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History of Cheerleading |
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roots of cheerleading go back to ancient times (view
our current fundraising ideas), when spectators would cheer on the
favorite athletes at sporting events. In the United States, Princeton
University is said to have organized the first pep club in the 1870’s,
and in the 1880’s organized the first yell of “Sis Boom
Rah!” A man named Johnny Campbell at the University of Minnesota
was the first person to lead the crowds in a cheer with a megaphone.
He later organized the first cheerleading squad made up of himself and
five other male friends.
Cheerleading began to spread to other Universities across the country, but consisted of only male yell leaders until 1923, when the University of Minnesota decided to let females participate due to the limited availability of collegiate sports for women. It was then that the athletic elements of gymnastics and tumbling were brought into routines. In the early 1940’s, the advent of WWII allowed for more women to join cheer squads. Today most cheerleading participants are female; however, males still make up a large percentage of cheerleading squads at the collegiate level. In the late 1940’s, Laurence Herkimer (a former college cheerleader from Texas) formed the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) as a way to hold cheerleading skills clinics. He also contributed the “Spirit Stick” and the “Herkie” jump to cheerleading. He also invented the first “pompon”, but later in 1968 a man named Frank Gastoff made the first vinyl pompons, which have become vital props for cheerleading. By the 1960’s, college cheerleading squads began to hold clinics to teach skills to eager high school cheerleaders. Sometime in the 1960s, the NFL began to create cheerleading squads for their teams. Most noteworthy were the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders debuting in 1972. It was at Superbowl X in Miami when they first got national attention for their dance skill, synchronization, and eye-catching outfits. This impacted the public’s image of cheerleaders tremendously. Today, most professional cheerleading squads are best described as dance teams, as they rarely encourage the crowd to cheer or perform gymnastics and stunt sequences. Cheerleading evolved into a more athletic activity in the 1980’s as stunt sequences and gymnastics with higher levels in difficulty were incorporated into routines. Organized cheerleading competitions became more prevalent. The first college competition was broadcasted on national television in 1978, and ESPN broadcasted the first national high school cheerleading competition in 1983. The 1980’s also presented the birth of all-star squads—cheerleading for the sole purpose of athletic competition. |
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