50 Fun Facts About Cheerleading

Who is credited as the first cheerleader, leading a University of Minnesota crowd in 1898?

November 2, 1898 is treated as the official birthday of organized cheerleading, and Minnesota's yell squad still uses his original 'Ski-u-mah' cheer.

Organized cheerleading began in the US as what kind of activity?

Princeton had a documented 'Princeton Cheer' by 1877, and Minnesota's first squad was six male 'yell leaders'.

The University of Minnesota first allowed women to cheer in which year?

Other schools were slow to follow, and women only really took over in the 1940s when college men were drafted for World War II.

Which chant from the 1869 Princeton-Rutgers game, the first college football game, is remembered in cheer history?

British students had begun cheering in unison in the 1860s and the habit crossed the Atlantic.

Gamma Sigma, founded in 1903, was the first what?

In the late 1920s school manuals still called cheerleaders 'chap', 'fellow' and 'man'.

Which cheerleading jump did Lawrence Herkimer invent by accident while trying to do a split jump?

One arm goes straight up, the other on the hip, one leg out and the other bent back; he also received a patent for the pom-pom.

Herkimer's first cheerleading camp, at Sam Houston State in 1948, had how many participants?

He funded it with $600 borrowed from a friend of his father-in-law; a year later 350 signed up, and he soon quit teaching to run camps full-time.

Herkimer's original 1968 pom-pom patent said the invention was made from what?

He called it a 'pom-pon'; modern ones are plastic or mylar, and the word comes from the French pompon for a decorative tuft.

Which company, founded by Jeff Webb in 1974 as the Universal Cheerleaders Association, dominates cheer camps?

Webb, a former Oklahoma yell leader, had tried and failed to buy into Herkimer's NCA; his company later faced antitrust suits over its control of the sport.

Which network's 1978 Collegiate Cheerleading Championships broadcast introduced America to competitive cheer?

The 1980s then brought hard stunt sequences and gymnastics into routines, and the first all-star teams appeared.

In which year did the NCA's 'All-Star Division' for teams without a school debut?

The USASF later hosted the first Cheerleading Worlds in April 2004, staged at Walt Disney World.

Where is the annual Cheerleading Worlds competition held?

The NCA's college nationals, the event chased in Netflix's Cheer, are in Daytona Beach instead.

In a cheer stunt, what is the person on top called?

One or two bases hold from below and spotters stand front and back; 96 percent of cheer concussions are stunt-related.

A basket toss uses how many bases at minimum to throw a flyer into the air?

Two of the bases interlock their hands, and the flyer performs a jump such as a toe touch before landing back in a cradle.

In 2006 college cheer safety rules banned basket tosses and pyramids of what height?

The changes followed Southern Illinois cheerleader Kristi Yamaoka's fall from a pyramid, which fractured a vertebra.

A 2011 study found cheerleading caused roughly what share of catastrophic injuries in US female sports?

Most of those injuries come from stunting and pyramids; the most common cheer injury overall is concussion.

As of 2005, roughly what percentage of all cheerleading participants were female?

At college level it is nearly 50-50, with male stunts leaning on tumbling and strength rather than flexibility.

Napoleon Jinnies and Quinton Peron made NFL history in 2019 by becoming the first what?

The first recorded NFL cheer squad had been the Baltimore Colts' in the 1950s.

Which team had the first recorded cheer squad in NFL history?

Professional cheerleading began in the 1950s, decades before the Cowboys' squad debuted.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are officially nicknamed what?

In the 1970s they were often called the Dallas Cowgirls, and a 2024 Netflix series took the nickname as its title.

Which New York choreographer was hired in 1972 to audition and train an all-adult Cowboys Cheerleaders squad?

The idea traces to GM Tex Schramm noticing the crowd's reaction to short-skirted performer Bubbles Cash at a 1967 game.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were first widely seen by a national audience at which game in 1976?

A made-for-TV movie about them starring Jane Seymour drew a 48 percent share of the audience in 1979.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' reality show Making the Team ran for 16 seasons on which channel?

Director Kelli Finglass, herself a DCC from 1984 to 1989, was executive producer.

Which future pop star and choreographer was discovered while performing as a Laker Girl?

