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"I Used to Think Women Were Weak": Orthodox Masculinity, Gender Segregation, and Sport

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"I Used to Think Women Were Weak": Orthodox Masculinity, Gender Segregation, and Sport

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How Cheerleading Went from Raucous and Male to Restrictive and Female

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How Cheerleading Went from Raucous and Male to Restrictive and Female

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How Cheerleading Went from Raucous and Male to Restrictive and Female

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The history and future of gender in the sport

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Cheerleading | Definition, History, & Facts

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Cheerleading, team activity in which elements of dance and acrobatics are combined with shouted slogans in order to entertain spectators at sporting events and to encourage louder and more enthusiastic cheering. In recent years it has gained recognition as a sport in its own right.

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The complicated history of cheerleading, Title IX and what it means to be a sport

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The complicated history of cheerleading, Title IX and what it means to be a sport

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When President Richard Nixon signed the Education Amendments Act in 1972, the new law's Title IX codified gender equality in education as a civil right. Though the words "sports" or "athletics" were never mentioned in Title IX, it became pivotal in boosting women's involvement in sports. But it also launched a complicated conversation - one inextricable from the sports world, but also often left out of conversations around athletes even today.

"It's hard to ignore the fact that Title IX and cheerleading - their stories are intertwined," Natalie Adams, a professor at the University of Alabama and the co-author of the forthcoming book "Cheer: An American Obsession," told The 19th. "The mantra of Title IX was moving girls from the sidelines to the playing field and it was clear what they meant by that - it meant cheerleading. Cheerleading became an easy target for derision."

To be in compliance with Title IX - which turns 50 this month - a school must ensure that the same number of chances to participate in sports are available for students of all genders proportional to enrollment. But just what was considered a sport has been up for debate. As competition cheerleading has continued to evolve, a complicated dynamic has emerged, with varying opinions on whether gaining Title IX recognition would be in the sport's best interest or not. The debate over whether cheerleading should have that recognition, and official status under the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), does not divide neatly, with all schools or all coaches or all cheerleaders on one side or the other.

A lot of it, though, stems from the cultural associations formed at the time of Title IX's origins. Cheerleading's deep history as a promotional tool for college athletics departments continues to shape public perception of the sport, even as it has evolved into its contemporary competitive form, heavily reliant on tightly synced choreography, elaborate stunts, and intricate tumbling combinations executed by both all-women and co-ed teams.

"Cheerleading presented a dilemma - how were women supposed to be taking the field when we still have female cheerleaders on the sidelines? Cheerleading could not be seen as being an empowering women's sport, even as the decades have gone by and the sport has changed dramatically," said Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports media at Ithaca College and an expert on Title IX and college sports, told The 19th.

What it means to be a sport

In 1975, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a memorandum specifying that cheer was to be classified as an extracurricular activity - which also meant it could not be used as part of the head count in tallying Title IX opportunities for women athletes. As competition cheerleading began to emerge in the 1990s and continued to evolve in the early 2000s, this classification was increasingly questioned by college cheerleading coaches. Many wanted equal recognition, equal funding and more opportunities to compete. But in 2010, a federal judge ruled that cheerleading does not "count" as a sport under Title IX.

The majority of college cheerleaders, then, are in their schools' athletic departments but outside the NCAA, college athletics' governing body. All sports that count toward Title IX are governed by the NCAA, and the NCAA must comply with Title IX. But there is a kind of regulatory gap for athletic programs not governed by the NCAA.

A North Carolina Tar Heels cheerleader performs at Barclays Center in March 2022 in New York City. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

The NCAA regulates how many hours a day officially designated student-athletes may spend in practices and training (no more than four hours a day and 20 hours a week in-season and no more than eight hours a week out-of-season). It also requires that student athletes have one guaranteed day off a week in-season, and two days a week off in the off-season. Starting in 2014, the NCAA has also required their sports programs to report all " catastrophic " injuries - which result in a fatality, a permanent disability or another serious injury.

Research has found that cheerleading has the second-highest rate of catastrophic injuries in both college and high school athletics, regardless of gender; only football results in more direct, severe injuries. For some elite college cheer programs, not being beholden to limits on hours of training and practice and reporting injuries is a benefit, not a drawback. But many who feel like it's time for NCAA recognition for cheer feel like this is an essential measure to protect these athletes and their health.

"One of the leading reasons for declaring cheerleading a sport is that advocates say this is the best thing for the athletes themselves," Adams said.

Double the responsibilities, half the recognition

Daniel Nester, the outgoing head coach of Georgia Tech's cheerleading team, has been an integral part of lobbying the NCAA to grant status to collegiate competition cheer through his work on the ACC head coaches board.

"Most of us are set up, have a team, have a full-time coach, have a trainer - if it became an NCAA sport, it would be an easy transition," Nester told The 19th. "Every time I talk to my [athletic director] and I have talked to Clemson's athletic director and Syracuse's athletic director, I say, 'It's easy - we're already there, nothing changes, it would help our numbers and it's doing the right thing in empowering women in sports.'"

Nester, who is leaving his coaching position to transition to a non-athletics-department role at the university this summer, said cheerleaders are treated differently than other student-athletes on campus - namely because without NCAA and Title IX recognition, they aren't technically classified as student-athletes.

"We don't ask the basketball team to play basketball one day and then be student ambassadors the next day," Nester said. He thinks these "traditional" elements of cheerleading are part of what's holding the sport back.

The Duke Blue Devils cheerleaders perform while taking on the West Virginia Mountaineers. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

"I don't think people understand what training is actually required and what part is athleticism and what part is performance. If we could move away from cheering at football games, we might have to be called something different. But schools still want cheerleaders waving pom-poms at football games," he said.

Irelyn Brady, who cheered for two years at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, and will be joining the co-ed competition cheer team at the University of Alabama this fall, said she wishes schools with competition cheer programs would create separate, game-day-only programs, letting competition cheerleaders focus on their training.

"Competitive cheerleaders should practice for competitions - hopefully, more than just one a year in the future. And then for people who enjoy game day material more, they could have their own game day squad," Brady said.

But some of the schools - and some cheerleaders themselves - aren't clamoring for NCAA recognition because it would also restrict the community ambassadorship aspect.

At these schools, "those cheerleaders play such a big role in the traditional aspects of cheerleading - being an ambassador, fundraising, attending alumni events, presenting at ribbon-cutting ceremonies, participating in parades. And so many of these traditional things are what those cheerleaders say provides networking opportunities that translate into jobs and opportunities in the future. There's not a big push from them to get rid of that," Adams said.

When being 'more than a sport' limits how you compete

The perception of cheerleading as sideline entertainment and community morale boosterseven extend to the largest organizations supporting it. Currently, competition squads participate each year in one of two annual national championships, hosted by either the National Cheerleading Association (NCA) or the Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA), both divisions of a company called Varsity. Varsity states on its own website that cheerleading is not a sport by Title IX standards because it's " more than a sport." The lack of official recognition means Varsity, a privately held athletic wear company, remains all but the sole outlet for cheer competitions.

Nester said it is unfair to these athletes to be given only one chance a year to compete. A move into the NCAA would allow cheerleading teams to compete multiple times a year, following the same structure of other collegiate sports with invitationals, conferences and national titles. Nester helped create an ACC conference cheer championship two years ago. In its first year, 12 of the 16 ACC schools competed in it. Last year, 11 sent teams. Georgia Tech took first place both years - but they still aren't technically conference title holders. Although the competition was open to all ACC schools, without NCAA status, it is not an official ACC event.

Collegiate competitive cheer teams train almost year-round. Brady told The 19th that she will begin training for the upcoming year starting in July. She will attend practice for three hours a day Monday through Friday, with double training sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All of this work leads up to one single competition that takes place at the end of April. Even in the off-season, she has mandatory workouts and camps she must do as part of her training.

"We put in almost a year's worth of work for one competition that's not even recognized by the NCAA," Brady said. "People don't even see us as athletes. They think we're just some kind of club."

Fewer scholarships, smaller salaries

Lack of NCAA status also means that cheer coaches earn significantly less than their peers who coach sports that count under Title IX. As head coach at Georgia Tech, Nester was the highest-paid head cheer coach in the ACC. He earned $51,000 last year and was the team's only full-time coach, overseeing over 100 athletes as Georgia Tech's spirit coordinator, which put him over multiple cheer squads, the dance team and the mascot. The next lowest-paid head coach at Georgia Tech earned $102,000 last year and has only seven athletes in their program. For a sport whose head coaching roles are often filled by women and LGBTQ+ people, the lack of Title IX recognition has in turn yielded a major wage gap.

That trickles down to the amount of scholarship money available to cheerleaders, as non-Title IX and non-NCAA sports do not have the same access to and ability to fund scholarships for team members as their peers with recognized status do. Brady said that at Navarro, the community college made famous by "Cheer," and an unmatched NCA championship title holder, cheerleaders get scholarship funds of $500 per semester if they live off campus and $1,000 a semester if they live on campus.

"I think a lot of cheerleaders aren't able to go to college because they're not funded," Brady said. "If we had known this when we were younger and starting off, maybe we would have switched to gymnastics or tried to pick up a different sport that could help us get into college. All of the work we do seems pointless when we're awarded a couple hundred bucks to go to a $25,000-a-year school."

Title IX's goals and a history of optics

"If you go back to the 1970s, cheerleading was viewed as part of the pageantry associated with men's sports," Staurowsky said. "If you go back to look at some of the sports administration texts from that time for the things needed to run a football game, under promotional items it would be 'band' and 'cheerleaders.' You don't see that kind of discussion with any other women's sport."

But some colleges did want to count cheerleading as a sport - but many for questionable reasons. Linda Correia, a civil rights attorney who specializes in Title IX athletics cases, said schools have tried to use their cheerleading programs - including programs that are game-day-only and do not participate in UCA or NCA competitions - to help bolster their Title IX numbers. One such case prompted the 2010 ruling that cheer was not a sport.

Correia added that those who oppose cheerleading garnering NCAA and Title IX recognition believe that schools would use it to avoid investing in new opportunities for women in sports - cheer or otherwise.

Cheerleaders for the University of California Los Angeles Bruins celebrate during an NCAA game circa 1970 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (Martin Mills/Getty Images)

"Some schools have great athletics programs for women and some don't," Correia said. "The problem is on the margins, where the numbers are out of whack because a school is promoting and funding the male athletic programs more than they are paying attention to a woman athlete who wants better facilities, wants to be in a better program that will draw better recruits, wants a better field to play on, have all the bells and whistles that men's teams have."

She said that as Title IX gained teeth and more and more higher education institutions were called out for their lack of investment in women's athletics, more people began advocating for bringing cheer under the NCAA and qualifying for Title IX numbers, joining the cheerleading advocates who wanted the recognition.

"It was then that people started saying, 'But cheer is an athletic competition,'" she said.

Staurowsky just completed a report for the Women's Sports Foundation that found that large swaths of colleges and universities are still not complying with Title IX when it comes to athletics.

"One of the things I think has plagued cheerleading is the motive behind why schools want to move in the direction of bringing it on as a varsity sport," she said. She points to the 2010 ruling in the case involving Quinnipiac as an example. Because cheerleading requires very little in terms of facilities and equipment other than a floor and mats, schools can say they are investing in women's sports by counting cheer towards their Title IX numbers without actually having to devote actual dollars to a program that provides spots for women athletes.

Reinforcing the gender binary in sports

Staurowsky said that historically, starting with high school athletics programs, the biggest opportunities for women's advancement in sports have been in basketball - and then cheerleading. Though cheerleading was athletics-adjacent in the 1970s, it was still "seen as an accessory rather than as a central part of a male-dominated sports system." As a result, she said, this created a "gendered division of labor" when it came to college athletics during the time that Title IX first went into effect: "Cheerleading was the anchor for maintaining a gender binary: Men played on the field and women were on the sidelines."

"Frankly, I think that narrative has certainly affected the sport over the past few decades, even as [cheerleading] has evolved and changed drastically," Staurowsky continued. "I think that has been part of the reason why some portion of the women's sports community has so resisted cheerleading over time."

Correia adds that when it comes to Title IX, there is often a "false narrative" perpetuated by the law's opponents that an inherent tension exists between men's and women's sports within university athletics departments, a belief that the creation of a new women's sport program necessitates the elimination of a men's sport. That's simply untrue, though, she said.

"It is really about resources and the allocation of resources. If a football team has 50 players, then you have to have 50 opportunities for female athletes because presumably 50 women are not playing football. It doesn't mean nix men's sports - it just means make more opportunities for female athletes," she said.

Clemson Tigers cheerleaders play in confetti at University of Phoenix Stadium in December 2016 in Glendale, Arizona. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Rewriting the future

Nester also believes that cheer has a language problem. "We call them cheer competitions, but we should move to matches and meets, like other sports." This language problem extends to the deeply gendered nature of the sport, too. Cheer teams are currently classified as "all-girl" or "co-ed."

