The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Spirit Squads comprise the

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 ...

organization at the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

campus of 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 land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

. Being the first program ever to form worldwide, the University of Minnesota is consequently considered the "Birthplace of Cheerleading". Today, the Gopher Spirit Squads consist of four separate squads: a cheer squad, a dance team, a hockey cheer squad, and the school's mascot,

Goldy Gopher Goldy Gopher is the mascot for the University of Minnesota and the associated sports teams, known as the Golden Gophers, as well as the 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018 UCA Mascot National Champion. During the year, Goldy makes over 1000 appearances an ...

. The squads consistently perform well at national competitions including 19 national championships in dance since 2003, a 2nd-place finish for All-Girl in 2013, a fifth-place finish in 2017, and four-time national champion Goldy Gopher in 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018. The current head coach is Sam Owens.

History

The precursors of cheerleading began appearing at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in the latter half of the 19th century. In the 1880s, when Princeton graduate Thomas Peebles brought the game of

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 wi ...

to Minnesota, he also brought the idea of organized fan cheers. It wasn't until 1898, after a losing streak in football, that a Minnesota student named Johnny Campbell began leading cheers forming a squad of ''yell-leaders'' for the football game between

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and Minnesota. Campbell directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!", making Campbell the very first cheerleader. Minnesota won the game 17-6 with the credit for that victory largely going to Campbell and his squad. The " Ski-U-Mah" phrase and other cheers similar to the original yell are still used at the university by the Spirit Squads, as well as by the

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, o ...

and across the university. In the 1920s, gymnastics and other athletic motions were first incorporated into routines by Minnesota's cheerleaders. Women were allowed beginning at Minnesota in 1923, and at that point other schools followed as cheerleading began to transform from a largely male activity to a largely female activity. Today, though the pioneering is now dominated by all-star programs and cheerleading schools, the Minnesota Spirit Squads continue to lead at the collegiate level consistently reaching national finals and finishing in the top 10 as

is changing from being an activity in support of other sports to being a sport of its own.

Coaches

The Spirit Squad coaches have remained relatively consistent since Sam Owens took over the program after graduating from it in the early 1990s. The 2020-2021 list of coaches is below. * Head Coach/Spirit Squad Director - Sam Owens * Spirit Squad Assistant Director - Kristina Anderson * Cheer Coaches - Dan Weaver, Abby DeThorne * Cheer Assistant Coach - Kelsey Hughes, Matt Reiser * Dance Team Coach - Amanda Gaines * Hockey Cheer Coach - Madison Staggert, Niki Peterson * Mascot Coach - Tom Stinar

Squads

Co-Ed/Small Co-Ed Cheer

The Co-Ed and Small Co-Ed Cheer squads consists of both men and women, though size varies from year to year. They primarily appear at

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

games and are an annual participant of UCA Finals.

All Girl Cheer

The All-Girl Cheer squad consists of all women as members. They primarily appear at football and

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

games and are an annual participant of UCA Finals. The All Girl Squad placed 3rd in 2011, 5th in 2012, 2nd in 2013, and 5th in 2017.

Dance Team

The Minnesota Dance Team consists of 19 women dancers. The Dance Team typically performs at football and basketball home games as well as post-season games. Between 2003 and 2006, the team won four straight national championships in UDA Jazz competitions. They won another 4-peat National Championship in both Division 1A Jazz and Pom in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. The team won the national championship again in Division 1A Jazz and Pom in 2014, and in Pom in 2015 as well as 2016 while taking 2nd in Jazz both years. In 2017, the team won national championships again in both Division 1A Jazz and Pom. Since the inception of the Pom classification in 2010, the Minnesota Dance Team has won the national title every year, the only team to ever have won the championship in that category.

Hockey Cheer

Although the Minnesota Spirit Squads compete annually in national competitions, the Hockey Cheer is now the only non-competitive squad in the program. The all female squad competed at Collegiate cheerleading camps until the mid-1990s. This squad, cheers at every regular season home and post-season neutral site game of men's ice hockey. On occasion they also appear at pep fests and other Golden Gopher sporting events. In general, there are anywhere between 9-15 cheerleaders, usually around 12. They are known for their figure skating abilities and perform on-ice stunts, the complexity of which set this squad apart from other hockey cheerleaders, particularly at the collegiate level. Despite stunting now being somewhat limited, they continue to use modified stunts, figure skating abilities, and uniform selections that critics favor among collegiate squads. Some Minnesota hockey fans refer to them as the ''Squad of the Unattainable''.

Goldy Gopher

is the

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as ...

for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus and the associated sports teams, known as the Golden Gophers, as well as the defending UCA Mascot National Champion.

In popular culture

Members of the 2007-08 University of Minnesota Hockey Cheer Squad portray cheerleaders for fictional high school hockey team in the 2008 horror film Killer Movie, directed by Jeff Fisher and starring Paul Wesley and Kaley Cuoco.

References

External links

{{University of Minnesota campus American college cheerleading squads University of Minnesota