The History of Cheerleading

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The history of cheerleading is connected to the development of sports in the United States and crowd participation at athletic events. In 1869, the first American football college game took place at Rutgers University against Princeton University in Piscataway, New Jersey. This was where cheerleading initially began.
By the 1880s, the students at Princeton formed an all-male student “pep club” to lead chants and yells in order to support their team and create an exciting sports environment. To motivate their team, people in the stands would yell encouragements such as "Tiger, Tiger, Sis, Sis, Sis!" and 'Princeton, Princeton, Princeton!" In 1884, Princeton alumni, Thomas Peebles, successfully introduced the concept of cheer and pep club at football games to students at the University of Minnesota. That same year, two rugby players, John W. Adams and Win Sargent, created what they called a “team yell”, SKI-YOU-MAH, to inspire their team. They used the native battle cry “Ski”, which means victory, and a made-up word “U-Mah” to represent the University of Minnesota. It rhymed with “rah-rah-rah” to form a team cheer. Their “yell” became popular throughout the school, and later helped a student named Johnny Campbell with inventing what is known today as cheerleading. By 1889 pep clubs, cheers, yells, and fight songs rapidly developed in many schools all of the country.
The students in the "pep club" at Minnesota came up with a plan for more crowd involvement so they can win their game versus Northwestern University. The November 12, 1898 edition of the University of Minnesota student publication “Ariel” stated, “The following were nominated to lead the Yelling today: Jack (sic) Campbell, F.G Kotlaba, M.J. Luby, Albert Armstrong of the...

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... years cheer teams began traveling to other countries participating in World competition. In 2004, the USASF/IASF hosted the 1st World Cheerleading Championships at Disney World in Florida. About 14 of the top teams in the world competed for the title of “World Champion”. Today, more than 9 thousand athletes from over 40 countries compete at Worlds.
Cheerleading began as a male-only activity to cheer on their schools sports teams. Today it is a world-wide co-ed sport that incorporates leadership, athleticism, and entertainment. Cheerleading focuses on teamwork, dedication, and skills preparing participants for future challenges in life. It helps cheerleaders practice communication skills, confidence, and crowd management. Cheerleading has come a long way since the 1800s and is now a very popular sport in the US and a few parts of other countries around the world.

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