"In the collegiate world, we don't call it all-girl basketball. We say women's basketball. So why do we say 'all-girl' in cheer?" he said.

Nester said the athletes want the recognition. Brady, the Navarro cheerleader, agreed.

"It's heartbreaking to know that a female volleyball player or a female soccer player are getting recognized and counted as athletes under Title IX. But when I tell someone I'm a college cheerleader, they say, 'Oh well that's not really a sport. Do you do anything else?' It's degrading to know that a lot of the hard work we put in for years on end ultimately means nothing in the end."

"Most women who are on collegiate cheerleading teams have been training since the age of 5. Most high schools consider cheerleading a sport. It's a rude awakening," Nester said, when these longtime athletes are told they aren't technically athletes.

"It's super frustrating for these kids because nothing has changed for them," Nester said. "They're still training for a national championship competition held under Varsity, but they're not in the NCAA so their university says to them, 'No, we will treat you differently.'"

Nester continued: "These athletes have trained their whole lives and they continue to train every day. What's the difference between a track and field athlete and a cheerleader? History and pom-poms - and that's what is standing in our way."

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The complicated history of cheerleading, Title IX and what it means to be a sport

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When President Richard Nixon signed the Education Amendments Act in 1972, the new law's Title IX codified gender equality in education as a civil right. Though the words "sports" or "athletics" were never mentioned in Title IX, it became pivotal in boosting women's involvement in sports.

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

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

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

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Cheerleading has had a burst of popularity due to “Cheer,” a popular Netflix documentary about a college team’s dramatic season in Navarro, Texas.

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Princetonian, Volume 4, Number 16, 12 March 1880

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Princetonian, Volume 4, Number 16, 12 March 1880

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Princetonian 12 March 1880 - Princeton Periodicals

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Princetonian, Volume 6, Number 8, 4 November 1881

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Princetonian, Volume 6, Number 8, 4 November 1881

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Princetonian 4 November 1881 — Princeton Periodicals

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Charlene Cosman Princeton Class of 1976 Locomotive Cheer 6-1-2019

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Charlene Cosman Princeton Class of 1976 Locomotive Cheer 6-1-2019

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Charlene Cosman Princeton Class of 1976 Locomotive Cheer 6-1-2019

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Football Cheerleaders, Stadium Dedication game, 1927

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Football Cheerleaders, Stadium Dedication game, 1927

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Being a Cheerleader – History of Cheerleading Cheerleading

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Being a Cheerleader – History of Cheerleading Cheerleading

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Being a Cheerleader - History of Cheerleading

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Cheerleading's roots are closely tied to American football's. The first intercollegiate game was played in 1869, between Princeton University and Rutgers University in New Jersey, and by the 1880s, Princeton had formed an all-male pep club. A graduate of Princeton, Thomas Peebles, took the Princeton cheers to the University of Minnesota, where football and fight [...]

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Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition. Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting.

Modern cheerleading is very closely associated with American football and basketball. Sports such as association football (soccer), ice hockey, volleyball, baseball, and wrestling will sometimes sponsor cheerleading squads. The ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2007 was the first international cricket event to have cheerleaders. The Florida Marlins were the first Major League Baseball team to have a cheerleading team.

Cheerleading originated as an all-male activity in the United States, and remains predominantly in America, with an estimated 3.85 million participants as of 2017. The global presentation of cheerleading was led by the 1997 broadcast of ESPN's International cheerleading competition, and the worldwide release of the 2000 film . The International Cheer Union (ICU) now claims 116 member nations with an estimated 7.5 million participants worldwide. The sport has gained a lot of traction in Australia, Canada, Mexico, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with popularity continuing to grow as sport leaders pursue Olympic status.

Cheerleading carries the highest rate of catastrophic injuries to female athletes in sports, with most injuries associated with stunting, also known as pyramids.

Before organized cheerleading

Cheerleading began during the late 18th century with the rebellion of male students. After the American Revolutionary War, students experienced harsh treatment from teachers. In response to faculty's abuse, college students violently acted out. The undergraduates began to riot, burn down buildings located on their college campuses, and assault faculty members. As a more subtle way to gain independence, however, students invented and organized their own extracurricular activities outside their professors' control. This brought about American sports, beginning first with collegiate teams.

In the 1860s, students from Great Britain began to cheer and chant in unison for their favorite athletes at sporting events. Soon, that gesture of support crossed overseas to America.

On November 6, 1869, the United States witnessed its first intercollegiate football game. It took place between Princeton University and Rutgers University, and marked the day the original "Sis Boom Rah!" cheer was shouted out by student fans.

Beginning of organized cheerleading

Minnesota Gopher cheerleader Johnny Campbell

Organized cheerleading began as an all-male activity. As early as 1877, Princeton University had a "Princeton Cheer", documented in the February 22, 1877, March 12, 1880, and November 4, 1881, issues of The Daily Princetonian. This cheer was yelled from the stands by students attending games, as well as by the athletes themselves. The cheer, "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Tiger! S-s-s-t! Boom! A-h-h-h!" remains in use with slight modifications today, where it is now referred to as the "Locomotive".

Princeton class of 1882 graduate Thomas Peebles moved to Minnesota in 1884. He transplanted the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota.

The term "Cheer Leader" had been used as early as 1897, with Princeton's football officials having named three students as Cheer Leaders: Thomas, Easton, and Guerin from Princeton's classes of 1897, 1898, and 1899, respectively, on October 26, 1897. These students would cheer for the team also at football practices, and special cheering sections were designated in the stands for the games themselves for both the home and visiting teams.

It was not until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!", making Campbell the very first cheerleader.

November 2, 1898, is the official birth date of organized cheerleading. Soon after, the University of Minnesota organized a "yell leader" squad of six male students, who still use Campbell's original cheer today.

Early 20th century cheerleading and female participation

Cheerleaders at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1948

In 1903, the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma, was founded.

In 1923, at the University of Minnesota, women were permitted to participate in cheerleading. However, it took time for other schools to follow. In the late 1920s, many school manuals and newspapers that were published still referred to cheerleaders as "chap", "fellow", and "man".

Women cheerleaders were overlooked until the 1940s when collegiate men were drafted for World War II, creating the opportunity for more women to make their way onto sporting event sidelines. As noted by Kieran Scott in Ultimate Cheerleading: "Girls really took over for the first time."

In 1949, Lawrence Herkimer, a former cheerleader at Southern Methodist University and inventor of the herkie jump, founded his first cheerleading camp in Huntsville, Texas. 52 girls were in attendance. The clinic was so popular that Herkimer was asked to hold a second, where 350 young women were in attendance. Herkimer also patented the pom-pom.

Growth in popularity (1950-1979)

In 1951, Herkimer created the National Cheerleading Association to help grow the activity and provide cheerleading education to schools around the country.

During the 1950s, female participation in cheerleading continued to grow. An overview written on behalf of cheerleading in 1955 explained that in larger schools, "occasionally boys as well as girls are included", and in smaller schools, "boys can usually find their place in the athletic program, and cheerleading is likely to remain solely a feminine occupation". Cheerleading could be found at almost every school level across the country; even pee wee and youth leagues began to appear.

In the 1950s, professional cheerleading also began. The first recorded cheer squad in National Football League (NFL) history was for the Baltimore Colts. Professional cheerleaders put a new perspective on American cheerleading. Women were exclusively chosen for dancing ability as well as to conform to the male gaze, as heterosexual men were the targeted marketing group.

By the 1960s, college cheerleaders employed by the NCA were hosting workshops across the nation, teaching fundamental cheer skills to tens of thousands of high-school-age girls. Herkimer also contributed many notable firsts to cheerleading: the founding of a cheerleading uniform supply company, inventing the herkie jump (where one leg is bent towards the ground as if kneeling and the other is out to the side as high as it will stretch in toe-touch position), and creating the "Spirit Stick".

In 1965, Fred Gastoff invented the vinyl pom-pom, which was introduced into competitions by the International Cheerleading Foundation (ICF, now the World Cheerleading Association, or WCA). Organized cheerleading competitions began to pop up with the first ranking of the "Top Ten College Cheerleading Squads" and "Cheerleader All America" awards given out by the ICF in 1967.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders soon gained the spotlight with their revealing outfits and sophisticated dance moves, debuting in the 1972-1973 season, but were first widely seen in Super Bowl X (1976). These pro squads of the 1970s established cheerleaders as "American icons of wholesome sex appeal."

In 1975, Randy Neil estimated that over 500,000 students actively participated in American cheerleading from elementary school to the collegiate level. Neil also approximated that ninety-five percent of cheerleaders within America were female.

In 1978, America was introduced to competitive cheerleading by the first broadcast of Collegiate Cheerleading Championships on CBS.

1980s to present

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1983) performing in the USO show "America and Her Music" on the deck of the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser USS Bainbridge (CGN-25)

Cheerleading is a mainstream activity in the U.S.[33] Picture shows U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld posing with U.S. Army cheerleaders, 2004.

The 1980s saw the beginning of modern cheerleading, adding difficult stunt sequences and gymnastics into routines. All-star teams, or those not affiliated with a school, popped up, and eventually led to the creation of the U.S. All Star Federation (USASF). ESPN first broadcast the National High School Cheerleading Competition nationwide in 1983.

By 1981, a total of seventeen Nation Football League teams had their own cheerleaders. The only teams without NFL cheerleaders at this time were New Orleans, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Denver, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and San Diego. Professional cheerleading eventually spread to soccer and basketball teams as well.

Cheerleading organizations such as the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA), founded in 1987, started applying universal safety standards to decrease the number of injuries and prevent dangerous stunts, pyramids, and tumbling passes from being included in the cheerleading routines. In 2003, the National Council for Spirit Safety and Education (NCSSE) was formed to offer safety training for youth, school, all-star, and college coaches. The NCAA now requires college cheer coaches to successfully complete a nationally recognized safety-training program.

Even with its athletic and competitive development, cheerleading at the school level has retained its ties to its spirit leading traditions. Cheerleaders are quite often seen as ambassadors for their schools, and leaders among the student body. At the college level, cheerleaders are often invited to help at university fundraisers and events.

Debuting in 2003, the "Marlin Mermaids" gained national exposure, and have influenced other MLB teams to develop their own cheer/dance squads.

As of 2005, overall statistics show around 97% of all modern cheerleading participants are female, although at the collegiate level, cheerleading is co-ed with about 50% of participants being male. Modern male cheerleaders' stunts focus less on flexibility and more on tumbling, flips, pikes, and handstands. These depend on strong legs and strong core strength.

In 2019, Napoleon Jinnies and Quinton Peron became the first male cheerleaders in the history of the NFL to perform at the Super Bowl.

Safety regulation changes

Kristi Yamaoka, a cheerleader for Southern Illinois University, suffered a fractured vertebra when she hit her head after falling from a human pyramid. She also suffered from a concussion, and a bruised lung. The fall occurred when Yamaoka lost her balance during a basketball game between Southern Illinois University and Bradley University at the Savvis Center in St. Louis on March 5, 2006. The fall gained "national attention", because Yamaoka continued to perform from a stretcher as she was moved away from the game.

The accident caused the Missouri Valley Conference to ban its member schools from allowing cheerleaders to be "launched or tossed and from taking part in formations higher than two levels" for one week during a women's basketball conference tournament, and also resulted in a recommendation by the NCAA that conferences and tournaments do not allow pyramids two and one half levels high or higher, and a stunt known as basket tosses, during the rest of the men's and women's basketball season. On July 11, 2006, the bans were made permanent by the AACCA rules committee:

The committee unanimously voted for sweeping revisions to cheerleading safety rules, the most major of which restricts specific upper-level skills during basketball games. Basket tosses, high pyramids, one-arm stunts, stunts that involve twisting or flipping, and twisting tumbling skills may be performed only during halftime and post-game on a matted surface and are prohibited during game play or time-outs.

Types of teams in the United States today

University of Memphis Cheerleaders performing a Co-ed double Cupie

Most American elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges have organized cheerleading squads. Some colleges even offer cheerleading scholarships for students. A school cheerleading team may compete locally, regionally, or nationally, but their main purpose is typically to cheer for sporting events and encourage audience participation. Cheerleading is quickly becoming a year-round activity, starting with tryouts during the spring semester of the preceding school year. Teams may attend organized summer cheerleading camps and practices to improve skills and create routines for competition.

In addition to supporting their schools' football or other sports teams, student cheerleaders may compete with recreational-style routine at competitions year-round.

Elementary school

In far more recent years, it has become more common for elementary schools to have an organized cheerleading team. This is a great way to get younger children introduced to the sport and used to being crowd leaders. Also, with young children learning so much so quickly, tumbling can come very easy to a child in elementary school.

