The greatest football players to ever come out of Santa Barbara High School now have a track named after them.

The Peabody Stadium track will be called the Cunningham Track in honor of Randall, Sam, Bruce and Anthony Cunningham. 

All four went to Santa Barbara High School and were football and track stars. Sam Cunningham played for 10 years in the NFL, and Randall Cunningham played for 16.

Randall Cunningham delivered a recorded message at Tuesday night’s Santa Barbara school board meeting.

“On behalf of the Cunningham family, we wanted to say thank you and that it is an honor to name the track at Peabody Stadium the Cunningham Track,” Cunningham said in a statement. “On behalf of Sam, my oldest brother, Bruce and myself and all of the Cunningham siblings, my mother and father, Mabel and Sam Cunningham, we are grateful that you would even consider us. Thank you so much, and God bless you. Go Dons.”

Sam Cunningham graduated in 1969, Bruce Cunningham in 1979, Randall Cunningham in 1981 and Anthony Cunningham in 1973.

“When I heard about this announcement of the Cunningham Track in particular, I got chills because I was a classmate of Sam Cunningham, and you will not find a kinder, more modest but talented man around,” school board president Kate Ford said.

“I have a few claims to fame in my life, but one that I hold very dear is that I had a locker next to Sam Cunningham. So there was always lots of good things happening around the lockers.”

The Peabody Tunnel will be called the Hutton Parker Foundation Tunnel.

Board member Rose Munoz also supported the naming. 

“I am very excited about the naming and appreciative of all your efforts and all of the community support for the track, the tunnel and Peabody Stadium,” Munoz said. “It’s a dream come true.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.