In the 1860s, sports fans in Great Britain created the concept of cheering in unison. This practice almost immediately made its was to the United States during the early days of intercollegiate sports. Many American students and fans were using various chants, cheers and songs at sporting events by the late 1860s. One of the “rah rah boom boom bah” type chants was used in game between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869 what was the first intercollegiate American football game. Many of these cheers became tradition and were seen as an important part of the games. Toward the end of the 1800s, many schools had informal clubs where some students would get together to practice cheers and then preform these cheers from the sidelines during games.
In 1898, The University of Minnesota was playing a football game against Northwestern. Minnesota was losing when a frustrated student by the name of Johnny Campbell decided to lead the entire crowd to preform cheers. Minnesota came back to win the game and many credit Campbell as the inspiration. He’s considered the first Cheerleader.
Minnesota and other schools realized that it would be a good idea to have organized “yell leaders” in order to lead the crowd in cheers or to be a “Cheerleader”. In 1903, the first official cheer fraternity was formed in Minnesota and many other schools would follow their example.
Prior to 1923, cheerleading was an all male activity and the idea of a standard uniform did not immediately catch on. Men would usually wear normal clothes or whatever was comfortable as can be seen in this photo of the 1910 Missouri Yell Squad
Some teams started to wear matching outfits with trousers and usually a sweater with a school logo on it. That would become the standard for quite some time. Here’s an example of the 1916 Yale Squad. The Picture is from 1916, but the article is from 1909.
Minnesota became the first squad with female participants in 1923. Cheerleading wasn’t yet the athletic event that it is today and modesty was the social norm so the female uniform was a long and somewhat bulky skirt that looked something like this
Female cheerleading wasn’t without controversy since cheerleading was seen as a masculine activity with a deep and loud voice considered very important. Many schools were slow to permit female participants. However, WW2 called so many men into action that most schools were forced to include female cheerleaders.
Uniforms stayed mostly the same into the late 1950s or 1960s in some cases as can be seen in
The first cheerleader supply company and the first cheerleading camp were opened around this time.
This is around the time that cheerleading was more rapidly evolving into an athletic and acrobatic activity. Fashion trends were changing. The skirt was essentially cut in half and the sweater wasn’t as bulky. Here’s a squad from 1960 and 1961
Through the rest of 1960s and 1970s, the uniform didn’t change drastically, but the skirt continued to get a little shorter, the sweater got tighter/less bulky, sleeves started to disappear and athletic shoes became the norm.
In the 1980s, sweaters were mostly gone with the top being more like a vest or a tank top. Sometimes a turtleneck was worn underneath. Sometimes not
This might be overly simplified, but uniforms have remained largely the same since this era. The biggest difference is that the uniform tends to get a little smaller over time.
Men’s uniforms have not evolved nearly as much. The most significant change being the materials used for the uniform.
There are rules in college that limit some things such as excessively short skirts, extremely low cut necklines, low cut waistbands, etc.
Some schools such as Florida State and Oregon have been known to get creative with their uniforms.
High School uniform regulations are very similar to college, but require a bit more modesty.
Professional sports such as the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLS also use cheerleaders, but their uniform regulations are quite different. Some examples are
They can be quite festive as well.
Fun fact: Robin Williams was the first male cheerleader for the Denver Broncos while filming an episode of “Mork and Mindy”.
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