Middle school

Middle school cheerleading evolved shortly after high school squads were created and is set at the district level. In middle school, cheerleading squads serve the same purpose, but often follow a modified set of rules from high school squads with possible additional rules. Squads can cheer for basketball teams, football teams, and other sports teams in their school. Squads may also perform at pep rallies and compete against other local schools from the area. Cheerleading in middle school sometimes can be a two-season activity: fall and winter. However, many middle school cheer squads will go year-round like high school squads. Middle school cheerleaders use the same cheerleading movements as their older counterparts, yet may perform less extreme stunts and tumbling elements, depending on the rules in their area.[citation needed ].

High school

High school cheerleaders

In high school, there are usually two squads per school: varsity and a junior varsity. High school cheerleading contains aspects of school spirit as well as competition. These squads have become part of a year-round cycle. Starting with tryouts in the spring, year-round practice, cheering on teams in the fall and winter, and participating in cheerleading competitions. Most squads practice at least three days a week for about two hours each practice during the summer.[citation needed ] Many teams also attend separate tumbling sessions outside of practice. During the school year, cheerleading is usually practiced five- to six-days-a-week. During competition season, it often becomes seven days with practice twice a day sometimes. The school spirit aspect of cheerleading involves cheering, supporting, and "hyping up" the crowd at football games, basketball games, and even at wrestling meets. Along with this, cheerleaders usually perform at pep rallies, and bring school spirit to other students. In May 2009, the National Federation of State High School Associations released the results of their first true high school participation study. They estimated that the number of high school cheerleaders from public high schools is around 394,700.

There are different cheerleading organizations that put on competitions; some of the major ones include state and regional competitions. Many high schools will often host cheerleading competitions, bringing in IHSA judges. The regional competitions are qualifiers for national competitions, such as the UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) Archived 2009-09-20 at the Wayback Machine in Orlando, Florida, every year. Many teams have a professional choreographer that choreographs their routine in order to ensure they are not breaking rules or regulations and to give the squad creative elements.

Collegiate cheerleaders for the University of Florida perform a high splits pyramid during a Gators college football game

Most American universities have a cheerleading squad to cheer for football, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, and soccer. Most college squads tend to be larger coed teams, although in recent years; all-girl squads and smaller college squads have increased rapidly. Cheerleading is not recognized by NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA as athletics; therefore, there are few to no scholarships offered to athletes wanting to pursue cheerleading at the collegiate level. However, some community colleges and universities offer scholarships directly from the program or sponsorship funds. Some colleges offer scholarships for an athlete's talents, academic excellence, and/or involvement in community events.

College squads perform more difficult stunts which include multi-level pyramids, as well as flipping and twisting basket tosses.

Not only do college cheerleaders cheer on the other sports at their university, many teams at universities compete with other schools at either UCA College Nationals or NCA College Nationals. This requires the teams to choreograph a 2-minute and 30 second routine that includes elements of jumps, tumbling, stunting, basket tosses, pyramids, and a crowd involvement section. Winning one of these competitions is a very prestigious accomplishment, and is seen as another national title for most schools.

Youth leagues and athletic associations

Youth cheerleaders during a football halftime show. Youth cheer-high school ages and younger-make up the vast majority of cheerleaders and cheer teams.

Organizations that sponsor youth cheer teams usually sponsor either youth league football or basketball teams as well. This allows for the two, under the same sponsor, to be intermingled. Both teams have the same mascot name and the cheerleaders will perform at their football or basketball games. Examples of such sponsors include Pop Warner, American Youth Football, and the YMCA. The purpose of these squads is primarily to support their associated football or basketball players, but some teams do compete at local or regional competitions. The Pop Warner Association even hosts a national championship each December for teams in their program who qualify.

All-star or club cheerleading

"All-star" or club cheerleading differs from school or sideline cheerleading because all-star teams focus solely on performing a competition routine and not on leading cheers for other sports teams. All-star cheerleaders are members of a privately owned gym or club which they typically pay dues or tuition to, similar to a gymnastics gym.

During the early 1980s, cheerleading squads not associated with a school or sports league, whose main objective was competition, began to emerge. The first organization to call themselves all-stars were the Q94 Rockers from Richmond, Virginia, founded in 1982. All-star teams competing prior to 1987 were placed into the same divisions as teams that represented schools and sports leagues. In 1986, the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) addressed this situation by creating a separate division for teams lacking a sponsoring school or athletic association, calling it the All-Star Division and debuting it at their 1987 competitions. As the popularity of this type of team grew, more and more of them were formed, attending competitions sponsored by many different organizations and companies, each using its own set of rules, regulations, and divisions. This situation became a concern to coaches and gym owners, as the inconsistencies caused coaches to keep their routines in a constant state of flux, detracting from time that could be better utilized for developing skills and providing personal attention to their athletes. More importantly, because the various companies were constantly vying for a competitive edge, safety standards had become more and more lax. In some cases, unqualified coaches and inexperienced squads were attempting dangerous stunts as a result of these expanded sets of rules.

The United States All Star Federation (USASF) was formed in 2003 by the competition companies to act as the national governing body for all star cheerleading and to create a standard set of rules and judging criteria to be followed by all competitions sanctioned by the Federation. Eager to grow the sport and create more opportunities for high-level teams, The USASF hosted the first Cheerleading Worlds on April 24, 2004. At the same time, cheerleading coaches from all over the country organized themselves for the same rule making purpose, calling themselves the National All Star Cheerleading Coaches Congress (NACCC). In 2005, the NACCC was absorbed by the USASF to become their rule making body. In late 2006, the USASF facilitated the creation of the International All-Star Federation (IASF), which now governs club cheerleading worldwide.

Competitive cheer - Paramount Cheerleaders doing a scale

As of 2020, all-star cheerleading, as sanctioned by the USASF, involves a squad of 5-36 females and males. All-star cheerleaders are placed into divisions, which are grouped based upon age, size of the team, gender of participants, and ability level. The age groups vary from under 4 years of age to 18 years and over. The squad prepares year-round for many different competition appearances, but they actually perform only for up to minutes during their team's routine. The numbers of competitions a team participates in varies from team to team, but generally, most teams tend to participate in six to ten competitions a year. These competitions include locals or regionals, which normally take place in school gymnasiums or local venues, nationals, hosted in large venues all around the U.S., and the Cheerleading Worlds, which takes place at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During a competition routine, a squad performs carefully choreographed stunting, tumbling, jumping, and dancing to their own custom music. Teams create their routines to an eight-count system and apply that to the music so that the team members execute the elements with precise timing and synchronization.

All-star cheerleaders compete at competitions hosted by private event production companies, the foremost of these being Varsity Spirit. Varsity Spirit is the parent company for many subsidiaries including The National Cheerleader's Association, The Universal Cheerleader's Association, AmeriCheer, Allstar Challenge, and JamFest, among others. Each separate company or subsidiary typically hosts their own local and national level competitions. This means that many gyms within the same area could be state and national champions for the same year and never have competed against each other. Currently, there is no system in place that awards only one state or national title.

Judges at a competition watch closely for illegal skills from the group or any individual member. Here, an illegal skill is something that is not allowed in that division due to difficulty or safety restrictions. They look out for deductions, or things that go wrong, such as a dropped stunt or a tumbler who doesn't stick a landing. More generally, judges look at the difficulty and execution of jumps, stunts and tumbling, synchronization, creativity, the sharpness of the motions, showmanship, and overall routine execution.

If a level 6 or 7 team places high enough at selected USASF/IASF sanctioned national competitions, they could earn a place at the Cheerleading Worlds and compete against teams from all over the world, as well as receive money for placing. For elite level cheerleaders, The Cheerleading Worlds is the highest level of competition to which they can aspire, and winning a world championship title is an incredible honor.

Professional

NFL Cheerleaders at the 2006 Pro Bowl.

Professional cheerleaders and dancers cheer for sports such as football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, or hockey. There are only a small handful of professional cheerleading leagues around the world; some professional leagues include the NBA Cheerleading League, the NFL Cheerleading League, the CFL Cheerleading League, the MLS Cheerleading League, the MLB Cheerleading League, and the NHL Ice Girls. Although professional cheerleading leagues exist in multiple countries, there are no Olympic teams.

In addition to cheering at games and competing, professional cheerleaders often do a lot of philanthropy and charity work, modeling, motivational speaking, television performances, and advertising.[citation needed ]

Injuries and accidents

Cheerleading carries the highest rate of catastrophic injuries to female athletes in high school and collegiate sports. Of the United States' 2.9 million female high school athletes, only 3% are cheerleaders, yet cheerleading accounts for nearly 65% of all catastrophic injuries in girls' high school athletics. In data covering the 1982-83 academic year through the 2018-19 academic year in the US, the rate of serious, direct traumatic injury per 100,000 participants was 1.68 for female cheerleaders at the high school level, the highest for all high school sports surveyed. (table 9a) The college rate could not be determined, as the total number of collegiate cheerleaders was unknown, but the total number of traumatic, direct catastrophic injuries over this period was 33 (28 female, 5 male), higher than all sports at this level aside from football. (table 5a) Another study found that between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling, or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with the vast majority (67) occurring in cheerleading.

The main source of injuries comes from stunting, also known as pyramids. These stunts are performed at games and pep rallies, as well as competitions. Sometimes competition routines are focused solely around the use of difficult and risky stunts. These stunts usually include a flyer (the person on top), along with one or two bases (the people on the bottom), and one or two spotters in the front and back on the bottom. The most common cheerleading related injury is a concussion. 96% of those concussions are stunt related. Other injuries include: sprained ankles, sprained wrists, back injuries, head injuries (sometimes concussions), broken arms, elbow injuries, knee injuries, broken noses, and broken collarbones. Sometimes, however, injuries can be as serious as whiplash, broken necks, broken vertebrae, and death.

The journal Pediatrics has reportedly said that the number of cheerleaders suffering from broken bones, concussions, and sprains has increased by over 100 percent between the years of 1990 and 2002, and that in 2001, there were 25,000 hospital visits reported for cheerleading injuries dealing with the shoulder, ankle, head, and neck. Meanwhile, in the US, cheerleading accounted for 65.1% of all major physical injuries to high school females, and to 66.7% of major injuries to college students due to physical activity from 1982 to 2007, with 22,900 minors being admitted to hospital with cheerleading-related injuries in 2002.

The risks of cheerleading were highlighted at the death of Lauren Chang. Chang died on April 14, 2008, after competing in a competition where her teammate had kicked her so hard in the chest that her lungs collapsed.

Cheerleading (for both girls and boys) was one of the sports studied in the Pediatric Injury Prevention, Education and Research Program of the Colorado School of Public Health in 2009/10-2012/13. Data on cheerleading injuries is included in the report for 2012-13.

Associations, federations, and organizations

Cheerleading formations demonstrated in Tokyo, Japan

International Cheer Union (ICU): Established on April 26, 2004, the ICU is recognized by the SportAccord as the world governing body of cheerleading and the authority on all matters with relation to it. Including participation from its 105-member national federations reaching 3.5 million athletes globally, the ICU continues to serve as the unified voice for those dedicated to cheerleading's positive development around the world.

Following a positive vote by the SportAccord General Assembly on May 31, 2013, in Saint Petersburg, the International Cheer Union (ICU) became SportAccord's 109th member, and SportAccord's 93rd international sports federation to join the international sports family. In accordance with the SportAccord statutes, the ICU is recognized as the world governing body of cheerleading and the authority on all matters related to it.

As of the 2016-17 season, the ICU has introduced a Junior aged team (12-16) to compete at the Cheerleading Worlds, because cheerleading is now in provisional status to become a sport in the Olympics. For cheerleading to one day be in the Olympics, there must be a junior and senior team that competes at the world championships. The first junior cheerleading team that was selected to become the junior national team was Eastside Middle School, located in Mount Washington Kentucky and will represent the United States in the inaugural junior division at the world championships.

The ICU holds training seminars for judges and coaches, global events and the World Cheerleading Championships. The ICU is also fully applied to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is compliant under the code set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

International Federation of Cheerleading (IFC): Established on July 5, 1998, the International Federation of Cheerleading (IFC) is a non-profit federation based in Tokyo, Japan, and is a world governing body of cheerleading, primarily in Asia. The IFC objectives are to promote cheerleading worldwide, to spread knowledge of cheerleading, and to develop friendly relations among the member associations and federations.

USA Cheer: The USA Federation for Sport Cheering (USA Cheer) was established in 2007 to serve as the national governing body for all types of cheerleading in the United States and is recognized by the ICU. "The USA Federation for Sport Cheering is a not-for profit 501(c)(6) organization that was established in 2007 to serve as the National Governing Body for Sport Cheering in the United States. USA Cheer exists to serve the cheer community, including club cheering (all star) and traditional school based cheer programs, and the growing sport of STUNT. USA Cheer has three primary objectives: help grow and develop interest and participation in cheer throughout the United States; promote safety and safety education for cheer in the United States; and represent the United States of America in international cheer competitions." In March 2018, they absorbed the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors (AACCA) and now provide safety guidelines and training for all levels of cheerleading. Additionally, they organize the USA National Team.

