NO HISTORY OF CHEERLEADING WITHOUT MENTIONING ITS MODERN FOUNDER LAWRENCE HERKIMER...

Lawrence Herkimer (October 14, 1925 - July 1, 2015) contributed more than anyone to elevating cheerleading into an art, a science, an Olympic sport, and a multi-million dollar industry.

Lawrence Herkimer passed away a decade ago in Dallas due to heart failure at the age of 89. His passing served as a poignant reminder of the profound legacy he left in shaping American culture.

If a mural were to be created for the United States of America, it could include a small section depicting a cheerleader performing the iconic "herkie jump," a move invented by Lawrence Herkimer.  It would serve as an emblem embodying the American spirit, defined by leadership, strength of character, youthful enthusiasm, beauty, discipline, cooperation, and sportsmanship.

Herkimer has justifiably earned the nickname "Mr. Cheerleader," as he is widely acknowledged as the father of modern cheerleading.  He elevated the standard, transforming a collegiate pastime into a professional sport and a makeshift operation he began in his garage into a network of companies generating $55 million annually.

A gymnast and cheerleader, Herkimer graduated in 1948 from the University of Illinois, where he earned a master's degree after pursuing studies in physical education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  That same year, he founded the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA), with which he served as a teacher.

He went on to establish the first cheerleading camps across the United States and in several other countries. He is credited with training approximately three million cheerleaders.

He and his wife, Dorothy, were remarkable pioneers. In 1951, they established the Cheerleader Supply Company. Initially operating from the Herkimers' Dallas garage, the company rapidly expanded into a thriving retail business specializing in sweaters, skirts, booster ribbons, custom-made shoes, and various cheerleading equipment.

Herkimer patented the spirit stick and introduced a revised version of the pompom, renaming it "pompon" after realizing that "pompom" carried an obscene connotation in certain Asian languages.

The advent of color television prompted Lawrence's innovation of the pompom.  Cheerleaders were gaining increasing camera attention, and Herkimer identified the need to offer vibrant and visually appealing accessories for them. Consequently, he attached paper streamers to a stick to invent the "pom-pom".  

For his subsequent design update, a flameproof Mylar version featuring a hidden handle, Herkimer was awarded U.S. Patent No. 3,560,313 by the Patent Office in 1971. 

It was a frenzy. Pompon sales surged dramatically, as cheerleaders nationwide sought to acquire their own. Herkimer successfully sold millions upon millions of them.  In addition to being an exceptional innovator and an esteemed trainer, he achieved great success as a wealthy entrepreneur— a quintessential example of the true American self-made man.  In 1986, when Herkie sold his training camp business (not his other assets), he pocketed the staggering sum of 20 million dollars.

At the NCA, celebrating both attitude and athletics was integral to Herkimer's philosophy.  «The physical skills we teach the kids are just a part of it,» he said in a 1983 UPI interview.  «We also teach how to build school spirit, we teach crowd control, we teach crowd psychology, we teach them what to do when a crowd boos, we teach how to plan a pep rally.»

Each year, the NCA trains 150,000 cheerleaders in Dallas, and the business established by Herkimer eventually generated annual sales of $50 million. Later, he also founded the larger Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA), headquartered in Memphis.

Although his hometown was the birthplace of the renowned Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, one of the most flamboyant squads in professional sports, Lawrence Herkimer was not an avid admirer.  He stated, around 1972, that "professional cheerleaders are not cheerleaders; they are dancing girls and entertainers."

In 1987, Herkimer stated to the Dallas Morning News that he had elevated cheerleading «from the raccoon coat and megaphone to greater heights."»

When he died, (July 1, 2015), in honor of him, cheerleaders and would-be cheerleaders lighted up social media with photos of themselves doing the "Herkie Jump".

  

«Lawrence Herkimer was a wonderful guy and an SMU legend,» said Brad Cheves, Southern Methodist University vice president for Development and External Affairs.  «He was very proud of his association with his alma mater, and very generous to the University throughout his lifetime in ways that directly impacted students.  We will cherish his memory.»

It is worth noting that, during World War II, he served in the United States Navy aboard the USS Jamestown for two years in the Philippines.  He was awarded the American Campaign Medal, Victory Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Medal, and Philippine Liberation Campaign Ribbon in recognition of his service.

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Cheerleaders worldwide, along with their parents and fans, will always remember Mr. Cheerleader and his enduring legacy to the American people, a true national treasure.

THE  STORY  OF  THE  STEELERETTES,  THE  FIRST  CHEERLEADING  SQUAD  IN  THE  NATIONAL  FOOTBALL  LEAGUE.

For over a hundred years, American football has been associated with cheerleading.  First in schools, whether at the high school, college or university level.  Most fairly large educational institutions with a student football club had, and still have, a group of cheerleaders to support them.

National Football League (NFL) clubs were exceptions to this rule, until 1961, when the Pittsburgh Steelers, in conjunction with Robert Morris Junior College, decided to form a women's cheerleading team to cheer on the local club's players and spectators, also in hopes of improving ticket sales to Steelers games.  Because in those years, the team had little success on the field, which hurt ticket sales.

In 1961, William Day, an administrator at the Robert Morris college, who was also the entertainment coordinator for the Steelers, had this idea to hold tryouts at the college and select a group of young female students to perform on the field during Steelers games.  Robert Morris was a small college without a football team, and the students had unofficially adopted the Steelers as «their team».  So it was a natural union...

At tryouts, candidates were evaluated on their athletic ability, coordination, personality, gymnastics, and appearance.  They also had to know football well to prove that they would know when to cheer.  At games, the performed choreographed jazz routines to live jazz music performed by Harold Betters and band leader Benny Benack.  Steelerettes received one free ticket per game as pay.

1961

Without realizing it, the young Steelerettes were making history as the first cheerleading squad in the NFL.  They would be adorned in outfits befitting of the steel town image of Pittsburgh.  Their uniforms consisted of gold knee-lenght bibbed jumpers and hard hats.

The first group of Steelerettes that cheered during the 1961 season were : Eleanor Lineman (Captain), Virginia Davis, Patricia Zuvella, Margaret Hensler, Dolly Merante, Margie McCormick, Sandy McEachran, Linda Walters and Barbara Bishop.

Contrary to their habits, the Pittsburgh Steelers had more success at home that year, winning four of their seven games.  And the Steelerettes proved to be a tremendous success with both the fans and the media.

1963

The 1962 season started off with a frenzy of public appearances.  When the squad was selected, Bob Prince interviewed them on his weekly TV show, and they were being mentioned in newspaper articles.  The Pittsburgh Steelerettes had become the darlings of the local sports scene.

A group of young men, called «the Ingots», who were also Robert Morris students, were added to complement and assist the cheerleaders in their routines.  But the experience lasted only one season.  The Ingots did not return in 1963.

1964

That year (1963), the Steelerettes uniforms were a bit brighter and the girls no longer had to wear the hard hats.  They were making regular appearances at charity functions, hospitals and schools.  The talented ladies were also regular performers during halftime at the Duquesne University basketball games.

The squad was increased to ten girls, which made it possible to do a classic pyramid, which from then on became one of the Steelerettes trademark routines.

Carefully choreographed acrobatic maneuvers were used to disassemble the pyramid.  The girl in the top position did a backflip onto the field, then a series of cartwheels ending in a split to begin the formation.  The next two did their backflips and cartwheels ending in a split on each side of the first and so on until we ended up forming a «V» on the field.  The girls performed this several times during the game and it was a genuine crowd pleaser.

1968

But the pyramid was difficult to pull-off, and sometimes the girls collapsed into pile.  The 1963 Steelerettes, as well as the 1969 squad, are immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Among the films that are shown in the theater are bloopers.  The opening scenes of two such films show the pyramids collapsing in one of the Steelerettes humorous heaps.

Another well-rehearsed routine was the line dance that followed every Steelers score, performed to the rhythm of the «Pittsburgh Steelers Fight Song».

By the 1967 season, the idea of having cheerleaders on the sidelines had cought the attention of several other NFL teams, most notably the Dallas Cowboys, and times were changing.  The Steelerettes had always projected a wholesome, collegiate type image while the new wave of NFL cheerleaders mimicked the Cowboys cheerleaders and their go-go dancing «Rockettes» style.

The Steelerettes were starting to look a bit outdated.

By the late 1960's, Robert Morris' students body had grown and the school now had its own football team.  The decision to disband the Steelerettes was a joint decision between the Rooney family (owner of the Steelers) and Robert Morris.  Apparently, the cheerleaders wished to wear outfits that were more «modern» and «daring».

