Keagan Cunningham has been writing the script for his life since he sang his first note 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. “I’ ll just get up and sing for any sort of event or just in the middle of the day because I feel like it,” Cunningham said. Along the way, Cunningham has also developed a social media following, where he shares dance videos that earned him an unusual nickname. “I’ve posted some dancing videos,” Cunningham said. “…and so they know me as the dancing frog.” Cunningham said being both an athlete and a musician sets him apart. “You know you don’t have a lot of athlete-slash-musicians in the world, I guess,” Cunningham said. His football journey didn’t follow a traditional path. 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. “I 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,” Cunningham said. About six months later, Cunningham received an unexpected phone call. “About 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?’” Cunningham said. That persistence paid off on the football field, and Cunningham now hopes a similar approach will help him in music. He is a finalist in the inaugural NIL Star, a singing competition for college student-athletes. “Winning this competition would mean the world,” Cunningham said. Cunningham said the support he’s received has encouraged him to continue pursuing music, regardless of where football takes him. “Seeing 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,” Cunningham said. The NIL Star winner gets $10,000. Keagan said he would use it to kickstart his music career. Voting is open until July 19th; click here to vote. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication. ...read more read less