Universal Cheerleading Association: UCA is an association owned by the company brand Varsity. "Universal Cheerleaders Association was founded in 1974 by Jeff Webb to provide the best educational training for cheerleaders with the goal of incorporating high-level skills with traditional crowd leading. It was Jeff's vision that would transform cheerleading into the dynamic, athletic combination of high energy entertainment and school leadership that is loved by so many." "Today, UCA is the largest cheerleading camp company in the world, offering the widest array of dates and locations of any camp company. We also celebrate cheerleader's incredible hard work and athleticism through the glory of competition at over 50 regional events across the country and our Championships at the Walt Disney World Resort every year." "UCA has instilled leadership skills and personal confidence in more than 4.5 million athletes on and off the field while continuing to be the industry's leader for more than forty-five years. UCA has helped many cheerleaders get the training they need to succeed.

Competitions and companies

Asian Thailand Cheerleading Invitational (ATCI): Organised by the Cheerleading Association of Thailand (CAT) in accordance with the rules and regulations of the International Federation of Cheerleading (IFC). The ATCI is held every year since 2009. At the ATCI, many teams from all over Thailand compete, joining them are many invited neighbouring nations who also send cheer squads.

Cheerleading Asia International Open Championships (CAIOC): Hosted by the Foundation of Japan Cheerleading Association (FJCA) in accordance with the rules and regulations of the IFC. The CAIOC has been a yearly event since 2007. Every year, many teams from all over Asia converge in Tokyo to compete.

Cheerleading World Championships (CWC): Organised by the IFC. The IFC is a non-profit organisation founded in 1998 and based in Tokyo, Japan. The CWC has been held every two years since 2001, and to date, the competition has been held in Japan, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, and Hong Kong. The 6th CWC was held at the Hong Kong Coliseum on November 26-27, 2011.

The Italian national team competing at the ICU World Championships.

ICU World Championships: The International Cheer Union currently encompasses 105 National Federations from countries across the globe. Every year, the ICU host the World Cheerleading Championship. This competition uses a more collegiate style performance and rulebook. Countries assemble and send only one team to represent them.

National Cheerleading Championships (NCC): The NCC is the annual IFC-sanctioned national cheerleading competition in Indonesia organised by the Indonesian Cheerleading Community (ICC). Since NCC 2010, the event is now open to international competition, representing a significant step forward for the ICC. Teams from many countries such as Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore participated in the ground breaking event.

Pan-American Cheerleading Championships (PCC): The PCC was held for the first time in 2009 in the city of Latacunga, Ecuador and is the continental championship organised by the Pan-American Federation of Cheerleading (PFC). The PFC, operating under the umbrella of the IFC, is the non-profit continental body of cheerleading whose aim it is to promote and develop cheerleading in the Americas. The PCC is a biennial event, and was held for the second time in Lima, Peru, in November 2010.

USASF/IASF Worlds: Many United States cheerleading organizations form and register the not-for-profit entity the United States All Star Federation (USASF) and also the International All Star Federation (IASF) to support international club cheerleading and the World Cheerleading Club Championships. The first World Cheerleading Championships, or Cheerleading Worlds, were hosted by the USASF/IASF at the Walt Disney World Resort and taped for an ESPN global broadcast in 2004. This competition is only for All-Star/Club cheer. Only level 6 and 7 teams may attend and must receive a bid from a partner company.

The competition floor at Final Destination

: Varsity Spirit, a branch of Varsity Brands is a parent company which, over the past 10 years, has absorbed or bought most other cheerleading event production companies. The following is a list of subsidiary competition companies owned by Varsity Spirit:

All Star Challenge

All Star Championships

All Things Cheer

Aloha Spirit Championships

America's Best Championships

American Cheer and Dance

American Cheer Power

American Cheerleaders Association

AmeriCheer: Americheer was founded in 1987 by Elizabeth Rossetti. It is the parent company to Ameridance and Eastern Cheer and Dance Association. In 2005, Americheer became one of the founding members of the NLCC. This means that Americheer events offer bids to The U.S. Finals: The Final Destination. AmeriCheer InterNational Championship competition is held every March at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Athletic Championships

Champion Cheer and Dance

Champion Spirit Group

Cheer LTD

CHEERSPORT: CHEERSPORT was founded in 1993 by all star coaches who believed they could conduct competitions that would be better for the athletes, coaches and spectators. Their main event is CHEERSPORT Nationals, held each February at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia

CheerStarz

COA Cheer and Dance

Coastal Cheer and Dance

Encore Championships

GLCC Events

Golden State Spirit Association

The JAM Brands: The JAM Brands, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, provides products and services for the cheerleading and dance industry. It was previously made up of approximately 12 different brands that produce everything from competitions to camps to uniforms to merchandise and apparel, but is now owned by the parent company Varsity. JAMfest, the original brand of The JAM Brands, has been around since 1996 and was founded by Aaron Flaker and Emmitt Tyler.

Mardi Gras Spirit Events

Mid Atlantic Championships

Nation's Choice

National Cheerleaders Association (NCA): The NCA was founded in 1948 by Lawrence Herkimer. Every year, the NCA hosts a variety of competitions all across the United States, most notably the NCA High School Cheerleading Nationals and the NCA All-Star Cheerleading Nationals in Dallas, Texas. They also host the NCA/NDA Collegiate Cheer & Dance Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. In addition to competitions, they also provide summer camps for school cheerleaders. Their sister organization is the National Dance Alliance (NDA). The National Cheerleaders Association was the first company in cheerleading and also is accredited with many other firsts in cheerleading. These firsts include the first All Star National Championship, cheer camp, uniform company, and more.

One Up Championships

PacWest

Sea to Sky

Spirit Celebration

Spirit Cheer

Spirit Sports

Spirit Unlimited

Spirit Xpress

The American Championships

The U.S. Finals: This event was formerly hosted by Nation's Leading Cheer Companies which was a multi brand company, partnered with other companies such as: Americheer/Ameridance, American Cheer & Dance Academy, Eastern Cheer & Dance Association, and Spirit Unlimited before they were all acquired by Varsity. Every year, starting in 2006, the NLCC hosted The US Finals: The Final Destination of Cheerleading and Dance. Every team that attends must qualify and receive a bid at a partner company's competition. In May 2008, the NLCC and The JAM Brands announced a partnership to produce The U.S. Finals - Final Destination. This event is still produced under the new parent company, Varsity. There are nine Final Destination locations across the country. After the regional events, videos of all the teams that competed are sent to a new panel of judges and rescored to rank teams against those against whom they may never have had a chance to compete.

Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA): Universal Cheerleaders Association was founded in 1974 by Jeff Webb. Since 1980, UCA has hosted the National High School Cheerleading Championship in Walt Disney World Resort. They also host the National All-Star Cheerleading Championship, and the College Cheerleading National Championship at Walt Disney World Resort. All of these events air on ESPN.

United Spirit Association: In 1950, Robert Olmstead directed his first summer training camp, and USA later sprouted from this. USA's focus is on the game day experience as a way to enhance audience entertainment. This focus led to the first American football half-time shows to reach adolescences from around the world and expose them to American style cheerleading. USA provides competitions for cheerleading squads without prior qualifications needed in order to participate. The organization also allows the opportunity for cheerleaders to become an All-American, participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and partake in London's New Year's Day Parade and other special events much like UCA and NCA allow participants to do.

Universal Spirit Association

World Spirit Federation

Title IX sports status

In the United States, the designation of a "sport" is important because of Title IX. There is a large debate on whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport for Title IX (a portion of the United States Education Amendments of 1972 forbidding discrimination under any education program on the basis of sex) purposes. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued memos and letters to schools that cheerleading, both sideline and competitive, may not be considered "athletic programs" for the purposes of Title IX. Supporters consider cheerleading, as a whole, a sport, citing the heavy use of athletic talents while critics see it as a physical activity because a "sport" implies a competition among all squads and not all squads compete, along with subjectivity of competitions where-as with gymnastics, diving, and figure skating -scores are assessed based on human judgment and not an objective goal or measurement of time.

On January 27, 2009, in a lawsuit involving an accidental injury sustained during a cheerleading practice, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that cheerleading is a full-contact sport in that state, not allowing any participants to be sued for accidental injury. In contrast, on July 21, 2010, in a lawsuit involving whether college cheerleading qualified as a sport for purposes of Title IX, a federal court, citing a current lack of program development and organization, ruled that it is not a sport at all.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) does not recognize cheerleading as a sport. In 2014, the American Medical Association adopted a policy that, as the leading cause of catastrophic injuries of female athletes both in high school and college, cheerleading should be considered a sport. While there are cheerleading teams at the majority of the NCAA's Division I schools, they are still not recognized as a sport. This results in many teams not being properly funded. Additionally, there are little to no college programs offering scholarships because their universities cannot offer athletic scholarships to "spirit" team members.

Cheerleading in Canada

High school cheerleaders in Montreal in 1943

Cheerleading in Canada is rising in popularity among the youth in co-curricular programs. Cheerleading has grown from the sidelines to a competitive activity throughout the world and in particular Canada. Cheerleading has a few streams in Canadian sports culture. It is available at the middle-school, high-school, collegiate, and best known for all-star. There are multiple regional, provincial, and national championship opportunities for all athletes participating in cheerleading. Canada does not have provincial teams, just a national program referred to as CCU or Team Canada. Their first year as a national team was in 2009 when they represented Canada at the International Cheer Union World Cheerleading Championships International Cheer Union (ICU).

Competition in Canada

There is no official governing body for Canadian cheerleading. The rules and guidelines for cheerleading used in Canada are the ones set out by the USASF. However, there are many organizations in Canada that put on competitions and have separate and individual rules and scoresheets for each competition. Cheer Evolution is the largest cheerleading and dance organization for Canada. They hold many competitions as well as provide a competition for bids to Worlds. There are other organizations such as the Ontario Cheerleading Federation (Ontario), Power Cheerleading Association (Ontario), Kicks Athletics (Quebec), and the International Cheer Alliance (Vancouver). There are over forty recognized competitive gym clubs with numerous teams that compete at competitions across Canada.

Canadian Cheer of the Global Stage

There are two world championship competitions that Canada participates in. The first is the ICU World Championships where the Canadian National Teams compete against other countries. The second is The Cheerleading Worlds where Canadian club teams, referred to as "all-star" teams, compete at the USASF Cheerleading Worlds. National team members who compete at the ICU Worlds can also compete with their "all-star club" teams. Although athletes can compete in both International Cheer Union (ICU) and USASF, crossovers between teams at each individual competition are not permitted. Teams compete against the other teams from their countries on the first day of competition and the top three teams from each country in each division continue to finals. At the end of finals, the top team scoring the highest for their country earns the "Nations Cup". Canada has multiple teams across their country that compete in the USASF Cheerleading Worlds Championship.

The International Cheer Union (ICU) is built of 103 countries that compete against each other in four divisions; Coed Premier, All-girl Premier, Coed Elite, and All-girl Elite. Canada has a national team ran by the Canadian Cheer Union (CCU). Their Coed Elite Level 5 Team and their All-girl Elite Level 5 team are 4-time world champions. The athletes on the teams are found from all over the country. In 2013, they added two more teams to their roster. A new division that will compete head-to-head with the United States: in both the All-girl and Coed Premier Level 6 divisions. Members tryout and are selected on the basis of their skills and potential to succeed. Canada's national program has grown to be one of the most successful programs.

Cheerleading in Mexico

Mexican cheerleaders at a soccer game in Monterrey, Mexico.

Cheerleading in Mexico is a popular sport commonly seen in Mexican College Football and Professional Mexican Soccer sporting events. Cheerleading emerged within the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the highest House of Studies in the country, during the 1930s, almost immediately after it was granted its autonomy. Since then, this phenomenon has been evolving to become what it is now. Firstly, it was developed only in the UNAM, later in other secondary and higher education institutions in Mexico City, and currently in practically the entire country.

Competition in Mexico

Cheerleaders associated with the Borregos Salvajes, called "Borreguitas" at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City.

In Mexico, this sport is endorsed by the Mexican Federation of Cheerleaders and Cheerleading Groups (Federación Mexicana de Porristas y Grupos de Animación) (FMPGA), a body that regulates competitions in Mexico and subdivisions such as the Olympic Confederation of Cheerleaders (COP Brands), National Organization of Cheerleaders (Organización Nacional de Porristas) (ONP) and the Mexican Organization of Trainers and Animation Groups (Organización Mexicana de Entrenadores y Grupos de Animación) (OMEGA Mexico), these being the largest in the country.

