Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders - How it all began
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are somewhat of an American Icon. They are beautiful women clad in blue and white uniforms cheering on America’s team, and of course the uniforms are recognizable to almost everyone. The phenomenon of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is special because they have their own fans, many who come to appearances for a picture, autograph, and a chance to meet these lovely ladies in person.
It all started with the CowBelles and Beaux who were high school students from the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex managed by Dee Brock. They cheered on the football team all the way to the 1971 Super Bowl Championship. However, during the team’s preparations for the defense of their World Championship title in the 1972 season, a new idea was born. Tex Schramm was the General Manager at the time, and with his extensive background in television, he recognized that professional football had become more than a sporting event–it was sports entertainment. He knew that the public liked pretty girls. In fact, he had already tried hiring professional models for the sidelines, although it didn’t work out. The models were beautiful, but they were not athletes. More than three hours of exertion in the hundred degree heat of the sidelines had left them in worse shape after the game than the football players. However, he didn’t give up on the idea. He began to consider using dancers instead. He talked the idea over with Dee Brock and the decision was made to expand the established football tradition of sideline leaders of cheers into a glamorous, choreographed squad of accomplished dancers that would serve as a centerpiece to the game itself. Dee recruited one of the top dancers in America, Texie Waterman, who also owned a dance studio, to judge at the auditions and help create a squad of dancers to grace the sidelines. Sixty ladies attended that first audition and only seven were chosen to be the first Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
When the 1972-73 NFL season kicked off that fall, it was a major turning point in history for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were introduced wearing new star spangled uniforms and debuting an innovative and exciting new form of game day action. For the first time ever, anywhere, jazz dancing was blended with beauty and brought to a football field. And that his how the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were born.
Once the entire country got a glimpse of these beautiful ladies, a phenomenon began. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have appeared everywhere from that time on. Television specials, popular television shows, made-for-tv-movies, major motion pictures, awards shows, game shows, talk shows—you name it and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have most likely appeared on it.
For more information about these lovely ladies of Texas, go online and search the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.