In 1883 Great Britain started cheering and chanting at sports games. With college football came Cheerleading. The first game was held in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers University. In the 1880s Princeton formed an all male student pep club. Who made the first organized cheer you ask? Minnesota student Johnny Campbell. Today he is known as the world’s first cheerleader.

Today more than 90% of American cheerleaders are girls. But in the beginning, this was completely unheard of. Ladies were suppose to be quiet, and polite. Lawrence Herkimer a cheerleader formed the National Cheerleaders association. But Herkimer did not stop. He went on to make a cheerleading and dance supply company. He also made up a jump known today as the Herkie. Unbeknownst to a lot of people there are some presidents who were cheerleaders. Such as George W. Bush (2nd), Dwight Eisenhower, and Franklin Roosevelt. Women started joining Cheer in 1923. Mostly because of the fact that they didn’t have enough male cheerleaders because a lot of them were off fighting in WW2. Later on women became a common sight in cheer around the 50s. The first ranked competitions came around the late 1960s. Pom pom’s have been a cheerleader’s accessory since the 1930s. At first they were made from crepe paper, but in the 1960s a vinyl version replaced them. Although ESPN officially started declaring cheerleading a sport in the late 1990s. There are still heated debates about whether cheerleading is a sport. Hopefully one day cheer will get the love it deserves.

http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1950821_2018385,00.html

http://cheerleading.isport.com/cheerleading-guides/history-of-cheerleading

I asked some cheerleaders what their favorite memory from cheer is.