In 2021, the third edition of the National Championship of State Teams was held and organized by The Mexican Federation of Cheerleaders and Cheerleading Groups, on this occasion, the event was held virtually, broadcasting live, through the Vimeo platform.

Mexican Cheer of the Global Stage

In Mexico there are more than 500 teams and almost 10,000 athletes who practice this sport, in addition to a representative national team of Mexico, which won first place in the cheerleading world championship organized by the ICU ( International Cheer Union) on April 24, 2015, receiving a gold medal; In 2016, Mexico became the second country with the most medals in the world in this sport. With 27 medals, it is considered the second world power in this sport, only behind the United States. In the 2019 Coed Premier World Cheerleading Championship Mexico ranked 4th just behind the United States, Canada and Taiwan. In 2021, the Mexican team won 3rd place at the Junior Boom category in World Cheerleading Championship 2021 hosted by international cheerleading federation.

Cheerleading in the United Kingdom

This section has a link to a separate Wikipedia page that talks about the history and growth of cheerleading in the United Kingdom. This can be used to compare and contrast the activity in the U.S and in Australia.

Cheerleading in Australia

This section has a link to a separate Wikipedia page that talks about the history and growth of cheerleading in Australia. This can be used to compare and contrast the activity in the U.S and in Australia.

Notable former cheerleaders

This section has a link to a separate Wikipedia page that lists former cheerleaders and well-known cheerleading squads.

References

External links

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Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition.

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The latest Netflix phenomenon is no doubt the docuseries "Cheer," which follows Navarro College's competitive cheer squad on its quest to win a national championship in Daytona Beach, Florida.

As "Cheer" shows, there are many physical and mental benefits to cheerleading, but there's also serious potential for drawbacks.

HuffPost spoke with experts to find out what exactly happens to your body and mind when you participate in the sport of cheerleading. Read on for the pros and the cons.

You become stronger and more flexible

"Physically, cheerleaders are strong and flexible, as they combine elements of dance and gymnastics," said Lauren Hennessy, owner and director of MVP Mentality Sports Psychology in Boca Raton, Florida. "Additionally, they require a great deal of stamina to perform. ... Cheerleaders may not always get the credit they deserve as athletes ― the sport requires a great deal of physical and mental strength, and bravery."

Indeed, cheerleaders train their bodies to flip and twist, and combine these elements for stunts and routines. Through their training, they become more flexible and cultivate muscle memory.

Competitions like the championship shown in "Cheer" require intense training to master difficult routines. But Marc Lochbaum, a professor of kinesiology at Texas Tech University, noted that football game days can also be particularly demanding.

"I can't think of a sport that has such an enormous variety of physical demands in an extended period," he said. "You've got cardiovascular exercise for those long football games, but then also high-intensity interval training with the stunts. The high flyers have to be so ready, and the ones who do the holding are pretty darn strong. Cheerleaders are in incredible shape."

Your mind also gets stronger

Through their training, cheerleaders strengthen not only their bodies but also their brains.

"Similar to any elite skill training, cheerleading can strengthen important neural pathways in our brain," said Chelsea Pierotti, a mental performance coach for dancers and an instructor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. "The brain's neuroplasticity is its ability to change and adapt to our environment. Any time we train in an elite sport, of which cheerleading certainly qualifies, we will see changes in the brain at a neurological level which impact the mental toughness of these athletes."

Hennessy noted that cheerleading offers many cognitive and emotional benefits, as athletes tend to have "highly fine-tuned" brains compared to nonathletes.

"Studies have found that athletes are better able to make split-second decisions, have better focus and concentration for longer periods of time, better memories, and they are better able to predict outcomes," she said.

You feel a sense of social connectedness

"There is a social aspect of the sport that allows cheerleaders to feel connected with their teammates. Social connectedness in sports can help athletes deal with in-sport and out-of-sport stressors, increase motivation and improve interpersonal relationships," Hennessy said.

In "Cheer," the athletes often describe their team as a family and share how cheerleading saved them from toxic life circumstances. Having a social support system that feels like a family can be very healthy and good for personal development. But things can get a little dangerous when taken to the extreme.

"I think a big deal in cheerleading is this notion of identity, this sense of 'I'm part of the team, I'm a cheerleader, this is what I do.' In 'Cheer,' how many times did you hear something like, 'If it weren't for this team, who knows where I'd be?'" said Daniel Czech, a professor of kinesiology at Georgia Southern University. "Psychologically, you've got to be mindful of that a little bit because it can lead to unhealthy behavior out of desperation to remain part of that group which forms your identity."

You increase your risk of significant injury

This one is obvious, but important to highlight. You're at a major risk for severe issues like head trauma and broken bones when you cheer. That's why it's absolutely vital to have doctors and trainers involved in the process.

"Cheerleading is a sport that combines high levels athleticism with significant risk, especially in the area of competitive cheerleading where the stunts are growing increasingly more creative and challenging," Hennessy said.

The injuries may be even more significant in cheerleading than in other sports because of the nature of the stunts and need for immense trust in yourself and your teammates.

"Hesitations and fear could result in a cheerleader not doing a skill the way they were trained and could increase the potential for injury," Hennessy added.

The identity issue that Czech observed can also play into the injury risk.

"When you put your identity into your role as a cheerleader and think cheerleading is the only thing that will help you grow as a person, there's a motivation to participate through pain and do things you wouldn't normally do," he said. "You can have concussions, ligament injuries, bone breaks, all that kind of stuff, but it's almost like a badge of honor. If you had a healthier self-concept, you think twice about repeating the stunt that caused the injury."

Your body gets exhausted more easily

Cheerleading, especially in a college setting, can be absolutely draining. During certain sports seasons, cheerleaders are constantly going to games, on top of training during the week. They don't get much of an off-season compared to other athletes. And while football and basketball players get some time on the bench, cheerleaders have to be "on" much more consistently.

"We've collected data at football games throughout the day, and it showed that the amount of time cheerleaders spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity was the cardiovascular equivalent of running a marathon or more," Lochbaum said. "It makes sense because the game day is so long ― about six hours from the pregame excitement all the way to the end without a lot of breaks."

Lochbaum also noted that dehydration is a risk on long game days, and that there's a sense of emotional exhaustion as well with the ups and downs of the action. The fatigue can make it harder to keep up with the demands of school and lead to poorer performance. It increases the risk of injury as well.

"It's just the full experience of physical and emotional outlay," he said. "Imagine running a marathon, plus having that emotional experience of the game, plus workouts during the week, and then having to be a student and take a math test."

Your self-esteem can plummet

The mental and emotional effects of the sport look different in different cheerleaders and often depend on the coach's approach. In many cases, cheerleading is brutal on the athlete's self-esteem and mindset.

"When coaches and/or parents and peers focus on the physical image of a cheerleader, or the inability to hit a skill for example, it is devastating to an athlete's self-esteem," Pierotti said. "As a coach, everything you say becomes their inner voice . So if a cheerleader consistently hears that she doesn't look right, or he isn't strong enough, that will be the message they start saying to themselves."

Negative messages from coaches, parents and teammates can foster negative self-talk in cheerleaders who may develop degrading personal mantras, lack of motivation, decreased skill level and even mental health disorders like severe depression and anxiety.

"The body image issue is a major one, especially with the outfits cheerleaders wear and so forth" Czech said. "The psychology behind that can be very detrimental and can cause eating disorders, exercise addiction and other negative things."

But it can also soar

On the other hand, cheerleaders can develop positive self-talk and a healthy growth mindset if they hear positive messages about effort, growth, persistence, progress and belonging. These good messages can change pathways in the brain and in turn, boost self-esteem and even athletic performance.

"Let's take Morgan for example from Navarro Cheer. At first, she is an alternate and not on the mat. But pay attention to what Coach [Monica] Aldama and Morgan's teammates keep saying to her," Pierotti said. "Coach communicates how much she believes in Morgan, even when Morgan isn't so sure herself. Her teammates, especially Jerry, because he's Jerry, yell positivity onto the mat and tell Morgan she's good enough to do the skills asked of her."

"Now it's likely Morgan came onto the team with a growth mindset because of her own personality, history and desire for excellence, but the team helped encourage it," she continued. "Even through pain and challenges, Morgan doesn't quit. The trademark of someone with a growth mindset is that they believe effort is always worth it and hard work breeds talent."

Indeed, there's a joy and confidence boost in setting a goal to do a specific stunt and then achieving it through hard work and perseverance. And of course, physical activities like jumping around can release brain chemicals that promote feelings of happiness. The rise in confidence and self-esteem often also extend beyond the sports context.

"Athletes can find success in many areas of their life as they find success in their sport," Hennessy said. "They internalize a sense of mastery and control, which can help to navigate various situations with less anxiety."

Pierotti believes the finale of "Cheer" captures the power of esteem-boosting growth mindsets.

"When the team takes the mat for finals in Daytona, imagine what it's like to be backstage waiting for your team to be called to the floor. What would be going through your mind? For many athletes it's a feeling of panic and fear," she explained. "You've trained for months for two minutes on the floor. You get one chance. That feeling of panic carries with them on the floor and they are likely to underperform, or downright choke."

But teams like Navarro that encourage a growth mindset and focus on mental preparation for competition can better handle the intense pressure of the moment.

"This is what sports like elite cheerleading can do for us mentally," she said. "With good coaching and the right culture, athletes learn to persevere when there is a challenge, work together for a common goal, and believe in their own ability to learn and achieve."

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The latest Netflix phenomenon is no doubt the docuseries "Cheer," which follows Navarro College's competitive cheer squad on its quest to win a national championship in Daytona Beach, Florida. As "Cheer" shows, there are many physical and mental benefits to cheerleading, but there's also serious potential for drawbacks.

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College cheers arguably began at Princeton. Cheers became a part of the Princeton student's way of life in the middle of the 19th century and were observed on Princeton's campus in 1860 or earlier, though initially not in an athletic context.

The "tiger" (the word itself or a roar) was a common element in early cheers. Its use in the "rocket" cheer (named because the words, hisses and noises were supposed to evoke the sounds of exploding rockets or fireworks) did not refer to the Princeton mascot; the Tiger Mascot came later.

Soon after the first Intercollegiate Football Game in 1869, cheers were extended to athletic events and were used by both the baseball and football teams at home and away games, as well as at practices.

Multiple cheers evolved throughout the latter half of the 19th century, including "The Tiger," "The Rocket," "The Princeton Cheer" and "The Tiger and Rocket," which morphed and intertwined over time, including:

Rah! Rah! Rah! S-s-s-t! Boom! A-h-h-h!
Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Tiger! S-s-s-t! Boom! A-h-h-h!
Hooray, hooray, hooray! Tiger siss-boom-ah, Princeton!

Thomas Peebles, Class of 1882, who was familiar with these cheers, moved to Minnesota in 1884 and transplanted the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota - which is therefore credited as having started "organized cheerleading" on November 2, 1898.

However, the term "cheer-leader" was used at Princeton as early as October 26, 1897, with cheerleaders Thomas, Class of 1898, Easton, Class of 1898, and Guerin, Class of 1899, cheering for the teams at games and football practices. Special cheering sections were designated in the stands for both home and visiting teams, much as bands were later to have special sections. It had become such common practice that in 1894 the editors of the Daily Princetonian excoriated those "freshmen sitting in the grand stand and utterly refusing to aid their team by cheering, or any other way to gain a victory."

Today, the Princeton Cheer is called the "Locomotive," a usage dating back to before 1894, and is given as:

Rah rah rah
Tiger, tiger, tiger
Sis, sis, sis,
Boom, boom, boom, ah!
Princeton! Princeton! Princeton!

In variations, "Princeton" is replaced by the name of a class or individual being honored, often followed by clapping, cheers or hooting.

In another cheer used in the first half of the 1900s, first Nassau and then Tiger were spelled out three times, followed by "fight, team, fight." Still another, the "short" cheer, was used principally to honor individuals: "R-r-r-ay, Lourie."

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College cheers arguably began at Princeton. Cheers became a part of the Princeton student's way of life in the middle of the 19th century and were observed on Princeton's campus in 1860 or earlier, though initially not in an athletic context. The "tiger" (the word itself or a roar) was a common element in early cheers.

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Lawrence Russell Herkimer (October 14, 1925 - July 1, 2015) was an American innovator in the field of cheerleading. He created the Herkie cheerleading jump, which was named after him, and received a patent for the pom-pom. Herkimer described his contribution to the field as taking it "from the raccoon coat and pennant to greater heights".

He was born in Muskegon, Michigan. As a cheerleader at Southern Methodist University, Herkimer developed what became known as the Herkie by accident while intending to perform a split jump. The move features one arm extended straight up in the air and the other on one's hip, with one leg extended straight out, and the other bent back. At SMU, he formed a national organization for cheerleaders and created a cheerleading-oriented magazine called Megaphone.

