One Hundred Hoorays for NU?s Cheerleaders

By Don "Fox" Bryant
Today is special for fans of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Not only will the Husker football team play host to Utah State in non-conference action, but two impressive celebrations will be associated with the football action. The 2003 inductees into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame will be introduced to Memorial Stadium fans and some 300 former University of Nebraska cheerleaders (some with spouses and family) will be on hand for a reunion to celebrate the 100th year of cheerleading at Nebraska.

The Nebraska Football Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Nebraska Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame and has a 30-year history.

But the cheerleaders are here today because Debra Kleve White, an NU cheerleader from 1977 to 1980, had the gumption to dream about a Cheerleaders Alumni Club and a reunion to celebrate the history of cheerleading. Debra, a graduate of Seward High School who spent a greater part of her life in Lincoln, now resides in Austin, Texas. She has devoted more than a year of research, correspondence, phone calls and hours of planning for this weekend.

Friday night the group gathered at the Embassy Suites ballroom for a rally/banquet and Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson was the guest speaker. Today they warmed up their cheering pipes at the Husker Huddle in the Alumni Association's Wick Center.

"Klever," as she was called by her teammates on the cheerleading squad at NU, has done a remarkable job of uncovering interesting historical information about cheerleading and milestones in the past 100 years. She credits "Cheer Leader Magazine" with the information, such as the fact that Princeton formed the first "pep club" in the 1870s and launched the first "organized yell" in the 1880s.

More important, she uncovered the news that in 1901 some NU faculty members attended the Minnesota game at Minneapolis and admired the organized rooting by Gopher fans.

On Oct. 18, 1901, Dr. Clemonts, Dr. Pound (Roscoe, later Dean of Harvard Law) and Prof. Wyer held a meeting with eight students to form a "Rooters Club." On Oct. 28 of that year, Nebraska students produced their first effort at organized cheering. They yelled an approved cheer that has been familiar to old-time fans since, but not used for years in deference to Go Big Red and Husker Power: U! U! U-n-i; Ver-Ver-Ver-si-ti! N! E! Bras-ka!; Oh!-my! Oh-h-h- my!

Moving right along, Dean Pound was a leader in forming the Innocents Society in 1903 and, in 1905, the Innocents took charge of "rooting." Since then there have been cheerleaders directing the organized yells. Nebraska fans are now famous for cheering opposing teams when they leave the field, but White came up with an interesting note about the start of that tradition. At a 1913 Innocents meeting, they voted and approved to cheer for the opposing team when they come on the field, when a man is injured and at the end of the game.

Here are other highlights of Klever's historical report:

• In 1915 cheerleaders first were awarded letter sweaters with emblems.
• Between 1917 and 1920 (WWI), four women replaced the men ? Harriet Virginia Ford, Helen Miller Howe, Frances Willard Whitmore and Fae Breese.
• In 1921 Roy Wythers gave a report to the Innocents that a check of five other schools indicated they did not have cheerleaders, and it was voted to not allow women cheerleaders at NU.
• In 1932 and 1933, the first cheerleaders were sent to away games.
• The Husker cheerleaders first had a set uniform with red sweaters with a white "N" on the front and a "U" with a megaphone emblem on the back, and white pants. That style lasted until 1964-65.
• Women returned to the yell squad in 1944 (WWII) and the first four were Anna "Hink" Aasen, Doris "Dodie" Easterbrook, Janet Krause and Jackie Scott Fabling. In 1950 the Innocents voted to go back to an all-male squad, with the Yell King in charge of workouts. But in 1951 the women returned and have been Husker cheerleaders ever since.
• The Corn Cob Man first appeared in 1961; the first pom-pon squad in 1963, the same year gymnasts joined the group for tricks; and in 1965, cheerleaders started supporting non-revenue sports at their events. The Scarlet Dance Squad first performed in 1992.

Welcome home Cornhusker Cheeleaders and Happy 100th Anniversary ? and a hearty thank you to Debra Kleve White for making it all happen.

Husker Cheerleaders of Note

• John Mason (1939-41); his uncle was a member of the 1906 football team.
• Dr. Larry Epstein (1965-67) is a former MASH unit officer and decorated hero.
• Jack Gellatly (1938-39); his father, Chal "Tiny" Gellatly, cheered in 1913-1914.
• Ralph "Whitie" Reed (1934-36) is a former Lincoln and Nebraska golf champion and member of the Nebraska Golf Hall of Fame.
• Ira Epstein (1950-53) is an Entertainment Attorney in Los Angeles.
• Carolyn Daubert Beltzer (1963-65) brought "The Step" to NU.
• Annette Hudson Clay (1969-72) was NU's first African-American cheerleader.
• Norman Ledger (1946-48) owns a playhouse theatre in New Hampshire and was the first baton twirler for the Cornhusker Marching Band.