Cheerleaders have become a major attraction at football and basketball games.
We can thank the enthusiasm of University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell, who stood during a football game in November 1898 and started leading the crowd in “rah, rah, rah” cheers.
Since then the culture of cheerleading has often become larger than the game.
Today cheerleaders don’t just wave pompoms and lead cheers. They also perform difficult individual and synchronized gymnastic exercises.
Although the first cheerleader was a man, the vast majority since have been women.
President George W. Bush was a college cheerleader.
The chance of hitting a hole-in-one in golf is 1 in 15,000. The odds of becoming a professional athlete are 22,000 to 1.
The odds of catching a ball at a major-league baseball game are 563 to 1.
