The Team: 1960's
The earliest known connection that Trinity University had with a spirit team is 1947. According to an October 24, 1947 article of the Trinitonian, there several more men on the team. It includes a picture of 4 cheerleaders, three of whom are young men. They were not necessarily “cheerleaders”, but they were classified as yell leaders that “hoped to cheer their Tigers to victory” (Trinitonian 1947).
In the early ’60s, there were a total of 12 cheerleaders. It was split up evenly with 3 women and 3 men. The men seemed to be the support system for the women as shown in the yearbook picture in The Mirage. The women were sitting on top of the men’s shoulders. Men cheerleaders were recognized, and they were welcomed into another group composed of other male athletes. This group was called the T Association, where they tried to pique other students’ interest in university sporting events. Later in the ’60s, this notion of men being the support system was followed as the cheerleading squad went up by another team of two.
Along with the cheerleading squad, there was also a dance team called the Tigerettes. I learned about this all-girls team when looking through The Mirage. It seems as if this team made a short appearance in Trinity’s history. The Tigerettes were founded in 1957, and they performed with the Trinity band during the homecoming parade. All the girls were also members of the concert band. They specialized in show struts and twirling routines. They also “publicized the University through programs presented to local civic clubs and schools. […] During the holiday season the girls also presented a program for the residents of Boysville” (The Mirage 1960). The last mention of them was two excerpts from the Trinitonian in 1981.
The 1960s was a critical period for women and minorities. Changes made altered the role of women in American society. Women could not receive an Ivy League education at this time. A handful of classes were allowed, but any women who harbored Ivy League dreams had to put them on hold. This means that those higher education schools did not have women on their cheerleading teams because they did not have a female presence attending. This might have caused women to look at other smaller schools if they had an aspiration to join a team of that sort or they just stayed at home and did not receive an education. Cheerleading, at this point, was more focused on school spirit then performance. Uniforms, as seen in The Mirage, were not bearing cleavage or short in any way, it was more important to be pretty and popular. By this period, women were heavy in presence on the sidelines. Football enticed more females to join, and Trinity University supported the fact that cheerleading went hand in hand with the football team. If there were no football team there would be no cheerleaders. A decade or two later The Mirage will show us that there will be designated cheerleaders for different sports in the fall and spring.