How cheerleading evolved from one man yelling in Minnesota to 4.5 million leaping cheerleaders (2024)

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Cheerleading began with a man yelling. During a football slump in 1898, University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell picked up a megaphone and rallied the crowd. He chanted, "Rah, rah, rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-rah! Hoo-rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-so-tah!"

Sources: The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times, Time

Around the same time, Kilgore College students were caught drinking at halftime during a football game. So the cheer team was told to entertain at halftime to keep students occupied. These two events led to the earliest form of cheerleading.

Sources: The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times

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To begin with, there were few stunts or pyramids. Men jumped a little, and used megaphones to raise spirits. They were called "rooter kings" and "yell leaders." Famous American cheerleaders include presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

Sources: The Atlantic, Newsweek, The Conversation

It wasn't until 1923 that women were allowed to cheer. Uniforms typically comprised of sweaters and skirts past the knee.

Sources: The Atlantic, Newsweek, Racked

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In the 1930s and 1940s, the number of women cheerleading grew as more women attended college. They also filled the vacuum created by the thousands of young men who were fighting in World War II.

By 1940, 30,000 cheerleading teams were spread across American high schools and colleges.

Source: Mother Jones

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Soon, cheerleaders were almost all women.

Source: The Atlantic

The performances reiterated a stereotype of women on the sidelines, supporting men.

Source: The Atlantic

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In 1948, former cheerleader Lawrence Herkimer created the National Cheerleaders Association, which held cheerleading camps. Herkimer patented the pompom, and was responsible for a few key cheer moves. It was a big moment in cheerleading history.

Sources: The New York Times, Time

In the 1950s, the perceptions of a wholesome, incorruptible cheerleader solidified. Documentarian Yu Gu told LA Mag that since then, "the sexualized body of the female cheerleader has become a moral and ideological battleground."

Sources: Newsweek, LA Magazine

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In 1954, the Baltimore Colts established the first cheerleading team in the NFL. According to Vanity Fair, "Their look was more Jackie than Marilyn—letter sweaters, bobby socks, and homemade pom-poms." They were paid nothing.

Sources: Mother Jones, CNN, Vanity Fair

In the 1960s, cheerleading became more regimented. Bill Horan, a war veteran who trained cheerleaders like they were soldiers, ran the American Cheerleaders Association. Of this picture, Life magazine wrote, "Like jacks-in-the-box the girls fly into the air as the hard-eyed man shakes his fist."

Source: Time

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He told Life, "We keep the poor kids off balance. They don't know whether to kiss me or give me a hand grenade and run."

Source: Time

In 1967, children as young as four started to learn how to be cheerleaders. It was becoming more and more a part of American life.

Source: Mother Jones

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But as feminism hit its stride in the 1970s, cheerleading was notably absent. One cheerleader told The New York Times in 1972 they could never burn their bras, because they'd never get through a game. Another said, "What in the world are they talking about?" when sexual exploitation was suggested.

Sources: The Atlantic, The New York Times

Race in cheerleading was another problem. In 1967, 1,300 black students protested in Illinois when only one African American cheerleader was picked for a high school's varsity team.

Source: Mother Jones

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In 1969, there were riots in North Carolina when African American cheerleaders refused to wave the Confederate flag. In 1971, hundreds boycotted class when an African American cheerleader was kicked off the squad.

Source: Mother Jones

But cheerleading continued to grow. By the 1970s, 11 NFL teams had cheerleaders. By 2013, 26 out of 32 teams had them.

Sources: Mother Jones, CNN

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In the 1970s, the Dallas Cowboys sunk cheerleading's "girl-next-door innocence" forever, according to Vanity Fair. Management decided to ditch school-age girls and use older women. They were required to dress more provocatively. Skirts were shortened. Weight was monitored.

Sources: The New York Times, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair

The squad became an international hit, and appeared in a film and on playing cards. The US Defense Department even asked them to do a global tour and cheer for US soldiers.

Sources: Vanity Fair, Dallas Cowboys

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In 1978, other NFL teams tried to beat the Cowboys cheerleaders by being more provocative. Sports Illustrated called it the "Great Cheerleading War of 1978."

