Word: america
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Among the promising candidates for this year's All-America is Bill Bofenkamp, "Rooter king" at Minnesota. Like most of his confreres, Bofenkamp is small and wiry (tall cheerleaders went out of style when acrobatics came in), spends two afternoons a week rehearsing with his assistants, has a repertory of a dozen yells, a dozen stunts. Back flips and tumbling are touchdown stunts. Skits are put on between halves...
Though some of the most versatile cheerleaders at Southern colleges (notably Alabama and Tennessee) are dimple-kneed coeds, girls are not eligible for the All-America cheering squad. "Every year there is a campaign to take them in, but every year we keep them out," scowls President Ritter...
Nowadays cheerleading is as much a part of the football show as passing and kicking. Last week, while the cream of the 1939 crop of U. S. footballers wondered whether they would be picked for one of the hundreds of All-America teams (chosen by sportswriters, Greek restaurants, department stores, cinema producers), the cream of college cheerleaders had the same worry: whether they would be picked for this year's All-America cheering squad, to be announced Christmas week...
...cheerleaders' All-America seven (because that is the size of the average college squad) is chosen each year by Gamma Sigma, national college cheerleaders' fraternity, with the aid of sportswriters and sportcasters. Gamma Sigma has no college chapters, no fraternity house, no key. Its 900-odd members are divided into two chapters: Alpha (for All-Americans) and Rho (for also-rans). To become an Alpha and wear the All-America insignia (a shield with two crossed megaphones) is as great a distinction among cheerleaders as getting a Phi Beta Kappa key is to a bookworm...
Candidates, rounded up by talent scouts, are elected to the All-America on the basis of: 1) the cheering section's reaction; 2) judgment in selecting the best psychological moment for a cheer; 3) acrobatic ability-not only proficiency in the common cartwheels, handstands and general high jinks, but also the Ritter Span, Nelson Arch, Duos...