Q 01/05

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

A) Lawrence Herkimer

B) Jeff Webb

C) Johnny Campbell

D) Tex Schramm

Answer · why

C) Johnny Campbell

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.

Q 02/05

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

A) All-male

B) All-female

C) Mixed from the start

D) Faculty-only

Answer · why

A) All-male

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

Q 03/05

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

A) 1923

B) 1934

C) 1945

D) 1956

Answer · why

A) 1923

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

Q 04/05

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

A) Ski-u-mah!

B) Rah Rah Ree!

C) Hoo-Rah Varsity!

D) Sis Boom Rah!

Answer · why

D) Sis Boom Rah!

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

Q 05/05

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

A) Cheer competition

B) Cheer uniform company

C) Cheerleading fraternity

D) All-star cheer gym

Answer · why

C) Cheerleading fraternity

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