How Did We Get Here? A Tale of Two Men
There are an estimated 3.8 million cheer athletes in the U.S. alone. Varsity Spirit is the largest cheer company in the world, and has been alleged to have control of over 80% of the market. So how did we get here? How did Varsity become, well...”Varsity?”
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Show Notes
This episode is Part 1 is a series about the rise of Varsity as a dominant force in the cheer industry. In order to understand how Varsity became Varsity, we have to start at the very beginning: a very good place to start, according to Dame Julie Andrews and her friends, Rogers and Hammerstein.
Cheer started in the 1800s, but it looked very different from what it does today, including the little detail that women weren’t even included on cheer teams. But two key figures took cheer to the next level: one in 1948, and the other - his protegee - in 1974. Their names are Lawrence Herkimer and Jeff Webb, respectively.
Kristen also covers fun trivia, like the first cheer uniform, the origin of the spirit stick, and how color television prompted the invention of the pom-pom.
Wanna jump around? Here are some highlights:
10:41 History of Cheerleading: The Early Years
15:12 Lawrence Herkimer: The Father of Cheerleading
30:33 Jeff Webb and the Birth of Varsity
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