In response, the «very conservative» owner fired the team.  The last squad of Steelerettes left the field after the 1969 season, when the Steelers lost 13 of their 14 games.  They would never come back.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, to this day, are still among the few NFL teams that do not have cheerleaders.

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Three years later, Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm asked fashion designer Paula Van Wagoner to «modernize» the cheerleaders' uniforms of the team.  The result was the 1972 iconic DCC uniform which is in the Smithsonium Museum today...

Read the story here : (BIKINI AND POM POM GIRLS: 50 YEARS AGO, IN 1972, FASHION DESIGNER PAULA VAN WAGONER CREATED THE ICONIC UNIFORM OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS CHEERLEADERS.)

50 YEARS AGO, IN 1972, FASHION DESIGNER PAULA VAN WAGONER CREATED THE ICONIC UNIFORM OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS CHEERLEADERS.

In 1960, Tex Schramm, the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, was looking for ways to attract more spectators to the local games of this new  National Football League (NFL) franchise.  The crowds attending the games are small and, what does not help, the team loses all its matches.  Dallas football fans are much more interested in cheering on football clubs from nearby colleges and universities.

Schramm, a Californian - born in 1920, died in 2003 - is a journalism graduate from the University of Texas who began his career as a sportswriter before becoming director of advertising for the Los Angeles Rams in 1947.  He quickly rose through the ranks to become general manager of the team.  Incidentally, he then hired a certain Pete Rozelle as the new advertising director of the Rams.

Rozelle later became the commissioner of the NFL for nearly 30 years (1960 to 1989) and he made giant strides in the circuit, until it was among the best professional sports leagues in the world.

After his time with the Rams, Schramm (above) landed an executive position at CBS Sports in 1957.  His professional experience, both in football and on TV, will help him greatly to meet the challenge of the management of the new Dallas Cowboys.  He is first and foremost an excellent salesman, thanks to his former job as an advertising director with the L.A. Rams.  And through his training as a journalist, and his time at CBS, he knows the power of the media.

He will use all this baggage to become a marketing genius, an outstanding innovator, and a remarkable visionary who will contribute greatly to the improvement of the NFL, and make the Cowboys immensely popular, earning them the title of "America's team".

This huge success will pass, among other strokes of genius, by the creation of a new group of cheerleaders who will make a sensation and who will "stick" to the brand image of the Cowboys.  

Already, in 1960-61, since his losing club did not offer a good show on the field, - performances capables of attracting big crowds -, Schramm thought of the creation of a squad of Pom Pom Girls that would offer at least one good show to the audience, along the sidelines.  He hired Dee Brock, a high school teacher and part-time model, to found this quad of cheerleaders.

The « CowBelles  and their Beaux » in 1966.

At this time, the Cowboys boss already has the idea of making football not only the most popular sport but a great entertainment through a few innovations and using the power of the media.

He suggests that Dee Brock recruit pretty models to fill the role of cheerleaders.  When he was working for CBS, Schramm noted that television programs where you see pretty girls attract a lot of viewers.  Brock asked him how much he will pay for the models he wants her to recruit.  Schramm replie : « zero ».

Dee Brock is adamant that a model will never agree to cheerleading for free.  In addition, these young women, - and their makeup ! - would not last for three hours on the football field, where the scorching temperature can often reach more than 90° F.

So, Schramm and Brock will have to fall back on students from nearby high schools to compose their squad of Pom Pom Girls.  Later, boys will join the group - called " CowBelles & their Beaux " - and Dee Brock (wearing a black shirt on the above 1968 picture) will have to really insist that Scramm accept black members into the squad.

Brock was very keen that her group of young cheerleaders reflect the diversity of the city of Dallas' population.  But she struggled to get her will accepted because, at the time, segregation still existed in Texas and the USA.

Four about ten years, on the field, the "CowBelles and their Beaux" will practice traditional routines, that is to say : make small acrobatics and tricks as it is done in the cheerleading clubs of the schools ;  shouting slogans through megaphones ; and waving their pompoms to entice spectators to cheer on their football team.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in 1971

The girls on the squad wear long pleated skirts - that got shorter with time - and modest white shirts.  But at the end of the 60s, the american society is changing.  It is liberalizing.  New ideas, new fashions (the mini-skirt !), cultural changes, freer mores, take place.  So, Dee Brock, in agreement with Tex Scramm, also believes that the time has come to renew their group of cheerleaders.