Herkimer started his first cheerleading camp in 1948 at Sam Houston State Teachers College (now Sam Houston State University) with 53 participants, funded with $600 he had borrowed from a friend of his father-in-law. By the following year, enrollment had grown to 350 participants. Shortly thereafter, he was making more money from his summer programs than he was teaching the remainder of the year at Southern Methodist, so he gave up teaching and took up the cheerleading business full-time. His camps had as many as 1,500 instructors teaching tens of thousands of students nationwide each summer, and his Cheerleader Supply Company was successfully retailing skirts and sweaters for cheerleading squads.

Herkimer sold his cheerleading camp program in 1986 for $20 million. It was originally purchased by the BSN Corporation, which sold it to the Prospect Group in June 1988, with Herkimer staying on to run the business. By 1990, Herkimer expected the business to bring in $50 million in revenue.

As part of an effort to provide a visually appealing device for cheerleaders, given the advent of color television, his pom-pon with a hidden handle was granted patent 3,560,313 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1971. Herkimer chose the name "Pom pon" after hearing that the word "pompom" had vulgar meanings in other languages.

In 2009, Herkimer lived with his second wife in a large apartment in Aventura, Florida. Still physically active and fit at age 83 - he weighed 165 pounds on his 5-foot 7 ½ inch frame - he golfed three mornings each week and also exercised at a health club three days weekly. He acknowledged that herkies were no longer a part of his exercise regimen, stating that "I was about 60 when I did my last one", and that it would require "a crane and piano wire [for him] to perform one now".

Herkimer appeared as himself on the September 13, 1965 episode of To Tell the Truth, receiving one of the four possible votes.

Herkimer died of heart failure July 1, 2015, at the age of 89, in Dallas, Texas.

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Lawrence Russell Herkimer (October 14, 1925 - July 1, 2015) was an American innovator in the field of cheerleading. He created the Herkie cheerleading jump, which was named after him, and received a patent for the pom-pom. Herkimer described his contribution to the field as taking it "from the raccoon coat and pennant to greater heights".

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A Not-So-Brief and Extremely Sordid History of Cheerleading

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A Not-So-Brief and Extremely Sordid History of Cheerleading

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Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Not all is sunny and chipper in the world of professional cheerleading this year. NFL cheerleaders from five squads sued their teams last spring, alleging sub-minimum-wage pay, mandatory " jiggle tests," and other degrading working conditions. Since then, some NHL " ice girls "-hockey's cheerleaders-have spoken up with similar complaints. All this got me wondering: How did we get here?

Cheerleading today is nearly unrecognizable from cheerleading a century ago, when it emerged as an elite activity for men at Ivy League schools, led by "rooter kings" and "yell leaders." Since then, it has morphed with the social movements of the time: Women took over when the men went to fight in World War II; riots erupted when people of color weren't chosen for teams at newly integrated schools; the feminists of the '70s denounced the hypersexualized activity that pro cheerleading had become. Internal tensions have bubbled up too, particularly as competitive cheerleading has evolved to look like acrobatics or gymnastics, while pro cheerleading has transformed into something between modeling and dancing. And cheerleading continues to evolve and broaden in scope; America's more than 3 million cheerleaders include elementary schoolers, senior citizens, jeerleaders, and queerleaders.

So, how exactly did we get here? Check out the timeline below.

Late 1800s: The first intercollegiate football game is played between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. By the early 1900s, football is the most popular college sport, and male "yell teams"-groups of elite students, primarily at Ivy League schools-start to form.

1909: In an article about the annual Yale-Princeton football game, a New York Times article reads, "Strangers who see hatless and coatless youths making amazing gestures on the lawn in front of the big pavilion need not tremble for their safety. For the arm-waving, head-bobbing young men will be not maniacs, but cheerleaders."

1911: Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell describes cheerleading as "the worst means of expressing emotion ever invented." In response, The Nation defends the activity: "The reputation of having been a valiant 'cheer-leader' is one of the most valuable things a boy can take away from college. As a title to promotion in professional or public life, it ranks hardly second to that of being a quarterback."

1924: Stanford introduces cheerleading to its curriculum. According to a New York Times article: "There will be classes in Bleacher Psychology, Correct Use of the Voice, and Development of Stage Presence. Credit will be given to sophomores trying out for the position of yell-leader."

1940: More than 30,000 high schools and colleges have cheerleading teams. While men serve in World War II, women start to take over cheerleading.

1948: A former cheerleader named Lawrence Herkimer runs the first cheerleading camp. Fifty-two girls and one boy attend; the following year, 350 students participate.In 1952, Herkimer borrows $200 to start making crepe-paper pom-poms in his garage. He would go on to patent the invention in 1971.

1955: The Catholic Youth Organization holds its first annual cheerleading competition for elementary, middle, and high school girls in New York. By 1961, the competition would host 1,500 girls.

Early 1960s: A wave of NFL teams introduce cheerleading squads. By 1970, 11 teams will have squads, including the Atlanta Falcons' Falconettes, the Dallas Cowboys' Cowbelles and Beaux, the Kansas City Chiefs' Chiefettes, and the Washington Redskins' Redskinettes. Some teams now have alumni associations documenting the group's history. Below, a screenshot of the Washington cheerleaders alumni website, including a photo of the 1962 Redskinettes.

1965: Radcliffe women cheer on the AFL's Boston Patriots at Fenway Park. The Associated Press notes, "The girls' lineup looks a bit ragged too but Radcliffe doesn't teach cheerleading."

1965: Yale bars women from cheerleading. The director of college athletics explains that the ban isn't because he's against female cheerleaders, but because cheerleading is an activity for current undergraduate students. The university wouldn't admit its first women until 1969.

1966: Congressional staffers who work for Democratic politicians cheer before the 1966 Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game:

1967: Seventeen football players at Madison High School in Illinois are barred from the team for boycotting a practice after only one black cheerleader is picked for the varsity squad. Following the dismissal of the football players, nearly all of the the school district's 1,300 black students boycott classes for a week. As schools continue to integrate, one factor adding to tension is the difference in cheerleading styles between black and white schools: As Lou Lillard, a black cheerleader named All-American in 1972, explained, "The type of cheering at black high schools is...more of a stomp-clap, soul-swing...At [white] schools, the traditional cheers are straight-arm motions."

1967: Pop Warner, a youth football league, introduces cheer and dance programs for elementary and middle-schoolers, opening up the sport to cheerleaders as young as four years old. The programs have grown over the years; below, a photo from a recent Pop Warner competition:

1968: Two weeks after John Carlos and Tommie Smith's iconic medal stand demonstration at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Yale cheerleaders Greg Parker and Bill Brown give Black Power salutes during the National Anthem before a game against Dartmouth.

1969: As integration spreads at Southern schools, some black cheerleaders refuse to dance to "Dixie" or wave the Confederate flag. Violence erupts in Burlington, North Carolina, after recently integrated Walter Williams High School fails to select any black cheerleaders. The governor declares a state of emergency and a curfew, and 400 National Guard troops arrive to quell riots. A black 15-year-old student named Leon Mebane is killed.

1969: More than half of the 2,800 students in Texas' Crystal City public school system stage a monthlong walkout after only one Mexican American cheerleader is picked by the majority white faculty in a city that is 85 percent Mexican American.

Early 1970s: As the Women's Liberation movement gains steam, doubts about cheerleading emerge; a 1972 New York Times article about a cheerleading competition reads, "The rah-rah world of cheerleading had no room on the squad for Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer and other Women's Lib killjoys."

1971: Hundreds of black students at New Brunswick High School in New Jersey boycott classes after a black girl is dismissed from the cheerleading squad.

1972: Title IX, the landmark gender equity law, passes. The same year, Dallas Cowboys owner Tex Schramm decides that he wants cheerleaders to be more entertaining, and, as the team's website puts it, "He knew that the public liked pretty girls." He hires choreographer Texie Waterman in 1972 and, soon after, director Suzanne Mitchell. Under their lead, cheerleading becomes a tantalizing dance: Women perform choreographed routines in short shorts and midriff-bearing uniforms. The team implements rules that quickly become the norm for pro cheerleaders: no fraternizing with players, no wearing the uniform outside of team-sponsored events, no weight fluctuations. Cheerleaders are to be alluring, yet pure; as Mitchell told me, "We wanted everyone to look at them and say, 'Now they are ladies.'

1974: Two years after the passage of Title IX, some worry that female cheerleaders will leave for other sports. Jeff Webb, a former college cheerleader who advocated for incorporating more gymnastics into the activity, founds the Universal Cheerleaders Association. The organization would go on to hold hundreds of competitions, clinics, and camps, with a focus on acrobatic stunts and pyramids. Below, a photo of the UCA staff in the 1970s:

1975: Some 500,000 students are participating in cheerleading, from elementary school to college. An estimated 95 percent are female.

1976: The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders draw attention from around the country when they perform at the Super Bowl, debuting their new uniforms on a national stage.

1977: The Cowboys cheerleaders make the cover of Esquire. Cover line: "The Dallas Cowgirls (The Best Thing About the Dallas Cowboys)." A record 475 women show up to compete for 35 spots on the team; the following year, 1,000 women will try out. A New York Times article details what candidates have in store: "Stringent conditioning and diet control, rehearsals four or even five nights a week, five hours a night. Miss two rehearsals and you're off the squad forever...Because of the strong Christian ethic that infuses the Cowboys program...the cheerleaders cannot appear where alcohol is served, cannot attend parties of any sort, cannot even wear jewelry with their brief costumes." Successful candidates earn $14.72 per game after taxes and aren't paid for practice. Feminist groups denounce the team as sexist; the New York Times writes, "With their short shorts, crop top, vest and white boots, the Cowboy cheerleaders hardly resemble the spirited State U. coeds of the past in long skirts and bobby socks."

1977: Other pro cheerleading squads follow in the footsteps of the Cowboys cheerleaders, incorporating crop tops and short shorts into their uniforms and suggestive dance moves into their routines. Among the first to make this shift are the Los Angeles Rams' Embraceable Ewes, the Buffalo Bills' Jills, and the Chicago Bears' Honey Bears. The Washington Post declares, "Their disco dancing, skimpy costumes and sultry looks have become the prototype of the new cheerleader." (The Post 's coverage of the NBA's Washington Bullettes: "There they are, in their high-cut red hotpants and red wedgies, Farrah Fawcett manes tossing, dancing on the Capital Centre's basketball court to the tune of the "Bullets loaded with hustle" songs, smiling as though they were queens for a day.")

1978: A member of the San Diego Chargettes is fired after modeling for Playboy. According to a Washington Post article: "Morally outraged, Playboy came to the defense of the Chargettes, issuing a press release that said, in part: 'The Chargers-and other teams-have wrapped these enthusiastic young ladies up like candy every weekend on national television. All we did is ask them to remove the wrapping.' Presumably, the unwrapping of the Chargette did not expose a Baby Ruth, or even a Snickers. We will find out when we do our serious reading in November." A writer from the Chicago Tribune laments, "Ten years ago, the entire brigade of National Football League cheerleaders was 17 housewives burdened by cellulite who chewed two sticks of Doublemint at a time, had husbands who worked on oil rigs, and lived in a trailer park in Grand Prairie, Tex. Now there are a whole mess of cheerleaders from other places, like Chicago and Los Angeles and Denver and New Orleans, wearing no clothes and smiling at you from the slick pages of the December issue of Playboy magazine."

1979: The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Inc. sues Pussycat Cinemas Ltd. for trademark infringement in the porn movie Debbie Does Dallas. In it, the lead character, dressed in a uniform nearly identical to that of the Cowboys cheerleaders, exchanges sex for money in order to save up to travel to Dallas to try out for the "Texas Cowgirls." The group is prohibited from distributing the film, but still goes on to sell 50,000 copies. The movie spawned later remakes and sequels, including Debbie Does Wall Street (1991), Debbie Does New Orleans (2000), Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical (2002), and Debbie Does Dallas...Again (2007).

1979: The Sun City Poms, an Arizona-based squad for women older than 55, forms to cheer on the Sun City Saints women's softball team. Today, the group performs up to 50 shows a year at parades, pep rallies, and other events. Below, the Poms in the '80s:

1979: Robin Williams joins the Denver Broncos' Pony Express to film an episode of Mork and Mindy. (See photo above.)

1979: The US Department of Defense requests the presence of the Cowboys cheerleaders during a tour of installations in Korea, starting a tradition of pro cheerleading squads performing at military outposts around the world. Since 1979, the Cowboys cheerleaders have collaborated with United Service Organizations (USO) to perform more than 75 times at foreign military bases.

