Cheerleading began during the late 18th century by boys. It started as an all-boys activity. In the early year of 1877, Princeton University had a Princeton cheer team. A Princeton graduate named Thomas Peebles moved to Minnesota in 1884. He sent the idea of organized crowds cheering at football games to the University of Minnesota. The term cheer leader started in 1897. Princeton’s football officials named three students as Cheer Leaders. These students would cheer for the team at football practices and special cheering sections were designated in the stands for the games themselves for both the home and visiting teams. The official birth date of organized cheerleading was on November 2, 1898. Later, the University of Minnesota organized a yell leader squad of six boys who still use Campbell’s original cheer. In 1903, the first cheerleading fraternity, gamma sigma, was founded. Later on through the years, in 1923, at the University of Minnesota, women were allowed to do cheer. In the late 1920s, many school newspapers that were published still said that cheerleaders were men or boys. Girl cheerleading was ignored until the 40’s. During the 50s, cheerleading in America increased in a lot in popularity. In the 60s, some people started to make cheerleading a feminine extracurricular for boys, and in the 70’s girls started cheering at public school. Cheerleading could be found at almost every school across the country. Nowadays, we have pee wee cheer, cheer for youth, competitive cheer teams, etc. Competitive cheerleading is scored based on components including, the cheer itself, dance/choreography, pyramids, stunting, and tumbling. Also with this evolution to the sport’s structure, the uniforms have changed too. What started off being classic sweater and mid-calf pleated skirt uniform is now materials that allows stretch and flexibility. Cheer is a fun sport that I think people should try because you’ll like it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheerleading