Rah, rah, sis-boom-bah

This post was planned for after we had attended a cheerleading competition of our oldest granddaughter's. However, illness and then our riverboat cruise happened, so it lingered in draft form. It's been reworked now that I'm recovered and we're home.

At the end of March, we attended the 18th Annual New England Interscholastic Spirit Championship held at Worcester State University, MA. This all-day event featured top high school teams from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The college gymnasium was packed with family and friends cheering the teams.

While our granddaughter's team performed very well, unfortunately they did not garner a top award. However, they made it through quite an elimination process of competing in prior events to win a spot at this event. This was our first time attendance at a cheerleading competition, and I wanted to learn more about the sport.

Many programs and organizations now use the term cheer teams or simply cheer instead of cheerleading teams to reflect a shift towards focusing on high-energy, technical performance, and competitive athletics. While the term cheerleading is common, especially for traditional sideline roles, modern competitive teams identify as competitive cheer.

Sideline cheerleading supports sports teams (football/basketball) and promotes school spirit and engaging crowds at games. It's more about community and entertainment. Performers are called cheerleaders. Cheerleading originated in Britain and spread to the U.S. where it remains most common. It has also become popular in Europe, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Asia.

Competitive cheer is a judged, technical sport focused on intense short routines of stunts, tumbling and dance against other teams. It's about athletic prowess and scoring with year-round training involving rigorous tumbling, complex stunting, pyramids and dance routines. All of which we saw at the March competition. The high school participants were amazing.

Cheerleading started on the idea  that cheering before spectators in the stands would boost school spirit and improve team performance. Since then, it has become an All-Star sport of its own. Cheer teams in middle and high schools, colleges, youth leagues and athletic associations enter annual competitions for prizes and trophies. There is professional and All-Star cheerleading with an estimated 3.5 million cheerleaders in the U.S. alone, not including dance team members, gymnasts and other affiliated participants raising that number to over 5 million. Who knew?

Background of Cheerleading

Cheerleading dates to the 1860s in Great Britain when students would chant in unison to support their favorite athletes. It migrated to the U.S. in the 1880s to university football games. Cheerleading started as an elite male activity at Ivy League schools where cheerleaders were known as “yell leaders" who led cheers from the sidelines to encourage spectators and as a form of crowd control. 

Princeton University male cheerleaders (Internet source)

In 1884, Princeton University in our home state of NJ, started the first known organized, rhythmic crowd cheers to boost school spirit at football games. This cheer known as the Locomotive Cheer is still used today at Princeton. It was used during the first intercollegiate football game against Rutgers on November 6, 1869. 

Ray, Ray, Ray!

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!

Sis, Sis, Sis!

Boom, Boom, Boom

Aaaaah! Princeton, Princeton, Princeton!

The phrase is echoic (repeating sounds/words heard) imitating the "sis" (hiss) of a rocket, the "boom" of a firework exploding, and the "bah" (or "aah") of the crowd’s reaction. The timeless, energetic cheer is still used in school sports, camp activities and popular culture to represent cheering on a team.

Johnny Campbell

A decade later, Princeton graduate and pep club member Thomas Peebles brought organized cheerleading to the University of Minnesota. 

On November 2, 1898, a University of Minnesota student, Johnny Campbell, led an organized cheer at a football game between Minnesota and  Northwestern University won by Minnesota 17-6. While the earlier Princeton cheers used Ray, Ray, Ray, the shift to Rah, Rah, Rah became the standard for yell leaders. 

The 1898 game was notable for being the very first instance of organized cheerleading, led by Campbell and is often cited as the birth of collegiate cheerleading. In 1903, the University of Minnesota organized the Gamma Sigma the first cheer fraternity of yell leaders as cheerleaders were called back then under the belief that louder shouts could help determine a game's outcome. Yell leaders usually used a megaphone. However, it wasn't until later that it became a popular accessory in cheerleading along with pom-poms.

Cheerleading Becomes Female-Dominated 

Cheerleading was male-dominated until the 1920s. The University of Minnesota was  the first to allow women a cheerleading squad in 1923. They wore ankle-length skirts and varsity sweaters. Minnesota continued to lead the sport of cheer into widespread popularity. Female cheer squads began to include gymnastics, dance and other showy stunts into routines. In the 1930s, cheers included the use of paper pom-poms (vinyl ones began inl 1965). By the1940s, mainly women were leading cheers.

In the 1920s, cheerleading was an extracurricular activity for boys in high schools, colleges, and communities across the country, related to but distinct from other spirit programs such as marching bands, drum corps and drill teams. As school and community ambassadors, cheerleaders were associated with character-building traits such as discipline, cooperation, leadership and sportsmanship. 

