Celebrating 100 Years of Cheer!
1910s Cheerleading began at Mizzou with the "Yell Leaders," a small, all-male group in the 1909-1910 academic year. The first cheerleaders at Mizzou: the "Yell Leaders" in 1910 ( Savitar 1910). The "Yell Leaders" in action at the game (Courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri, C3422). 1920s Cheerleaders, as they are now called, continued to be an all-male group. A cheerleader yells out a cheer to the crowd at the football game ( Savitar, 1929). 1930s The first females join the cheerleaders in 1937. The first female cheerleaders from left to right: Betty Smith Jenkins, Betty Ann Ohnemus Robinson, and Jane Jones Cunningham (Courtesy of University Archives, C:1/121/4). 1940s Mizzou Cheerleaders remain a small group of men and women at the beginning of the 1940s, but grow by the end of the decade. Cheerleaders in 1941 ( Savitar, 1941). Cheerleading grows and uniforms become more consistent by 1949 ( Savitar, 19