Cheerleading dates back more than a century. At first, there were only male cheerleaders.
Thomas Peebles, a Princeton alumnus who had served as a “yell leader” in the school’s cheerleading squad, gathered the first cheerleaders in the country. The University of Minnesota football team was on a losing skid when he allegedly arrived to Minnesota, where he inspired the idea of organized chants.
Six male cheerleaders provided crowd entertainment for the first time during the football game between Princeton and the University of Minnesota on November 2, 1898. On this day, cheerleading is said to have begun under the leadership of Johnny Campbell.

The first cheer Campbell reportedly gave was “Rah, Rah, Rah! Hoo-Rah, ski-u-mah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! “Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!” Apparently, this prompted the well-known “sis boom bah” cheer.
The Gamma Sigma fraternity was established in 1903 as the first organization for “cheer leaders.”
In 1923, women started joining cheerleading squads. Cheer squads started to become predominately female during World War II.

In 31 nations, there are at least 4 million cheerleaders. According to some data, there were 3.82 million cheerleaders in the United States alone (as of 2017), and they might be any age.
Cheerleaders make up 97 percent of the population. However, males make up almost 50% of collegiate cheerleaders.
Cheerleading squads are present in 80% of American schools. Football is the most favored sport for cheerleading.
5 to 13-year-old cheerleaders make up 14% of the cheerleading population, and 14% dancing.
A B average or higher is held by 83% of all cheerleaders.
Sixty-two percent of cheerleaders play another sport.
Approximately 98 percent of female cheerleaders and only 20 percent of male cheerleaders had prior gymnastics experience.

The inaugural National High School Cheerleading Competition telecast was on ESPN in 1983.
The typical cheerleader at the University of Kentucky is between 5 feet and 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 97 pounds.
In Britain, there are 18.4 cheerleading squads per club, with an average age of 15. Nearly 80 of the 85 squads in Britain are members of the British Cheerleading Association.
The most frequent cheerleading injuries include split lips and broken arms. The majority occur during pyramids.