Jon Cunningham

Pit Expert

Jon Cunningham 1972

Jon, AKA - "Curly", "JC", "the cheese". Along with Greg Storm, Jon was the co-author of The Bench. With being a starter on the basketball team in the 7th grade and getting a lot of playing time in the 9th grade it makes you wonder what happened to Jon in the 8th grade. Just an off year? Nobody has an off year that bad. Maybe it was just his love to only wear a jock-strap under his warm-up that led to his desire to do all he could do to remain on the bench. Or was it that Coach Correll was the one that got it right and saw that Jon really didn't have any talent? Nah, I am going with the jock-strap story.

After his work on The Bench Jon went on to write many other things. Fake hall passes, altered grade cards, and assorted letters to the FBI on why he thought The Spook Light was actually caused by Dennis Grissom setting out in the woods with a can of Pork N' Beans and a Bic Lighter. Jon has once again gone back to writing as he works on the follow up book, Back on the Bench.

Where Are They Now

Jon Cunningham's Family

We sent out a little survey to each benchie to find out where they are today and what they have done since graduation.  Below are the answers Jon sent to the question, where are you today.


Current State: OK
Current Town: Oklahoma City
Graduated from Webb City? Yes


Places Jon has lived since his life as a Benchie:  
Tulsa 1984 to 1998,  OKC 1998 to present

Jon's basketball career after 8th grade:
I managed to play one more year of B-ball.  Rick Utter was our coach during our freshman year.  One day he pulled me aside and said, “Jon I don’t think you take basketball very serious.”  I said, “Oh man, you should have seen me last year.”   I played quite a bit my 7th and 9th grade year but I am not sure what happened my 8th grade year.  I guess The Bench was just meant to be.  Apparently Correll had trouble recognizing my raw talent.

Favorite memory as a Benchie?
I remember very little about any of the games.  I guess from the bench they all looked the same.  I remember more about practice and all the corny stuff we did then.  I remember one time when the 1st string was working on the full-court press Coach Correll picked five of us Benchies to see if we could break the press.  With smiles on our faces and a gleam in our eyes we huddled up like they do in football.  Being the QB in football I made up pass routes for each of the guys and then I stood under the basket and called out signals.  The other four Benchies lined up like wide receivers on the baseline and they would run post patterns or hooks, or whatever.  I rolled out to the right and fired a pass to one of my skilled receivers and in a matter of seconds we had broken the press. (I think I passed a basketball better than a football.)  Seems like we beat the press most of the time and it just hacked Coach Correll off.  Also remember dressing out for the games in just my warm-up and jock strap.  I knew I wouldn’t go in the game so I didn’t wear my uniform under my sweats.  At half time I would put my uniform on just in case Correll put the Benchies in.  And I remember the cheerleaders.  Especially the Carthage cheerleaders. 


Family status, kids, jobs, life highlights, years on parole, etc:
Waited until I was 31 to get married.  God blessed me with a wonderful wife when He gave me Janice.  We are very proud of our son James who is 19 and a student at University of Central Oklahoma.  I graduated from MSSC with a degree in Education but never did teach.  I worked 19 years for May’s Drug in Joplin and Tulsa and now I am a buyer for Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City.  I have been there for 14 years. I enjoy teaching an adult Sunday School class and writing "observational devotionals." (no really)  I am currently involved in a Street Ministry that reaches out to the homeless in Oklahoma City.   Love to fish, golf, play tennis, writing and keeping up with old classmates.  Janice and I love going to see old classic rock and roll bands in concert.  My goal is to own another '67 GTO like I had in high school.  For those interested in other things I have written please check out:
  http://www.jons-justathought.blogspot.com/  
There are some fun things listed there along with some more serious writings.  Enjoy.