In 1969, the boys were eliminated from the squad, who was simply renamed the "Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders" (DCC).  And in the early 70s they changed the costume of the Pom Pom Girls.  They now wear a shorter skirt and a blue blouse in the colors of the football club.  But Schramm and Dee Brock are not satisfied.  The latter wants older cheerleaders, that is to say between 18 and 25 years old, and she also wants their routines to be more dance-oriented.

To fulfill their new mission, the cheerleaders will need rigorous physical training and they will have to learn to dance.  This task was entrusted to the renowned choreographer Texie Waterman (photo), whim whom Dee Brock would have to share her salary.  Tex Schramm had a reputation for holding the purse strings very tight !

To be able to perform on the field with this new way of doing things, the cheerleaders also need a new uniform that allow them more freedom of movement.  Schramm adds that this new uniform will have to be "sexier".  Regarding this part of the reform of his new group of Pom Pom Girls, the boss of the Cowboys talks to Lester Melnick, a friend of his and golf partner, who owns a big department store in Dallas.

Later, Melnick tells one of his friends, who is the boss of a local clothing factory called Lorch, about Schramm's uniform project.  Fashion designer Paula Van Wagoner works at this factory.  Her boss asks her if she would like to design a new uniform for the Cheerleaders of the Dallas Cowboys.  Although she specializes mainly in children's clothing, Paula is used to filling these kinds of « extra » orders.  She sees no problems in being able to meet this demand.

She goes to meet Tex Schramm and Dee Brock at the Cowboys' offices and she just asks them what kind of uniform they want.  Schramm responds : « Number one, these are going to be dancing girls so they have to be able to move.  Number two, it's got to be a western theme to go with a Cowboy's theme.  Number three, it's got to be sexy, but then it's got to be in good taste. »

Inspired by the fashion of the moment, and the elements she knows of the cowboy culture of the American West, Paula Van Wagoner does not take much time to draw two sketches of uniforms (above) that she will present to Schramm and Dee Brock, only two days after their initial meeting.  In the early 70s, hot pants and go-go boots were fashionable, so Van Wagoner integrated them into her uniform proposals for the Cowboys cheerleaders.

For the western aspect, she thinks of a blue shirt attached in front by a box knot, with over, a bolero jacket with short fringes, trimmed with blue stars, like the white belt that holds the shorts.  The other design is less suitable to the sexy look Schramm asked for, since the blouse covers the entire upper body and the shorts are hidden behind long fringes.  Schramm, obviously, opts for the sexier of the two proposals.  But he wants to see what it looks like on a real person.

Paula Van Wagoner does not hesitate to put on the chosen version of the new uniform to accede to the request of the boss of the Cowboys.  She was therefore the first to wear this famous uniform, which, she is far from suspecting at that time, will become an icon of the American popular culture...

In 1972, for her, this uniform order was simply part of her job at Lorch, as she explained later, in 2018, after 46 years of oblivion, when the very prestigious Smithsonian National Museum of American History, in Washington D.C., finally recognized her work and paid her a beautiful tribute.

At that distant time, she said about her creation of the iconic uniform, during this ceremony in her honor at the famous Museum of international reputation : « It wasn't any big deal, it was just another assignment.  I thought it would probably be that year and then they'd come up with another design the next year.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would last this long ! »

When Paula Van Wagoner first saw her creation carried by the Cowboys' new cheerleaders, it was during the inaugural game of the 1972-73 season for the champion Dallas team, which had just won its first Super Bowl, earlier that year.  A huge crowd of more than 80,000 spectators gathered at the new Texas Stadium to cheer on its champions.

Suddenly, while this excited audience eagerly awaits the entry of its formidable players on the field, in order to celebrate them, it is rather the new cheerleaders of the Cowboys who are ahead of them first on the grassy surface.  The spectators remain speechless at the unexpected spectacle of these beautifully dressed young women, who run waving their pompoms.  They have never seen anything like it.  These girls are dazzling in their splendid costumes.

Paula Van Wagoner is happy.  She can't even believe that these beauties wear this uniform that she created humbly.  The success of this outfit, so beautiful and so original, is instantaneous, and soon, all the cheerleader troops want to have it or copy it.  So much so, that Tex Schramm and the Cowboys hurry to ensure its exclusivity by making it a registered and protected trademark.

