Thomas Peebles (March 18, 1857 – March 10, 1938) was the father of American

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

and the first

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, in

1883 Events January–March * January 4 – ''Life'' magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States. * January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people. * Ja ...

. Peebles coached the team in three games in that early season. They lost two and won one. Peebles was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States when was 13. He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1882 and moved to

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

the following year. There he taught philosophy at the

for five years. He was later president of a construction firm. Peebles died on March 10, 1938, at his home in Minneapolis.

Head coaching record

Career

Peebles was a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota, and coaching was something he did without pay. After several students found out he knew football from his time at Princeton, they coaxed him to give them pointers. After the initial practice in preparation for a game against Carleton College, Peebles "devoted many of his evenings to instructing the students in the rudiments of the game." For practices, Peebles would often split the team in two for scrimmages. He coached one side while an appointed player coached the other. When Peebles' side scored (which was more often), he would cheer "Sis-Boom-Ah, Princeton!" Two players desired a cheer to respond to the East coaster and developed "Rah Rah Rah, Ski ''OO'' Mah!" The school paper printed the cheer in 1885, and it cemented the tradition for the Gophers team. Peebles continued to assist in the expansion of the game within the university until 1888. He would later help other local teams learn the game, and then compete against the Frederick S. Jones-coached Gophers. Since Jones was from Yale, the games were "lively," as they were "a case of rivalry between Princeton and Yale." While there, he transitioned to law as a career, passed the bar and began practicing in Minnesota. He used his knowledge and skills to manage companies in other states, including a phone company (The Mississippi Valley Telephone Company), and two agriculture firms: the Goose Lake Valley Irrigation Company in southern Oregon, and the New Mexico-based Arlington Land Company. In his later years, he founded a building company. The Thomas Peebles and Sons building company put up many homes in Minneapolis as the city expanded. Many of the houses still stand today. Later in life, Peebles lived in a house north of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis. Now the street behind his old house is named "Thomas Avenue" and the area is the "Peebles Addition to Minneapolis."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peebles, Thomas 1857 births 1938 deaths American construction businesspeople Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches Princeton University alumni University of Minnesota faculty People from Letterkenny Sports coaches from Minneapolis Irish emigrants to the United States