The First Cheerleader?

On November 2, my wife - a former cheerleader, made me aware of a Facebook post I might be interested in.  The post stated: On that day in 1898, during a University of Minnesota Football game vs Northwestern in Minneapolis, a University Med student by the name of Johnny Campbell led the crowd in an organized “Minnesota SKI-U-MAH!” type cheer.  Because of this event, November 2nd is celebrated to this day as the birth of organized cheerleading by many organizations, including the U of M itself.

https://gophersports.com/news/2003/6/12/Securing_the_Future_The_Golden_Gopher_Spirit_Squads

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Golden_Gophers_Spirit_Squads

https://usacheer.org/cool_timeline/the-first-cheerleader

https://cheerdaily.com/cheer/news/birthday-of-cheerleading

As someone who tries to celebrate historical events like this on my social feeds, I thought it would be unique event to add to my Minnesota History Calendar.

There was a problem though.

Those of you who read my stuff regularly know what’s coming next.    

When I went to look it up, I discovered that November 2, 1898 was a Wednesday. 

I don’t know if the Gopher football team has ever played a regular season game on a Wednesday.  Especially back in the 1890s.  Back then, traveling to another team’s campus was a bit more complicated than it is today and most likely dictated that games be played on weekends. 

That doesn’t mean it’s never happened, but it would be odd.  The only Wednesday games I can think that Minnesota has ever played would be Bowl games in December.   

Doing more digging, I discovered that in November 1898, the Gophers played games both the weekend before, and after Wednesday November 2nd:

On October 29, 1898, the Gophers played at Wisconsin, losing 29-0  -  OOF!

On November 5, 1898, the Gophers played North Dakota at Northrop Field, winning 15-0. 

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-saint-paul-globe/209683606/

In researching those dates, there was no mention of Johnny Campbell and his famous cheering, or “rooting” as papers referred to it back then.

I did find Johnny Campbell’s name associated with “rooting” in papers from 1900.   In other words, he was indeed a real person and was famous at the University of Minnesota for cheerleading. 

https://www.newspapers.com/article/star-tribune/209560201/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/minneapolis-daily-times/209683765/

I also found that during that 1898 season, the Gophers did, in fact, play Northwestern.  But… it was on November 12th.  In the newspaper stories about that game, I found a paragraph about how some crowd “Marshalls” organized fans from different sections of the stadium to do a continuous cheer.  Those fans cheered “in a manner that had not been heard in three years.”   That statement alone makes it seem like it was a significantly noticeable event. 

https://www.newspapers.com/article/minneapolis-daily-times/209560933/

Could the real date of “the birth of cheerleading” actually be November 12th 1898?   Is it possible that at some point in this story, someone made a typo dropping the “1” in the number 12, and that typo led to the date being remembered as November 2nd instead of the 12th?   Could it be that simple?

We will never know.

What we do know is that it was NOT November 2, 1898.

Regardless, this historical nugget might make for good conversation at your Thanksgiving dinner table.  Unless you share that table with a U of M official.  They LOVE it when I tell them their history is inaccurate. 

See also, my Paul Bunyan’s Axe story, and my John Wooden story.