The football team will enjoy twenty years of success on the field, and, with a thunderous marketing team, it will make a gigantic promotion of the club through a clever use of the media and by putting on the market a multitude of derivative products.

1972 DDC Squad Leader Carrie O'Brien-Sibley in a uniform resembling the "other" Van Wagoner's design

The pretty cheerleaders of "America's team" will become the "America's Sweethearts".  And all american little girls will dream of becoming a cheerleader of the Dallas Cowboys.  Like Inga Van Wagoner, a niece of Paula Van Wagoner, who, in 1995, will realize her children dream by deserving her place on the famous squad.

In honoring Paula Van Wagoner, on February 26, 2018, the Smithsonian Museum recalled that cheerleading is an American invention (at Princeton, in 1877), and that in the 1930s and 1940s, thanks to physical education teacher Gussie Nell Davis, cheerleading was one of the first and only physical activities the girls could pratice.

By highlighting the great Van Wagoner's uniform design, the National Museum of American History has provoked research into this phenomeon of the 1972 DCC.  This research, particularly that carried out by the news media, has helped to bring out of oblivion other women who have contributed to this historical recognition of the work of Mrs. Van Wagoner.

Leveta Crager, with DCC choreographer Judy Trammell, left

  Because, in addition to Tex Schramm, who received most of all the credit for having pushed to the maximum the fame of the cheerleaders of the Cowboys of 1972, we should not forget the important role played by Dee Brock ; by choreographer Texie Waterman ; by Suzanne Mitchell (Brock's successor at the head of the DCC troupe from 1976 through 1989) ; and by the seamstress Leveta Crager, who for 24 years, made the famous custom uniform for each cheerleader.

The work of Mrs. Crager, - who died in 2003 -, was not easy.  Her granddaughter Shawna Smith remembers that there was a strict protocol for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders uniforms.  You had to buy a certain bra with a clasp at the rib cage.  The shirt had to be tied around that clasp in a box knot, or things could get a bit loose.  But the look was designed to be seamless.

About the shorts, they were actually two pairs of them sewn together.  One acted as lining, to hug in a woman's curves without riding up.  « You never saw a hemline in those shorts », Shawna said.  « They were skimpy.  But you never saw anything you weren't supposed to see.  How she did it, I have no idea. »

And Leveta Crager, a five foot three feisty irish woman, - who was the head of operations at the same clothing factory (Lester Melnick's Lorch) where Paula Van Wagoner was working -, kept her eye on the cheerleaders when she attended Cowboys games.  « She eyeballed the girls just to make sure everyone looked good and the rookies knew how to tie their shirts », added her granddaughter.

On February 26, 2018, before leaving the ceremony and the people, including her family, who honored her at the Smithsonian, Paula Van Wagoner wanted to tell one last story.  A really strange one : 

« About 1970 my best friend and I gave each a trip to a fortune teller for our birthdays.  Her name was Jessie and everyone talked about how wonderful she was.  The only thing she knew about us was our first name and maybe our birth date.  We went in and she talked about all these different things.  I wrote everything down that I could remember she said.  And then I stuck it in a box in my closet.  About four years later, I was cleaning out my closet and I found that slip of paper.  And what she said in 1970 was : "You will design a uniform that will be known all over the world".  I have never forgotten that. »

Amazing !!!

The mission of the Smithsonian, at least one of them, is to use his resources across disciplines to explore what it means to be an American.  If one could paint, on a huge mural, the history of the United States of America, among all the historical facts, and all the important figures who forged the American identity, there would probably be, on this large fresco, the small image of a cheerleader of the Dallas Cowboys, dressed in the wonderful costume designed by Paula Van Wagoner.

Some sources attribute this iconic uniform to Dallas fashion designer Jody Van Amburgh.  Others give credit to Tex Schramm or Dee Brock.  But Smithsonian historians are formal : they have in hand the original sketches of Paula Van Wagoner.  There is no doubt, according to their impeccable expertise, that these drawings date from 1972 ; that they were made by Mrs. Van Wagoner ; and that one of these authentic sketches does represent the iconic uniform worn by the Cowboys' cheerleaders that same year.

The Cowboys organization has also given the Smithsonian several artifacts related to the extraordinary epic of its cheerleaders of 1972.  Now, and forever, it is inscribed in the history and culture of the American people...