Many schools didn't have co-ed squads until the 1940’s, mostly due to the onset of WW II. As more males were being drafted, it  gave females to join the sport and they now dominate it.

Early University of Minnesota female cheerleaders (Internet source)

In 1948, Lawrence Herkimer, referred to as the grandfather of modern cheerleading, founded the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) and led cheer workshops. The first one held that year had over 50 attendees and grew to 350 the following year. By the 1950s, most high schools had a cheerleading team. Herkimer began  teaching basic partner stunts, jumps, and crowd-leading techniques countrywide. Similar organizations started to conduct training camps regionally and nationally.

1972 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Smithsonian Museum)

By the 1960s, most U.S. high schools and colleges had cheerleaders. Around the same time, professional cheerleading was introduced in the National Football League. in 1954, the Baltimore (now Indiana) Colts created the first official NFL cheerleading team. The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders debuted in the 1972-73 season and affectionately called America's Sweethearts they changed cheerleading as a profession.

The Universal Cheerleaders Association was created in 1974 to provide educational training for college and high school cheer squads. 

In the 1980s, modern cheerleading began with flashy dance routines and gymnastics stunts. By 1997, cheerleading was recognized as an independent sport attracting national attention. It wasn't until 1999 that the sport of cheerleading met with official approval. Routines became showier with more complex moves. Cheer squads did more than just encourage crowd participation, they were a sport all their own. 

Cheerleading organizations began to regulate moves and emphasize safety. In 2003, a national council was formed to offer safety workshops to cheerleading squads and their coaches, and today the National Collegiate Athletic Association mandates that college cheer coaches complete official safety courses.

Today, cheerleading is one of the most popular activities across the U.S. with over 3 million cheerleaders participating in youth, all star and school cheer. The sport has gone from simple cheers to include complex gymnastics, acrobatics and dance.

High school cheerleading competitions are judged based on a factors including difficulty, execution, and technique in stunts, pyramids, tumbling, jumps and dance, crowd appeal and showmanship usually within a 2-3 minute routine. Judges use a score sheet to award points for skills performed, separate deductions judges subtract points for rule violations, falls, or timing errors. Male and female high school cheerleaders participated in the competition we attended.

Four U.S. Presidents Cheered

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S. President,  was a cheerleader for Harvard College from 1900 to 1903 and later attended Columbia Law School. 

The 34th U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, cheered for West Point Academy. Before being elected, he was a five-star general in the U.S. Army and served during WW I and II. 

These former U.S. Presidents were cherleaders

The 40th U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, was a cheerleader at Eureka College where he studied sociology and economics. He also served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1937 to 1945.

George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. President, was the head cheerleader at Phillips Academy his senior year of high school in the 1960s. Bush attended Yale from 1964-68, where he was also a cheerleader.

Celebrity Cheerleaders

Presidents weren't the only famous people who participated in high school or college cheerleading. A lot of other well known folks did as well.

Some celebrities who were former cheerleaders

Some of these have included Jimmy Stewart, Steve Martin, Sandra Bullock, Kelly Ripa, Cameron Diaz, Halle Berry, Dakota Fanning, Madonna Jessica Simpson, Steve Martin, Meryl Strep, Katie Couric, Chrissy Teigen, Samuel L. Jackson, Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Kirstie Alley, Paula Abdul, Miley Cyrus, Blake Lively, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Ray and Diane Sawyer.

The Technicolor 1947 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film, Good News was based on the 1927 stage production of the same name. It starred June Allyson, Peter Lawford and Mel Tormé. The screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green was directed by Charles Walters. The setting is 1927 at fictional Tait College, where football and cheerleading are the rage. The film was a box office disappointment, but featured some fun song and dance scenes.

Since then, there's been more films that feature cheerleaders ranging from competitive high school dramas to comedies and thrillers. The Bring It On franchise is the most prominent with films Bring It On (2000), Fired Up! (2009), Sugar & Spice (2001), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and All Cheerleaders Die (2001). None are on my viewing list.

Oldest granddaughter (third from left) with teammates

Granddaughter, mom and grandfather

Cheerleading is over for our granddaughter this year, but if she participates in competitions next year, we're planning to watch her and her teammates perform. 

Your Turn — Did you ever cheer on your high school or college school team ?

Organizing photos from a trip always takes time, so ones from our Mississippi River cruise are on temporary hold. We're going on a road trip for a graduation and to visit family and friends in RI, NJ and PA the end of this week. I hope to get a trip post done before then.