1979: The Laker Girls are formed, after Lakers owner Jerry Buss decides that he wants spice up the atmosphere at NBA games. Paula Abdul is an early member, and quickly becomes the group's head choreographer. Today, every NBA team has a dance squad. Below, a Laker Girls performance in 2006:

1980: The Universal Cheerleaders Association holds the first National High School Cheerleading Championship at SeaWorld. Three years later, ESPN begins broadcasting the event. Below, a clip from the 1987 championship:

1984: At least 150,000 American girls are participating in cheerleading clinics each year. Lawrence Herkimer, owner of the National Cheerleaders Association, laments the transformation of professional cheerleaders to a New York Times reporter: "There's a little mixture between go-go girls and cheerleaders. You don't see that scantily clad kind of thing in high school." Two years later, Herkimer would sell his cheerleading empire-composed of organizations running cheerleading camps, clinics, and supply stores-for $20 million.

1993: A Texas school reverses its decision to ban pregnant girls from the cheerleading team after the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women threaten a lawsuit. Four of the school's 15 cheerleaders had become pregnant; one who had an abortion was let back on the team.

1995: American Cheerleader magazine publishes its first issue. Below, the magazine's latest cover:

1995: The Buffalo Jills form a short-lived union called the National Football League Cheerleaders Association.The union, the first of its kind, aims to raise pay for cheerleaders and give squad members more say over their uniforms and public appearances. At the time, the Jills weren't paid for practice or travel-they even flew themselves to the Super Bowl. Within a few months, the Jills file a grievance to the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the team had canceled many of their public appearances and didn't notify veterans about tryouts. Just a year later, the union is forced to dissolve after the Bills find a new sponsor for the team.

1996: Pro cheerleading teams continue to perform at military outposts. Below: A San Francisco 49ers cheerleader performs for Fourth of July celebrations at Camp McGovern, near Tuzla, Bosnia.

1997: As the Raleigh, North Carolina, News & Observer puts it, "Barbie is finally going to college and, of course, she's going to be a cheerleader." Nineteen different college cheerleading uniforms are available for the ultraflexible doll: Auburn, Arizona, Arkansas, Clemson, Duke, Florida, Georgia, Georgetown, Illinois, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

2000: The feature film Bring It On comes out; the movie's plot was inspired by a Universal Cheerleaders Association high school competition.

2006: Two cheerleader reality TV shows debut: Lifetime's Cheerleader Nation follows Dunbar High School cheerleaders in Lexington, Kentucky, as they make their way to nationals. Making the Team, on the Country Music Channel, follows Cowboys cheerleader hopefuls through tryouts. The former lasted only one season, while the latter is still airing today. Below, a clip from the latest season of Making the Team:

2012: Fifteen high school cheerleaders and their parents sue the Kountze Independent School District in Texas after the district banned the cheerleaders from displaying banners with Bible verses on them. Republicans Rick Perry and Ted Cruz express their support for the cheerleaders.

2014: In January, a former Oakland Raiderette named Lacy T. files a class action lawsuit against the Raiders for, among other things, failing to pay cheerleaders for the hours they work. By May, members of four other squads will have followed suit: the Cincinnati Bengals' Ben-Gals, the New York Jets' Flight Crew, the Buffalo Bills' Jills, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleading team. The lawsuits allege a variety of indignities: Cheerleaders don't earn minimum wage, aren't paid for practice, are fined for minor infractions (e.g., bringing the wrong pom-poms to practice), are forced to pay for expensive beauty regimens, and are subject to body-policing off the field. In September, the Raiders agree to pay $1.25 million to settle Lacy T.'s suit.

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A not-so-brief and extremely sordid history of cheerleading

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The Redskinettes, "Debbie Does Dallas," and so much more.

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Commanding the Room in Short Skirts: Cheering as the Embodiment of Ideal Girlhood

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Commanding the Room in Short Skirts: Cheering as the Embodiment of Ideal Girlhood

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JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

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The Evolution of the Cheerleading Uniform, From Bulky Sweaters to Crop Tops

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The Evolution of the Cheerleading Uniform, From Bulky Sweaters to Crop Tops

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Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we're up to by signing up here.
In 1974, Jeff Webb gave cheerleading a makeover. Before he came along, cheerleaders of the era performed in modest, below-the-knee poodle skirts, saddle shoes with thick socks, and bulky, long-sleeved sweaters emblazoned with a large block letter representing the name of their school. But when Webb founded the UCA - Universal Cheerleading Association - that year, to train college and high school cheerleaders, he decided to give the by then female-dominated sport a modern look. To do that, he brought in Kraig Tallman.

Tallman wasn't the first person to overhaul cheer to make it more accessible - in fact, when cheer squads were introduced to support school sports teams in the 1880s, they were called "pep clubs," and they were only open to men. Women weren't allowed to cheer until 1923, a fairly significant change, and they didn't dominate cheerleading until the 1940s, while their male teammates were serving in World War II. But Tallman, who passed away in 1999, introduced America to the geometric patterns - chevrons, zigzags, and stripes - cheer costumes are now known for.

In 1994, Tallman told the LA Times that he wanted to create "more of a streamlined, fitted look. It's not so bulky or oversized. It's more like fashion." He limited his color palette to the 18 so-called athletic colors used by high school and college sports teams, in order to help cheer squads look more like traditional athletes. Thanks to Tallman, cheerleaders got body-hugging shell tops, pleated skirts, and color blocking.

Killman's changes to the cheer uniform came at a time of seismic shifts in America's social and cultural norms: In the '60s and '70s, the women's liberation movement was in full swing. Women were entering the workforce in record numbers. It became common for women to wear unisex clothing like jeans, and Tallman's vision for how he wanted the world to see cheerleaders reflected the growing acceptance of female autonomy, agency, and ability.

He and Webb hoped that cheer teams would start to focus on strength, gymnastics, and competition. The sociologist William Keenan wrote that "Clothes are society's way of showing where we belong in the order of things, our role and position in the social pageantry." Webb in particular wanted to change the role of cheerleaders not only in sports, but how they were viewed in society at large - as peppy, shallow, goody-two-shoes (think Sandy in Grease) who only existed to uplift others to athletes in their own right - and changing their uniforms was a necessary part of that mission.

"You can't tumble in a big bulky sweater," Tammy Gagne, national cheer commissioner at American Youth Football and Cheer, tells me. "Wearing saddle shoes with heels, you can't be jumping and tumbling."

Gagne began coaching cheer in 1998. She's had a front-row seat to watch the changing face of cheerleading. When she started coaching, the complex pyramids, gymnastic sequences, and acrobatics now common to the sport - otherwise known as stunting - still weren't prominent. She estimates that "the level we hit now happened eight years ago." Competitive cheer has always included stunts like basic basket tosses and pyramids, but routines were much more dance-centric in the past, and at most required the ability to complete a backflip.

"The cheer uniform does evolve with the trends in fashion," she says. "[Skirts] got shorter in the '80s and the '90s, but even in the '80s, you got up and stood on [your partner's] thigh so you didn't need a flexible material." Gagne is referring a simple stunt called the Thigh Stand, in which one cheerleader kneels on the ground while the other stands on his or her thigh -it doesn't require any flexibility or tumbling skills to pull off.

Since the early 2000s, cheer has expanded rapidly. The sport now encompasses All-Star cheer - the equivalent of a club sport that operates out of a private gym and is not associated with a school. But Gagne tells me that even at the local high school level teams are becoming more competitive, requiring that new members be able to perform at least a back handspring - most serious cheerleaders have a layout and a standing full, and must be able to string them together in tumbling " passes."

High-level cheerleaders need spandex uniforms that can accommodate the growing range of stunting and tumbling skills they have to learn. Although it still shares the same general elements of sideline cheer, like the toe touch jump and the pyramid configuration, at the All-Star level, the choreography is elaborate and extremely difficult. Stunt groups, usually made up of four girls - three bases (or sometimes one very strong man), and the flyer, who is thrown in the air - must master the scorpion cradle, the bow and arrow, and the pike open double basket toss, to name just a few of their most complicated stunts.

The sport is now dominated by young women (although many gyms are integrating co-ed teams to their rosters), and has moved away from including traditional cheers in their routines, which were created to encourage the "real" athletes on basketball and football teams. They certainly don't use pom-poms. All-Star cheerleaders aren't on the sidelines. They have become the real athletes. And they need uniforms to match.

Cheer uniforms have long since left behind a style that emphasized modesty and virtuous service, perhaps even submission, to masculinity. As it became less risque for women to show skin, the skirts and tops got shorter and tighter, too.

As the new millennium began, Bring It On was released, and cheerleaders were still considered sex symbols. In pop culture (and pornography especially), they were slutty (but innocent), or popular, or mean girls, or some combination of both. Their position as skin-bearing hyper-feminine figures who existed to literally cheer on the accomplishments of men made them ripe for exploitation.

Now, uniform companies are adapting the current trends in cheer uniforms - an A-line instead of pleated skirt in particular - to suit the increasingly athletic nature of the sport.

"Style is now about function, and garments are manufactured in fabrics with technical properties. We are showing more streamlined styles, but some schools have shown a renewed interest in retro designs that speak to tradition, like cardigans and letter jackets," says Bill Seely, executive vice president of training and education at Varsity, the umbrella company that now runs the UCA - and got ESPN to air its prestigious competitions.

Gagne agrees that current iteration of the uniform is all about function.

"The A-line skirt is really clean-looking, with the little slit in it that allows them to jump," she says. "If they are good jumpers, their legs are coming up over their hips, so they need that flexibility. There aren't pleats anymore. That hasn't been the style for a long time."

Younger generations of cheerleaders appreciate these changes, simply because it makes their job easier.

"Wearing skirts and shorts makes it easier to stunt, because you are constantly grabbing the flyer's legs," explains Marisa Karahuta, who has been cheering since she was 6, including under Gagne at American Youth Cheer. "If we were wearing pants, we wouldn't be able to get a good grip on the flyer's legs and would get in the way of jumps and tumbling."

All-Star uniforms are also optimized for their rigorous competition standards, but they haven't lost their flair for drama. In fact, the hyper-feminine image of the cheerleader has been repurposed to convey an attitude of power and confidence. Take the uniforms worn by the Top Gun All Stars. The sheer long-sleeved tops are covered in rhinestones. The sparkly (to put it very lightly) crop tops worn by the Cheer Athletics Cheetahs convey the same message. And don't forget the big hair, bows, and red lipstick commonplace at almost every All-Star competition.

"There definitely is a tradition of teasing hair and makeup," 16-year-old Kennedy Thames, who has cheered with the Rock Star Beatles for three years, says. "But when I put on my uniform, I feel so confident and get an adrenaline rush being in it. It's an empowering feeling."

The cheer bow is a crucial part of the uniform these days, in both All Star and sideline.

"Every cheer team has a cheer bow, and a lot of money is spent on that bow. It finishes off the uniform. They collect them - they wear them to school, to practice, and they have a game bow. If they go nationals, they'll buy another bow," Gagne explains.

The bow is just one element of performance that separates it from other sports. For All-Star athletes especially, their presentation on the mat is essential for a win. They're putting on a show.

"There will always be a glitz and glamour diva association [with cheer]. The athleticism is hidden behind that costume," Kenny Sampson, an All-Star coach and host of Cheer Talk Radio, tells me. "It's all about crowd appeal. The big hair, the big ponytails - it's all meant to grab people's attention. It's supposed to be a spectacle."

The pressure to look the part is sometimes great. Karahuta says when she was younger, she wore "cheer curls," a wig that can be placed on top of the ponytail, to make her look as though she had ringlets. Now she mostly sticks to the current trend: a straight, teased-up ponytail.

"In my cheerleading uniform I felt fierce," says Karahuta. "We looked like a team that put all of our hard work on the mat for two minutes and 30 seconds. We looked like a team that came to win."

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The Evolution of the Cheerleading Uniform, From Bulky Sweaters to Crop Tops

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Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we're up to by signing up here.

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https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-05-30-9905300229-story.html

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Fifteen-year-old Melanie Kannokada is a child of Title IX, a girl with more athletic opportunities than any others in history. She plays second base on the high school softball team. She practices karate. And she thrives on fierce competition. But Kannokada is also a talented cheerleader, an old-fas…

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When the Cheerleaders are the Main Event

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When the Cheerleaders are the Main Event

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/07/10/when-the-cheerleaders-are-the-main-event/9ad5dfb2-aecd-4fdd-9f3f-93f5ab2565e7/

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They're nobody's halftime show, the girls of Cheer Thunder.

On a hot summer night in a cavernous Gambrills gymnasium, two dozen teenage girls pound through a workout of precision handsprings, splits, cartwheels. One's wearing a leg brace. Another is taping her injured wrists for support. School's out for the summer, but they drill on and on, three days a week, two hours a day.

"1, 2 . . ." They clap, in unison.