The Jacksons hired her to choreograph the 'Torture' video; owner Jerry Buss had created the squad in 1979 as part of his 'Showtime' vision.

In Bring It On (2000), the Toros discover their routines were stolen from which rival team?

Gabrielle Union plays Clovers captain Isis; the film opened at number one and grossed about $90 million.

Bring It On was the theatrical directing debut of which filmmaker, later known for Ant-Man?

Jessica Bendinger wrote it, and six direct-to-video sequels followed without any of the original cast.

The Broadway musical version of Bring It On had music by Tom Kitt and which Hamilton creator?

It premiered in Atlanta in 2011 and ran at the St. James Theatre in late 2012.

Netflix's docuseries Cheer follows the squad of which Texas two-year school in Corsicana?

The Corsicana school's coach Monica Aldama has led the Bulldogs to 16 NCA junior college titles since 2000.

Where is the NCA national championship that the Cheer squad chases each season held?

Director Greg Whiteley found the sport while making his football series Last Chance U.

Which governing body, founded 2004, gained full IOC recognition at the July 2021 Tokyo session?

It claims 116 member federations, which opens a path, though not a guarantee, to future Olympic inclusion.

Which sport's 2007 Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa was its first international event with cheerleaders?

The Florida Marlins were the first Major League Baseball team with a cheer squad.

Roughly how many people took part in cheerleading in the United States in 2017?

The ICU estimates about 7.5 million participants worldwide.

Which two events are credited with putting cheerleading in front of a global audience?

By the late 2000s the sport had spread to Australia, Japan, Germany, Mexico and the UK, among others.

Early cheerleading uniforms typically paired an ankle-length wool skirt with what top?

The school letters were often sewn inside a megaphone shape, and squads wore saddle shoes with high dress socks.

Which future US president was a cheerleader at Phillips Academy?

Franklin D. Roosevelt cheered at Harvard and Dwight Eisenhower is on the list too.

Which pop superstar was a cheerleader at Rochester Adams High School in Michigan?

Sandra Bullock, Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Martin all cheered too.

Omi's 2015 hit 'Cheerleader' topped charts worldwide thanks to a remix by which German DJ?

The Jamaican singer had first released the song on a Kingston indie label in 2012.

Under Varsity's 2021-22 all-star scoring system, routines are scored out of how many points?

The change from 100 shifted how points were spread across sections of the routine.

In 2023 Varsity Brands agreed to pay how much to settle an antitrust suit brought by all-star cheer gyms?

As part of the deal it stopped paying the salaries of USASF executives.

Cheer routines at competition are typically built to what counting system?

Squads set stunts, tumbling, jumps and dance to custom music so every member hits on the same beat.

Competitive cheer routines usually last how long?

They combine tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers and stunting into that window.

Which magazine did Herkimer create for cheerleaders while at SMU?

His camps eventually employed as many as 1,500 instructors teaching tens of thousands each summer.

Which future Texas governor was a Yell Leader at Texas A&M?

Mitt Romney cheered at Cranbrook School and Aaron Spelling at SMU.

Season two of Netflix's Cheer addressed the criminal case against which season-one star?

The season premiered in January 2022.

Which private equity firm's acquisition of Varsity Brands is discussed in the season one finale of Cheer?

The episode argues the company controlled most of the billion-dollar industry, including the Daytona broadcast rights.

At the collegiate level, roughly what share of cheerleading participants are male?

That contrasts sharply with cheer overall, and men's stunts lean on tumbling, flips and handstands rather than flexibility.

Who invented the vinyl pom-pom in 1965?

The International Cheerleading Foundation, now the World Cheerleading Association, brought the vinyl version into competitions.

How many member nations does the International Cheer Union claim?

The union estimates 7.5 million participants worldwide, with the activity spreading beyond the US around the end of the 2000s.

Which network first aired the National High School Cheerleading Championship in 1984?

That came just ten years after Jeff Webb founded the company that became Varsity Spirit, which supplied the camps, contests and uniforms.

Which Kentucky middle school was the first chosen as the US junior national cheer team?

Junior and senior teams at the world championships are a prerequisite for cheerleading's hoped-for path to the Olympics.