Source: Vanity Fair

While cheerleading became sexualized in the NFL, the question of whether it was a sport was being debated with the introduction of Title IX in 1972, which focused on discrimination in schooling. Three years later, the Office of Civil Rights decided it wasn't a sport.

Sources: The Atlantic, The Conversation

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In 1974, Jeff Webb established the Universal Cheerleaders Association, to make cheerleading more stunt-based and athletic, and to stop girls from flocking to other sports.

Source: The Conversation, The New York Times

This later became the Varsity Spirit Corporation. It runs competitions, and sells pompoms and uniforms. Today, it owns about 80% of the market for cheer uniforms.

Source: The Conversation, The New York Times

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By 1975, about 500,000 people, mostly women, were cheerleading.

Source: Mother Jones

In 1979, the NBA brought in cheerleading, too. The first team to have a squad was the LA Lakers. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Laker Girls were as important an institution to the league as the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were to football.

Sources: Mother Jones, Los Angeles Times

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In the 1980s, private gyms were soon a cheerleading staple, along with clinics and camps. It became more athletic as gymnasts moved to cheerleading due to schools killing gym programs, because of high injury insurance payouts.

Sources: The New York Times, The New York Times

In 1980, the Varsity Spirit Corporation held the first high school championship. A few years after that ESPN was broadcasting the competitions, and by the 1990s, cheerleading was booming.

Sources: The Conversation, Time

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Cheerleading had left the sideline, and become the main attraction.

Cheerleading continued to grow in the 1990s. One important new branch of this were the All-Star cheer teams, which started to form outside of school cheering.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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Cheerleading coach Rey Lozano told the Los Angeles Times that cheerleading was increasingly professional due to the influence of televised gymnastics at the Olympics, and the moves of pop celebrities like Paula Abdul.

Source: Los Angeles Times

By 2000, competitive cheerleading was starting to gain recognition. As The New York Times wrote back then: "While in the past, cheerleaders were little more than over-caffeinated dancers in itty-bitty skirts, these days they are athletes, real athletes."

Source: The New York Times

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In 2000, the film "Bring It On," catapulted cheerleading into the mainstream.

Source: The New York Times

In 2004, the newly formed International Cheer Union held the first world championships. The competition rapidly grew. Unlike sideline cheering, which is to entertain, this is about winning.

Sources: The New York Times. The Atlantic

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Both types perform stunts like pyramids and spread-eagle jumps, but competitive cheering requires a higher skill level, and more rigorous routines. It's an expensive pursuit, costing competitive cheerleaders between $8,000 and $10,000 a year.

Source: The Atlantic

And with more intense routines came more injuries. From 1982 to 2005, more than half of 104 catastrophic injuries among female school and college students were from cheerleading. These are injuries where the spine or brain is damaged.

Source: The New York Times

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In 2006, national concerns over the safety of cheerleading peaked, when cheerleader Kristi Yamaoka fractured a vertebrae falling 15 feet from a pyramid. As she was taken off the court, she kept cheering in time to the music.

Sources: Time, CNN

By 2007, visits to the emergency room had doubled from the 1990s.

Source: The New York Times

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Along with the focus on injuries, defining what cheerleading was, and whether it was a sport, continued to be an issue. In 2012, a federal appeals court ruled that cheerleading couldn't be an official athletic program.

Source: The Atlantic

But in December 2016, the International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized cheerleading as a sport. One of the factors the Olympics noted in its decision was the young population.

Sources: The Conversation, BBC

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In 2014, sideline cheering had its own public crisis, when a cheerleader accused the Oakland Raiders of underpaying its cheerleaders, sparking a national conversation on how little they were paid nationally. They were getting about $5 an hour. The Raiders ended up raising it to $9 an hour.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Mic

Someone also leaked the team's cheerleading etiquette book, which included how to make a good first impression and how to handle a distasteful meal. It also set out fines for not showing belly buttons at certain events.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Mic

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Despite the issues, and frustrations about not being taken seriously, cheerleading is still going strong, 122 years later. As of 2017, there were 4.5 million registered cheerleaders.

Source: The Atlantic

And Netflix's "Cheer" is showing viewers what cheerleading is really like — with or without the pompoms.

Source: Netflix