The History

Cheerleading is a physical activity and usually a competitive sport based on organised routines including a series of dance, jumps, stunts and tumbles. Cheerleading began in the early 1877 in the United States and remains primarily American with an estimated amount of 1.5 million participants but is increasingly spreading world wide becoming more known. Most of the population sees cheerleading as an all girls sport, however believe it or not cheerleading first began as an all-male sport with women only beginning to dominate the sport in 1907 during World War II. Johnny Campbell was the very first official cheerleader by the date 1898. He was a student at the University of Minnesota, and he managed a crowd by cheering at a football game, this was what made him the first official cheerleader. However today it is now estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants are female. Modern cheerleaders are generally either competitive, or they cheer for basketball or football games.