Our granddaughter Melanie, a seventh-grader, is a member of a national championship cheering team! But cheering today is nothing like it was back in my high school days.
Back then, cheerleaders like Lorraine Kobs, Betty Magill and Sally Wusterbarth, members of the great Class of ’57, would actually lead cheers! They taught us, the fans, a number of cheers at pep rallies in the gym the day before a game, and then they’d lead us in those cheers at the game. By the end of a season, we’d know a bunch of cheers, and the cheerleaders could get us yelling in unison to cheer on our beloved Panthers.
They’d also lead us in the Alma Mater and the fight song. Come on, sing along: “Hail to thee, Oconto Falls. Hail the Orange and Black. We are with you one and all; spirit we’ll not lack. Ever upward, ever onward, honor ours will be. Hail to thee, Oconto Falls. Hail, oh hail to thee!” Or, “On you Panthers, on you Panthers” sung to the tune of “On Wisconsin.”
And the cheers the cheerleaders taught us were really different from today’s, too. Today, cheering at games is all about noise; there’s no real attempt to get the audience involved in any unified activity other than yelling their heads off. In our day, the audience was synchronized because we were a team in the stands, yelling in rhythm to the words we’d been taught by the cheerleaders.
“Victory, victory that’s our cry, V-i-c-t-o-r-y! Are we in it? Well, I guess, Oconto Falls High School is the best!”
“Are you ready? Well, I guess. Oconto Falls Panthers, yes, yes, yes!”
“Lean to the left, lean to the right. Come on, fellows; fight, fight, fight!”
“Rick O’Neill, he’s our man. If he can’t do it, Kussow can! Kussow, Kussow, he’s our man, if he can’t do it, Fuzzy can. Fuzzy, Fuzzy, he’s our man…” and so on, through the whole line-up. “If these guys can’t do it, no one can!”
“Chik-a-lak-a, Chik-a-lak-a, Chow, Chow, Chow. Boom-a-lak-a, Boom-a-lak-a, Pow, Wow, Wow. Chika-a-lak-a Chow, Boom-a-lak-a Pow, Oconto Falls High School, Boy, and How!”
One of Marilyn’s favorite cheers from her junior high days: “A bottle of pop, a big banana. We’re from the state of Louisiana. That’s a fib, that’s a lie. We’re from St. Mary’s Junior High!”
Boy, they don’t write like that anymore! And kids would probably look at you pretty funny if you were repeat them now.
There was nothing quite like the thrill and excitement of high school football or basketball in a small town in Wisconsin in the ’50s. (Why didn’t they cheer at track meets or baseball games?) What was really significant, in addition to the game itself, of course, was being part of an event, the camaraderie, the thrill of competition, the pride of town, school and sports.
But today, cheering like Melanie’s squad does, is all about teamwork. They’re a performance group. They don’t lead cheers. They have to do really difficult stunts that are more like gymnastics or acrobatics. I’ve seen some video of her squad, and the stuff they do is simply amazing. It’s set to music, and there’s a squad of at least a dozen girls there. Melanie is a “flyer.” She’s cute and tiny and amazingly strong and athletic. She’s the one who goes to the top of the pyramid and “flies” off into the arms of her teammates. There are elements of choreography and dance, too. The girls are all really good athletes and their routines take hours of strenuous exercise to prepare. There are probably almost as many injuries as there are in any other sport.
Back when I was in high school, to call cheerleading a sport was a bit of a stretch. Now, it’s practically a circus performance. The mission statement from Melanie’s cheer club says: “The goal of Junior Lancer Cheer is to offer … an athletic, no-cut sport which develops safe and healthy cheerleading skills … to provide a physically and emotionally safe and disciplined cheerleading program where all involved show respect for one another… We strive to teach our athletes the value of commitment, hard work, integrity, leadership, self-confidence, a positive attitude, and a love for the sport.”
More power to them! Hip, hip, hooray!
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