"3, 4 . . ." Pounce forward on their toes.

"5, 6 . . ." Vault into the air, legs splayed, toes tapping outstretched hands.

"7, 8 . . ." Land -- hard. One stops to massage her aching hamstrings.

"C'mon, gotta smile!" shouts their coach. And they do, as cheerleaders always have.

Yet when football season comes around this fall, the girls of Cheer Thunder won't be smiling on the sidelines. They'll be in pursuit of their own championship season, taking their high-powered blend of dance and gymnastics to competitions as far away as Texas and Florida.

In the expanding world of women's athletics, girls today have more options than ever before, more role models in more formerly boys-only sports, like the U.S. women's soccer team and the WNBA.

Many still opt for cheerleading, but they're elevating it from its century-old role as moral support for the athletic endeavors of males into a sport of its own. The growing number of private squads operate independently of any school or team, existing solely to fulfill the competitive urges of a newly liberated generation of girls.

The squads don't cheer for anyone -- except themselves.

So when members of Cheer Thunder raise their voices -- HEY! Get rea-dy! Pre-pare fo-o-o-o-r-r-r the BEST! -- it's no secret who they're talking about.

"It's kind of a statement," Chrissy Czarnecki, 14, of Glen Burnie, says with a giggle. "We're trying to say that we are the best."

Many things are different within the aggressive new world of private cheerleading clubs, a circuit known as "all-star cheerleading," with at least 800 active squads across the country.

Cheering itself, in the literal sense, is optional. At least one national cheering competition no longer considers the old-fashioned rah-rah stuff. Most teams simply perform to recorded music.

Pleated skirts are out. They just don't flatter an athletic body. The new streamlined skirts that go with the competition uniform have a bit of a flip to them, but not much.

As for pompoms, no one at Cheer Thunder has anything against them in principle. It's just that if you were tumbling across the floor full speed and a pompom landed underfoot, you could really mess yourself up. So no more.

Then there are the cheerleaders themselves.

At 15, Brandi Moured, of Pasadena, is the picture of the consummate '90s teenage jock-girl, in gym shorts and a plain white athletic tank over toned triceps and a sports bra.

Her fingernails are painted blue, but her dirty-blond hair is scraped back in a ponytail, and she can do five back handsprings in a row -- a la Dominique Dawes -- if she has enough floor space.

She has the steely sense of purpose common to the women's soccer field, but she's been cheering since middle school. Just never for her school.

"I can't get what I want out of high school cheering," she says.

It used to be that high school cheering was among few outlets for athletic young women, who clamored to join the pennant-waving, pep-raising ladies' auxiliaries to the football or basketball teams.

But the rise of feminism brought the 1972 passage of Title IX, the federal law that forced schools to pour money into their women's athletic programs for the sake of gender equity, and a new generation of girls saw the doors thrown open to basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, softball, crew.

Cheerleading might have vanished. Instead, it harnessed the spirit of the times, evolving into a melange of highflying acrobatics and show-biz flair that required more athleticism than before.

"It used to just be standing on the sidelines," said Gwen Holtsclaw, president of Cheer LTD, a cheerleading supplies marketer and organizer of national championships. "Coaches said, `I better give them something more to go for, or they're going to play volleyball or soccer.' "

But while women's sports programs thrived in schools across the country, those involved in the newly pumped-up model of cheerleading chafed under high school restrictions.

Out of safety concerns, some school systems, including those in Ohio and Nebraska, banned the use of gymnastic stunts in cheerleading routines, limiting a team's ability to dazzle on the competitive level -- and inspiring some coaches and cheerleaders to go freelance.

Tina Edmondson, a former cheerleader and coach for Old Mill High School, formed Cheer Thunder in 1996 after Anne Arundel County -- like Prince George's County and many other school systems -- decided to designate cheerleading a sport.

That well-intentioned move, Edmondson said, was bad for high school cheering. Although the squads got more funds, they were bound by the same 300-mile travel restrictions as other sports teams. Which meant no more trips to the distant competitions where her cheerleaders could catch the eye of college recruiters -- and perhaps snare scholarships to perform with the more traditional, high-caliber squads that support football and basketball teams at the university level.

"There are tons of excellent cheerleaders in this county," says Edmondson, who also coaches a junior squad of two dozen preteen girls. "But if those kids could not travel, we couldn't get them scholarships."

That's the goal for many of her girls, and their parents, some of whom drive an hour or more from as far away as Frederick, Md., and Solomons Island. The parents pay gym fees of $42 a month for the Cheer Thunder workout and sell candy bars and raffle tickets to cover the competition costs. (The coaches are volunteers, though Edmondson charges for her optional cheerleading clinics.)

"Baltimore County doesn't allow a lot of gymnastics," Kathy Tirocchi says. But that's what the college scouts are looking for, she says, explaining why she drove her 15-year-old daughter, Jamie, all the way from Towson, Md., to check out Cheer Thunder. Jamie joined.

The mothers who wait outside the gym are small-haired, down-to-earth types -- soccer moms, sort of, except that they're not. Most were never cheerleaders themselves. They played sports and believe that what their daughters are doing is comparable. They dream of the day when cheerleading is elevated to an Olympic sport -- a distant, but not impossible goal, according to competition organizers.

Fewer than half of the Cheer Thunder girls serve on the cheerleading squads for their high schools. "High school [cheerleading] is like gossiping and typical girl stuff," says Jiselle Burkhalter, 17, a Pasadena resident who is the team's most rapid-fire tumbler. "Some people do it just to fit in, to be with their friends."

Most high school cheerleaders wouldn't make it in the pressure-cooker of all-star cheering, asserts Jen Provin, 17, who also cheers at Urbana High School in Frederick. "If they do join, they quit, because they're overwhelmed."

Overwhelmed, that is, by Edmondson's cardio-thumping regimen of relay races and kickboxing. Not to mention her prerequisites: Every girl must be able to do a back handspring. Most of them can do several in a row; half of them can do a clean, no-hands back flip.

"When I was in high school, I would have loved to have had this," muses Edmondson, watching Provin emerge dizzily from a series of somersaults. "I could have gone to a bigger college if I had had this level of intensity."

Some cheerleaders and their mothers whisper that local high school cheering squads are hurting these days, their talent drained by the growing number of all-star teams. The elders of cheerleading officialdom firmly deny it.

"It's just a different way to get involved," says Julie Davis, editorial director of the bimonthly American Cheerleader magazine. "The responsibilities of a school cheerleader are very different -- organizing special events and raising school spirit. It's great that there are different choices you can make."

For the girls of Cheer Thunder, the choice is clear: the empowering thrill that comes from being the main event and not just the sideline show anymore.

"It's more of a rush when you're out there competing for youself," says Ashley Hesgard, 17, of Gambrills. "You're not just cheering for a bunch of ugly boys."

CAPTION: From left, Michelle Death, Ashley Benway and Tina Cicala perform a stunt during a Cheer Thunder practice in Gambrills. The aggressively athletic private team gives teenagers an alternative to high school cheerleading.

CAPTION: (Photo ran in an earlier edition) A member of the Cheer Thunder squad prepares for practice in a Gambrills gymnasium. The private "all-star cheerleading" teams incorporate athleticism and acrobatics into their routines and compete across the country.

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When the Cheerleaders Are the Main Event

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They're nobody's halftime show, the girls of Cheer Thunder. On a hot summer night in a cavernous Gambrills gymnasium, two dozen teenage girls pound through a workout of precision handsprings, splits, cartwheels. One's wearing a leg brace. Another is taping her injured wrists for support.

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Cheerleading and the Gendered Politics of Sport

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Cheerleading and the Gendered Politics of Sport

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American Beauty: The Cheerleader in American Literature and Popular Culture

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American Beauty: The Cheerleader in American Literature and Popular Culture

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Cheerleaders’ wage-theft lawsuit to cost Oakland Raiders $1.25 million

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Cheerleaders’ wage-theft lawsuit to cost Oakland Raiders $1.25 million

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Eight months after filing a groundbreaking, class-action wage theft lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders, two former Raiderettes cheerleaders have won a $1.25-million settlement from the team. The deal was announced today by attorneys for both sides, and is subject to court approval.

In January, the two former cheerleaders alleged that the Raiders broke a raft of state labor laws, including failing to pay minimum wage, withholding wages for months and refusing to reimburse cheerleaders for their business expenses.

In a sense, today's settlement, filed in Alameda Superior Court, is their second major victory.

The first came in July, when the Raiders tacitly admitted their sins and offered their new cheerleading squad a contract that nearly tripled their pay.

Instead of earning only $125 per game in a single paycheck delivered at the end of the season, Raiderettes will earn $9 an hour from now on, plus overtime, for the estimated 350 hours each cheerleader puts in each year, including rehearsals, practices and mandatory community and charity appearances. Their annual compensation will rise from about $1,250 to about $3,200.

From now on, Raiderettes will also be reimbursed for business expenses and mileage, which they had to cover themselves before. They will also receive paychecks every two weeks, per state law, rather than one lump sum at season's end.

And the team will no longer illegally deduct wages for minor rules infractions like showing up a few minute late to rehearsals, wearing the wrong color nail polish or failing to bring the correct pom poms to practice. Cheerleaders will also be entitled to a 10-minute break during games.

As for the second victory, that came after a day of mediation last month in San Francisco. Attorneys for the Raiderettes and the team agreed to a complex settlement formula that will cover any cheerleader who has worked for the team since the 2010-11 season. Cheerleaders will receive $2,500 in back pay and penalties for the 2013-14 season, plus $6,000 in back pay and penalties for each of the three seasons before that. (Why only $2,500 for last season? Because after the wage theft lawsuit was filed, the Raiders mysteriously increased cheerleaders' pay to approximately minimum wage.)

About 90 women, some of whom were angry that the case had been filed because it embarrassed the team, will receive checks. Lacy T., the original plaintiff, and Sarah G., who joined the case a short time later, will receive an additional $10,000 for bringing the lawsuit. To protect themselves from overzealous fans, cheerleaders traditionally do not use their last names, and the court has not required them to do so.

"I'm so excited, honestly," said Lacy, 28, who spent only one season as an NFL cheerleader and who was shunned by many of her squadmates after filing the lawsuit. "I feel a sense of satisfaction knowing this long journey is over and will end happily for 90 women. I feel very proud about that. I know we're just cheerleaders to people, but we're low-wage workers working for a billion-dollar industry. It shows everyone that one little girl who stood up and said, 'This is not right,' changed the way the Raiders do business."

Oakland attorneys Leslie Levy and Sharon Vinick, who represented the cheerleaders, are to receive about a third of the settlement.

"I think it's a completely appropriate settlement," said Levy. "It says this is hard work, and not play. It doesn't reflect the hourly wage that they really should get paid, but it's a statement that these teams are not above the law."

It's unclear what effect the Raiders settlement will have on other wage-theft lawsuits by NFL cheerleaders. Similar cases are pending against the Cincinnatti Bengals, the Buffalo Bills, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New York Jets. There is also a second lawsuit pending against the Raiders, which, unlike the first, included the NFL as a defendant. In a recent court document, the NFL vigorously disputed the assertion that is involved in the relationship between teams and cheerleaders.

"If there are any teams out there that have not changed their policy," said Levy, "I hope they realize it's going to be far less expensive for them to do that than to continue with the wage theft."

Now if Raiders would only throw out that horrible Raiderettes handbook ....

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Cheerleaders' wage-theft lawsuit to cost Oakland Raiders $1.25 million

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Eight months after filing a groundbreaking, class-action wage theft lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders, two former Raiderettes cheerleaders have won a $1.25-million settlement from the team. The deal was announced today by attorneys for both sides, and is subject to court approval.

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‘If I would have known then what I know now, I would have never stepped foot in the NFL’

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‘If I would have known then what I know now, I would have never stepped foot in the NFL’

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‘If I would have known then what I know now, I would have never stepped foot in the NFL’ | CNN

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For decades, cheerleaders have been synonymous with the NFL.

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Lawmakers call on NFL to give cheerleaders a fair wage

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Lawmakers call on NFL to give cheerleaders a fair wage

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Lawmakers call on NFL to give cheerleaders a fair wage

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As the football season kicks off, lawmakers fight for fair pay for cheerleaders making below federal minimum wage

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Daily Princetonian, Volume 25, Number 112, 1 November 1900

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Daily Princetonian, Volume 25, Number 112, 1 November 1900

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Daily Princetonian 1 November 1900 — Princeton Periodicals

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Raiderette Sues Team Over Alleged Exploitation

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Raiderette Sues Team Over Alleged Exploitation

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Raiderette Sues Team Over Alleged Exploitation

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Cheerleader files lawsuit against NFL, cites low pay

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Cheerleader files lawsuit against NFL, cites low pay

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Cheerleader files lawsuit against NFL, cites low pay