The Washington herald., 1908-05-17
READY? HIP! HIP!
Cheer Leaders Win Victories
on College Fields.
EVERY MOVE HAS MEANING
Tupper, OF Pennsylvania, ConsId-
cred the Most Magnetic Cheer Con-
ductor In the Country, Credited
with Victories of the Quakers
Through Roofing of Students.

!
is always interest ng to those who go TO
the games. He Is .he cheer leader, spoken
OF in the singula.' although more often
there are at least three of them
lie is an odd development OF college
sport, indicating he desire on the part
of the supporting student body to make
as much noise rs possible without giving
the appearance OF trying to cheer so as
to rattle the opposing side.
/ Knowing that scattering cheering isn't
nearly as effective as the concerted kind,
the student Is content to sink his person
ality and become merely part Of the big
noise.
The cheer leader dates back only few
years. L is only short time since we
began 10 see him. chiefly at the big foot
1 bah games. where he was down on the
side lines with megaphoHe in his hands,
all ready to below through IL: Now,
fellows, a long cheer for Blank" then
casting The megaphone aside as Il he
never more were going 20 have use for
| Il, to raise both hands, fists clenched 20
the skies. and yell Ready? Hip. hip"
as signal to begin.
obey Its Master.
AS well speak in admiring tones of the
great conductors in the opera house
Here is "A human baton. Every twist of
/ mis- body means somewhat and something
Those hands stretched to the sky are
swung over the side and his body bends
with them. A roar from the crowd fol-
lows. Over the other side bends the body
another answering roar from the crowd
/ Then heatedly and passioEately. with
| both fists shaking in the faces Of the
| crowd. pumping back and forth the bark
/ ing part of the cheer until the height OF
/ the cry IS reached. Then out to each side
the arms are dung with q magnificent
| gesture OF lnality and the cheer IS over.
! This IS q new thing 10 many wh- I'll
/ low college sport, and some OF them are
| apt TO put in more time watching the
antics Of the leader than IN looking at the
game. The cheer leader + a hard work
ing youth. He finishes the days eompeti-
ton quite as exhausted as the athlete for
whom he has been directing the applause,
Cheering Is Organized.
The organized cheering appeals to Wis
/ itors from the foreign countries. England
| particularly. They see in il a peculiarly
American custom. because it is organized,
and because 1t is so different from the
| sort of applause that it is customary TO
| give at English sporting events.
Penn probably had the mos, magnetic
| cheer conductor in the country In Kerr
Boyce Tupper. who was graduated in
1905. Many victories on the diamond and
| gridiron were attributed 70 the eneour-
| agement Tupper brought out for the Red
and Blue. Upper was a preachers son,
and Il is no reflection on his successors to
say that they nave fallen short OF hts
eesorts
They have a tradition at Princeton
about Luke Miller, who was q cheer lead
er in that tremendous football game some
years ago where Yale beat Princeton, s
70 O. Miller, so the story goes, led the
| cheers IN that game without once turning
his attention from the stands.
He took the tips from the men who
stood beside him, and not once did lie
turn away his head 70 look at the game
He merely led the cheers. and 1t was this
spirit OF self-denial that later made him
a great reputation when he got into Y
n c A work.
Reynolds Star.
They had a man az Princeton, too,
named Reynolds. possessed Of the deep
est bass voice OF his time, who blossomed
out as leader IN his senior year. He put
so much heart and body into cheering
that at first the students didn't do any
thing but laugh
Reynolds used TO lead the locomotive
cheer by swinging over TO one side first
so enthusiastically that he touched the
ground there with the tips of his fingers:
then. swinging back. he touched the
ground on the other side, all the time
roaring in the bass.
Woodrow Wilson. Princeton's president.
was watching a deciding Princeton
baseball game one day, apparently in all
the calm of the scholastic mind. when he
became stimulated with the spirit of the
competition. And it is on record that ne
leaped up from where he sat and led then
and there a cheer, -7hich. although de-
prived of some of the posturing that goes
with the art, was well conducted and end
ed UP with the snappy crash of sound
that every cheer leader aims for
1t is no small art TO be a cheer leader.
entailing as il does a strong voice and a
willing and tireless body. The prominence
in the college world is about the only re-
ward for the task.