creates opportunity, balancing life as a Division I football player while building a growing passion for music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ll just get up and sing for any sort of event or just in the middle of the day because I feel like it,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
Along the way, Cunningham has also developed a social media following, where he shares dance videos that earned him an unusual nickname.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve posted some dancing videos,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201c…and so they know me as the dancing frog.”<\/p>\n
Cunningham said being both an athlete and a musician sets him apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know you don’t have a lot of athlete-slash-musicians in the world, I guess,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
His football journey didn’t follow a traditional path.<\/p>\n
Although Cunningham now plays wide receiver for TCU, he said the university did not recruit him to play football. Instead, he accepted a Chancellor’s Scholarship to attend TCU. After initially being denied a walk-on opportunity, he continued training while waiting for another chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not recruited at all by TCU at all for football, but I was recruited by SMU when Sonny Dykes was the coach at the time,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
About six months later, Cunningham received an unexpected phone call.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout six months later, I get a call from Sonny Dykes, the head coach at SMU at the time, and he said, ‘Hey, why aren’t you on the roster at TCU?’\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
That persistence paid off on the football field, and Cunningham now hopes a similar approach will help him in music.<\/p>\n
He is a finalist in the inaugural NIL Star, a singing competition for college student-athletes<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning this competition would mean the world,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n Cunningham said the support he’s received has encouraged him to continue pursuing music, regardless of where football takes him.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing how much people support doing something other than your sport, like singing, it really just warms the heart because I can see this is something that I really want to pursue if football doesn’t work out or if it does. I want to pursue music no matter what,\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n The NIL Star<\/a> winner gets $10,000. Keagan said he would use it to kickstart his music career.<\/p>\n