Who is Sophie Cunningham? Caitlin Clark's new 'bodyguard' teammate emerging as a WNBA icon
Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham has become the second-most popular WNBA player among many circles of fans in recent days after aggressively protecting teammate Caitlin Clark from players who hit her.
During a game against the Connecticut Sun on Tuesday, Cunningham started a brawl between the two teams after several physical plays against Clark.
Cunningham's persona and popularity skyrocketed in the days that followed, as she is slowly becoming an icon among the WNBA's newer fans.
Prior to Tuesday's game, Cunningham had fewer than 400,000 followers on TikTok.
At the time of publication, she has 1.2 million on TikTok and that number is only growing.
She has an estimated increase of more than 300,000 followers on Instagram since the game as well, with a total of more than 800,000 at the time of publication.
Sportico estimates that her increase in followers could be worth over $1 million.
"It's unprecedented growth," Addison Abdo, who represents Cunningham as a senior director at sports management agency PRP, told the outlet. "We work with some pretty big athletes that have gone viral for some pretty big things, but this has been something that I haven't seen before—this type of growth in this short amount of time … was very new territory."
A five-part feature series by Cunningham's alma mater, the University of Missouri, recounted her family's southern farm roots.
Cunningham learned to ride horses and drove four-wheelers to the family's grain silos.
"So much of our success goes back to what we learned here," Cunningham said of working on the farm. "We loved coming out to the farm to help. We found out how to work hard and work together. It made us farm strong."
Cunningham even had a special name for her farmer grandparents: "Maw Maw and Paw Paw."
Cunningham was born into a family of athletes, as her parents, Jim and Paula Cunningham, each played sports at the University of Missouri. Her father played football, and her mother competed in track and field.
So Sophie ended up in sports right away.
She played girls' basketball and volleyball at Rock Bridge High School in Missouri, but even ended up following in her dad's footsteps on the football field.
A 2014 article by the Columbia Missourian reported that Cunningham was the first female to ever score any points for the team in history, when she kicked two of four extra points in place of the team's regular kicker, who had suffered a torn ACL.
Cunningham even handled kick-off duties.
"I was so nervous," Cunningham told the outlet. "I mean, I've never played football before in all my life. Right when I got the ball (on the opening kickoff), I couldn't hear anything. I just put the ball down and kicked it."
With Cunningham earning the nickname "the enforcer" for the Fever, fans counting on her to protect Caitlin Clark can take confidence in knowing she is a black belt in the Korean martial art of Taekwondo.
She earned the black belt at just the tender age of six.
Cunningham's martial arts experience earned the affection of ESPN host Pat McAfee.
"It feels like Caitlin Clark is going to get treated in a certain way in this league for a long time. She's not a rookie anymore. She has already proved herself. She has won. And then there was some ladies last night that were trying to get a little physical," McAfee said during an episode of his show Wednesday.
"And last year, I think something we noticed... when Caitlin would get bullied, nobody would do nothing... They bring in Sophie Cunningham, I had no idea Sophie Cunningham was a black belt at the age of six! Boom! 'Jacy Sheldon, that's cute. You want to poke [Clark] in the eye?... I'll take a take-foul, and you'll eat the deck a little bit here.'"
Back in June of last year, Cunningham posted a photo of herself wearing a red hat with white text on social media, and swarms of critics rushed to speak out against her for perceived support of Donald Trump.
However, the hat simply said "Hot Cowgirl Summer."
Cunningham's team at the time, the Phoenix Mercury, even had to make a post from the official team account to clarify what the hat said.
OutKick has previously reported that Cunningham has been regularly criticized by WNBA fans who have nicknamed her "MAGA Barbie."
Cunningham's official political views are unknown.
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