Owen James (“O. J.”) Cunningham, Jr (born December 8, 1943) grew up in Bay City Michigan. He is the only child of “Budd” and Vicky Cunningham. Education: He attended both St. James Grade School and St. James High School (1957-61) in Bay City. He played football, baseball, and basketball at St. James. He attended Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana and graduated (English, Journalism) in 1965. Military Career: He was commissioned (ROTC) as a 2nd Lt. in the United States Air Force and achieved the rank of Captain. He spent 4 years with the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha, Nebraska as a Photo-Intelligence officer involved with Cold War satellite surveillance (1966-70). Newspaper Experience: In 1970, he took a news-reporting job in Colorado at the Lafayette Leader newspaper and then became Managing Editor of the Broomfield Star newspaper and then Managing Editor with the ABC Publication’s Newspaper flagship paper – The Aurora (Colorado) Advocate.
In 1976, Cunningham established OJ Advertising, Inc. (OJA) and started “Sports Page” in Bay City/Bay County Michigan. Sports Page published (361 weekly Issues) until 1984 as well as “Year in Review” issues each January. Sports Page became Bay City Enterprise in 1980.
Over its 9 years of existence, Sports Page/Enterprise published over 6,000+ pages of local news and sports in Bay City/Bay County.
Recently retired and is spending quality time on the Pere Marquette River in Baldwin, Michigan. Since 2018, Cunningham has scanned, published online, and made Sports Page/Enterprise available for INTERNET distribution. Personal Life: Married Donna Jean Kraynak in 1977 - They met when they both worked at American Hoist (Bay City, Michigan) in 1972. Donna and O. J. have a son and a daughter – Christopher, born July 11, 1984, and Jessica, born September 29, 1986.
