Cheerleading1887 vPrinceton Cheerleading started in Princeton

1852   10 years ago
PrincetonHistory | 0 subscribers
1852   10 years ago
Organized cheerleading started as an all-male activity.[3] 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.[4][5][6] 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".[7]
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.[8][9] 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.[10][11]
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 today.[12] In 1903 the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma, was founded.[13]
Women joined cheerleading prior to 1907 and began to dominate it during World War II, when few men were involved in organized sports. Gymnastics, tumbling and megaphones were incorporated into popular cheers, and are still used.[3]
Statistics show that around 97% of all modern cheerleading participants overall are female. At the collegiate level, cheerleading is co-ed with about 50% of participants being male.[14]
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