College Cheerleading Research Paper

Do you want to know how to get the crowd going? Cheerleaders do it everyday; it only takes 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Cheerleading began over 100 years ago. “Basically the guy is the frame. The girl’s a piece of art,” says Justin Carrier, a former cheerleader (Valliant 13). Cheerleading has evolved from an all male activity to mostly female and some co-ed squads. In order to fully understand cheerleading one needs to know the history, proper techniques, and benefits of being a cheerleader. Competitiveness has been going on for thousands of years. Runners in the first Olympic Games in Greece in 776 B.C. had their fans rooting for them (Peters 7). The first American college cheer was invented in the 1800’s by a spirit club at Princeton University. Students at the football game chanted “Rah, rah, rah! Tiger, tiger, tiger! Sis, sis sis! Boom, boom, boom! Ah! Princeton! Princeton! Princeton!” (Valliant 15). The cheer was inspired by a Civil War chant. This today is what we know as cheers and chants. College football began to grow in popularity. The chanting of cheers began to spread to other schools. There was no organization, just random students leading the groups of spectators. In 1898, a University
Within the past ten years cheerleading has taken many leaps gaining in popularity. From 2000 – 2009 there has been nine movies released about cheerleading. Cheerleaders generate and reveal the hidden spirit of the crowd, while cheerleading movies capture the heart and spirit of the viewer. Cheerleading teaches one about fitness, self-esteem, leadership, and sportsmanship. So next time a cheerleading movie is on television or you are at a sporting event or cheer competition, take 2 minutes and 30 seconds to see what cheerleaders are all