When did the Michigan male cheerleaders/acrobats go away? (I sure miss them)
Someone shared a 1955 football video recently and I saw the Michigan male cheerleaders doing their backflips off of the brick wall. I attended between 1978 and 1983 and fondly remember games when we were scoring 70 points against the Little Eight in the Big Ten and the excitement included counting the backflips! I remember fondly seeing the older Cheerleaders return at homecoming. The Pom Pom Girls were also there, but they were a separate entity.
There was also the "passing up" phenomenon which was obviously very dangerous and is thankfully a thing of the past, and the 3rd Quarter "Shit Band" which was a lot of fun when there were breaks in the music such as the Beatles "Birthday" song. But the part I miss seeing on TV the most was seeing those acrobatic classmates in their cool '50s vintage maize sweaters with the Block M.
Perhaps someone has posted about this in the past and I missed it, but wondered when our male cheerleaders became a part of cherished Saturday Game Day history.
Where have all the young men gone... long time passing...
“Did I ever tell you about the time Bill Brasky showed up at my daughter’s wedding? You know my daughter, she’s a beautiful girl. Well, Brasky shows up and you know he’s a big fella. Well, he’s standing right between me and my daughter at the ceremony. He’s got no right to be there, but he’s drunk and he’s Brasky. Well, long story short, the priest accidentally marries me and Brasky. We spend the weekend in the Poconos — he loved me like I’ve never been loved before.”
we stopped scoring 55 pts against scrub teams and they got bored of the pushups and backflips to count the points.
we do, however, often score 42. against teams that score 27. that say theyll score 100. but dont. cuz they cant. and because hassan has more touchdowns than we had 3rd downs in the 2nd half.
to be fair the team they played had the sniffles and it was cold outside
Yeah, they still exist. They perform in Southwest corner if I recall correctly. Think they stopped the flips when they lowered the field most recently.
As a former Michigan Football Men’s Cheerleader (from the eighties) I can tell you those flips off the wall continued even after the field was lowered and I have the sore ankles to prove it.
The all Male squad was a tradition from the early 1900’s. Sometime in the 70’s a separate Pom-Pom Squad was started to cheer at Football games in addition to the Mens Squad. Then in the late 70’s / Early 80’s the Pom-pom squad became a traditional coed cheer squad. The coed squad cheered for all the other sports (like basketball) and cheered at home football games only. The male acrobat squad only cheered for Football at both home and away games. The coed squad did not travel in those days except to bowl games.
The all Male squad went away in the mid to late 90’s and wore those traditional heavy wool maize sweaters rain or shine right up until the end. Now only the co-ed squad (and dance team) exists.
Some of the guys from the male cheer squad still come back for homecoming. Some still from the 1950’s. The AD recently changed the rules that allowed large numbers of the alumni cheerleaders to come back and cheer on the field. Now only a very limited number are allowed and are only allowed on the sideline at limited times.
Logged in to upvote this.
Thanks for your recap and for being part of the best college gameday experience!
You still did the backflips off the wall when the field was lowered in 1991? That sounds terrifying.
You might have had much worse than sore ankles if your timing was off.
Very lame of the AD to set that limit. The alumni cheerleaders are the best part of homecoming (well, tied with the male baton twirler)
I bet you're referring to Matt Pickus, former MMB drum major, who comes to every homecoming and basically puts on a show at halftime for the student section.
I assumed this was still a thing (I’m on the West Coast). The back flips were the best tradition especially when we were beating Northwestern 69-0.
Earl, I also recall a half-time hand-stand race across the end zone against the opponent’s cheer squad. We always won iirc. Seems like like there was one other tradition?
Would it still be an "all male" squad today or only being identified as an all male squad?
Is it correct to refer to this squad as an all male squad or is a ruling required from someone with the word inclusion in the title?
If you have an all male squad do the preferred pronouns need to be listed?
… guess I have to downvote this too.
Are you having a bad day?
So here's the thing. I cant tell if your post is anti-woke or anti-old fart non-progressive thinker like me. I mean it's clear it's anti-something but for the love of God I have no clue which side you're post is faux-outraged with.
