Cheerleading distinguishes American football from all other sports. Not that other sports lack the assistance of organized supportive groups which have their unique stories, but rarely do these groups perform such a show during the match, requiring as much skills and talent as
Cheerleading distinguishes American football from all other sports. Not that other sports lack the assistance of organized supportive groups which have their unique stories, but rarely do these groups perform such a show during the match, requiring as much skills and talent as the team they are supporting. Today cheerleaders are predominantly female but, believe it or not, women weren’t allowed to join cheerleading teams until 1923.
The roots of cheerleading can be traced back 1883, when a trend of united cheering and chanting at sports games was spreading. However, it was at Princeton University that the first official cheer was performed in 1884. Students from the university formed an all-male pep club and got the idea of cheering the university team and rousing the audience, so they came up with a catchy cheer:
Ray, Ray, Ray!
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!
Sis, Sis, Sis!
Boom, Boom, Boom
Aaaaah! Princeton, Princeton, Princeton!
A few years later, Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles took the trend to the University of Minnesota and inspired Johnny Campbell, a student of medicine, to assemble an all men (again) group to support the university team at a time when their spirits were as low as their points.
It was during a game on November 2, 1889, that Johnny grabbed a megaphone and revived the team, spurring them to victory with the first organized cheer:
“Rah, Rah, Rah!
And ever since that November, Campbell is recognized as the world’s first official cheerleader.
Cheerleading spread among young men at the university like a fever. It became prestigious to be a cheerleader. There was even a cheer fraternity, Gamma Sigma, created in 1903 at the University of Minnesota. It had six members who were previously part of the “Yell Squad.” In the following decade, the cheerleading trend spread across the universities in the United States. Even future Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Franklin Roosevelt were members of cheer groups when they were in college.
And it wasn’t until 1923 that women were allowed to become cheerleaders. When women joined the all-male cheerleaders groups, they started wearing a recognizable outfit that consisted of the varsity sweaters and ankle-length skirts. With the outbreak of World War II, many young men chose to skip cheerleading and joined the military. Girls now dominated cheerleading, and they took it to another level. Besides the catchy yelling, they included dance, gymnastics, and showy stunts. And in the