History of Cheerleading
Although the first cheerleading team was in 1961, they didn't cheer for sports games until 1970. The first sports game for cheerleaders was a football game in Washington in the year 1970. Starting in 1998, cheerleaders were at every home football game for University of Minnesota. In 1971, Bemidji was one of the top 20 best cheerleading teams across America. For awhile there weren't any boy cheerleaders. The first boy cheerleader was in 1977. For a long time nobody believed that cheerleading was not a sport. There are still people that don't believe it's a sport, but a lot more people believe it is now than before. When people think about cheerleading they think of present day, but it has been around for a while.
There are quite a few of requirements to becoming a cheerleader, but they aren't too hard. One of the main things are being able to trust each other. That is probably the most important and hardest thing to do. You also need lots of confidence. Mainly in yourself, but with the other people.
Requirements
- Confidence is a big thing you need as a cheerleader (Loken & Dypwick 3).
- Trust is also really important. you need to be able to trust everybody on the team (Collins 82).
- There needs to be at least five people to have a complete cheerleading team (Loken & Dypwick 14).
Fun Facts
- Boys weren't allowed to be cheerleaders until 1977 (Collins 74).
Works Cited
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.
Collins, Mary. Cheerleader's Handbook. Astabula, Ohio: Lawrence Herkimer, 1955. Print.
Loken, Newt. Dypwick, Otis. Cheerleading. New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1945. Print.
Loken, Newt. Cheerleading. Dallas, Texas: The Ronald Press Company, 1961. Print.