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What image comes to mind when you see the word "cheerleader?" Does your mind's eye register a picture of a graceful, athletic girl?
What about a graceful, athletic boy?
Cheerleading is not always a female sport (and most cheerleaders maintain, because of all the athleticism involved, it is a sport, rather than just another extracurricular activity). There was a time in our area when male cheerleaders were common.
In the late 1930s, two boys, who later became stalwarts in their communities, were high school cheerleaders: Frank Gazzara at Claysburg and Will Ketner at Roaring Spring. I interviewed both when in their prime.
A third male cheerleader is still with us. Dave Snyder of Loysburg, former owner of the Morrisons Cove Herald, was a cheerleader for Replogle High at New Enterprise between 1951-53. More about Dave later.
In the 1930s, it was common for a girls' high school basketball game to precede the boys' varsity game in area gymnasiums. Male cheerleaders at area high schools were common then. During World War II, because of a gasoline shortage, the sports programs were curtailed. It was after WWII that the custom was established whereby junior varsity games were added for boys and cheerleading became more a female activity.
Male cheerleading was the college extracurricular activity of some prominent politicians of the past century. Ronald Reagan was a football player at Eureka College in Illinois in the 1930s, but was a cheerleader for the basketball team. Dwight Eisenhower, after suffering a football knee injury, became a cheerleader at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
George W. Bush was a cheerleader at Andover Prep Academy in Massachusetts in 1964, while later Senate majority leader Trent Lott and his Senate colleague Thad Cochran were cheerleaders at the University of Mississippi.
Now back to Dave Snyder, who today is in happy retirement in Loysburg.
"I didn't try out for the football team because of the notorious hard nose reputation of the coach," he recalls. "When I was asked to lead cheers I accepted for the free bus ride to the away games and a free ticket to all the games, although I was also in the band and would have gotten to games in the band bus."
One other cheerleader from that Replogle High era survives. "Sally Seifert grew up in Loysburg and now lives in Bedford," according to Snyder. "I see her occasionally."
I have one personal contact with a male cheerleader from the 1940s.
Johnny "Sanker" Ritchey was a member of the Morrison Cove High School class of 1949. I was a freshman junior varsity basketball player there when Johnny was a senior on the varsity squad. He was tall and muscular and played the game with fierce abandon.
It turns out that Sanker was a cheerleader his entire freshman year and was enticed by coach Norm Furrer to transfer his height, athleticism and competitive spirit to the basketball team.
The JVs would occasionally scrimmage the varsity. I learned early on to stay clear of Ritchey's elbows. Cheerleading may have been a demure undertaking for Johnny, but he played basketball with all-out ferocity.