And candidly my dude that puts you in worst possible world points-wise as EVERYBODY will downvote you assuming you're taking a shot at "their team". And those like me, who are too fucking confused to figure out which side of the ledger you're on, will just downvote the post just because it makes no sense.
Well-stated, mGrowOld.
I'm with #TeamDon
Who gives a fuck if your down voted.
negged .... it's *you're*
I thought it was yure???
More than a few downvotes mean that your thought is bad. I’ve been downvoted before and I wanted to fight it because I secretly knew that my comment was brilliant, but upon reflection I realized I was being a douche. Don’t be a douche is a pretty good rule.
HAIL 2 VICTORS, doing an impressive job of the old "tell us you're an asshole without saying, 'I'm an asshole.'"
You have to have a Johnny Unitas haircut to be on the squad.
Nobody:
This guy: Somebody somewhere is thinking about woke stuff so I have to make up that person in my head and write a dumb comment making fun of them.
Sometimes it is better to just not post the thing in your head.
I know this from recent personal experience.
It is better to be silent and thought to be a moran, than to save a comment and remove all doubt.
-Socrates, probably
I attended UM from 1972 to 1976 and Title 9 was instituted in 1972. That was the first year UM had coed cheerleaders! During that year, "Passing the girls up" was a tradition in the freshman student section (33) and the 3rd quarter call for Boones Farm empty pop wine bottles saw a steady stream of bottles being passed off from the lower rows to the top row and then thrown over the top. I often wondered if anyone got hurt from that. I also remember the smokey haze over the stadium from all the lit joints and the $5 Ann Arbor pot law.
It took Title 9 in 1972 for UM to decide that having coed cheerleaders was a worthwhile idea.
That is funny to me - which demographic was in favor of not having any female cheerleaders?
It also took Title IX to start admitting more women to Med School, Law School, Dental School, etc. The law is more far reaching than sports.
No girls were allowed in the Michigan Marching Band until 1973. That kind of blows my mind.
The main reason the female pom pom squad appeared when it did was Don Canham's daughter, Clare, enrolled at the University. She was on the first one that was at basketball games and for football.
The Boone's Farm bottles were not thrown over the top. They were collected and recyvled.
I fondly remember Clare - had a little boy crush on her when she was a summer recreation supervisor (at Bader).
”The female pom squad”
Is that an optical illusion or a Freudian illusion?
My recollection is that the female cheerleaders or pom pom people, whatever, did not start until later in the 70s. I have a friend who was in that group and I would have said 1975. I'll check. Also, my recollection is that the Boone's Farms bottles, and other bottles, were passed up to the top and then lined up on the wall at the top of the stadium. Some may have fallen over but the intent was to line them up all the way around the student sections - at that time basically Secs. 27-33.
I don’t know why but I was thinking Wendy might be the OP.
I have seen a film clip a couple of times of the Marching Band in the early 70’s. The Drum Major at the time, Albert Ahronheim would do a series of back flips into the end zone (not a backbend as we see today). He had to have a special chin strap to keep the hat (14 inches plus plume) from sliding off during the flips. As a grad student, he heard a little ditty that a tuba player (Joe Carl?) in the hockey pep band played and everyone yelled “Let’s Go Blue” at the end. In quick order, Ahronheim arranged the parts for all of the instruments and the iconic “Let’s Go Blue” that is used at every game was born. He took gymnastics as a child until high school…thus his ability to perform this remarkable string of handsprings that no other drum major has ever duplicated.
Great read. The "Let's Go Blue" has been there since I started paying attention to UM football and it's cool to now know the origin.
I had totally forgotten about the Shit Band. IIRC a group of Marching Band members would go around and play the Rocky and Bullwinkle theme. The cheerleaders would implore us to yell fight at the conclusion, but we always yelled - Shit!
Thanks for the memories OP. Moose and Squirrel forever!
Guy on my hall freshman year was on the cheerleading team. Seemed like a cool gig. You got to go to all of the games on the field, you learned some cool gymnastics stuff and you got to hang with some smart attractive athletic women. I was going to try out but got busy with other stuff.