Cheerleading started as an all-male
activity.
Cheerleading is a physical activity,
sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging
from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance,
jumps, cheers and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports
teams at games or to participate in competitions. The athlete involved is
called a cheerleader. Cheerleading originated in the United States, and remains a predominantly American activity, with an estimated 1.5
million participants in all-star cheerleading. The growing presentation of
cheerleading as a sport to a global audience was led by the 1997 start of
broadcasts of cheerleading competition by ESPN International and the worldwide
release of the 2000 film Bring It On. Due in part to this recent exposure,
there are now an estimated 100,000 participants scattered around the rest of
the world in countries including Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Finland,
France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
History
Organized cheerleading started as an
all-male activity. As early as 1877, Princeton University had
a "Princeton Cheer", documented in the February 22, 1877, March
12, 1880, and November 4, 1881, issues of the Daily Princetonian. This cheer was yelled from the
stands by students at games, as well as by the baseball and football athletes
themselves. The cheer, "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Tiger! S-s-s-t! Boom!
A-h-h-h!" remains in use with slight modifications today and is now referred
to as the "Locomotive".
Princeton class of 1882 graduate Thomas Peebles moved to Minnesota in 1884,
and transplanted the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the
University of Minnesota. The term "Cheer Leader" had been used as early as 1897,
with Princeton's football officials having named three students as Cheer
Leaders: Thomas, Easton and Guerin from Princeton's classes of 1898, 1898 and
1899, respectively, on October 26, 1897; these students would cheer for the
team also at football practices, and special cheering sections were designated in
the stands for the games themselves for both the home and visiting teams.
It was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota
student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah!
Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!",
making Campbell the very first cheerleader and November 2, 1898
the official birth date of organized cheerleading. Soon after, the University of Minnesota
organized a "yell leader" squad of six male students, who still use Campbell's original
cheer. In 1903 the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma, was founded.
Women joined cheerleading prior to 1907 and
began to dominate the sport during World War II, when few men were involved in
organized sports. At that time, there were no collegiate sports for women but
women were allowed to participate in cheering squads. Gymnastics, tumbling and
megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used.
Cheerleading is a physical activity,
sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging
from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance,
jumps, cheers and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports
teams at games or to participate in competitions. The athlete involved is
called a cheerleader. Cheerleading originated in the 
Organized cheerleading started as an
all-male activity. As early as 1877, 
Women joined cheerleading prior to 1907 and
began to dominate the sport during World War II, when few men were involved in
organized sports. At that time, there were no collegiate sports for women but
women were allowed to participate in cheering squads. Gymnastics, tumbling and
megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used.
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