School Spirit
One evening a few days before the Holy Cross game, we climbed the stairs to the second floor of Alumni Gym to watch this year's crop of cheerleaders work out, and to inquire why 16 students — eight men, eight women — would want to perform in front of thousands of people at a football game, jumping around in the rain and yelling themselves hoarse. The cheerleaders, a friendly group, were wearing mostly turtlenecks, warm-up pants, and gym shorts for their workout. One had on a faded Indian T-shirt. They were exuberant even in practice, so much so that it was all the leader, Liz Keppler '81, could do to put them through their paces. She was like a teacher with a slightly unruly, highspirited, uninhibited class.
Keppler is a veteran. She's been a cheerleader for three years at Dartmouth, and before that had a successful career in front of the stands in high school. Most of this year's crew are newcomers, however, so she had them practicing formations and yells. First they built pyramids: two men crouching to form the bottom tier, another man on top of them, and then a woman standing on the very top. Pyramids were a little shaky, but successful all the same. Next was "twisties:" a man stands behind a woman, picks her up and spins her sideways, head-over-heels, landing her on her feet again. Twisties are done in time with the "Give me a D!" cheer — a twistie performed for each letter until Dartmouth is spelled. Fun to watch. Then they spelled Dartmouth again, this time using formations of people to make each letter. The best letter was "T:" a woman lies horizontally across a man's shoulders and he lifts her over his head like a barbell. There weren't enough people to make all the letters, however.
Orders from Keppler: "Come on! Get psyched! Everybody yell and scream!" Everybody yelled and screamed. The basketball and volleyball players sharing the gym remained oblivious while the cheerleaders practiced leap-frogging and then performed a more or less free-form formation, standing in a circle, clapping in rhythm. Our favorite formation — but also the one that seemed to need the most work — involved a man with a woman sitting on his shoulders, and another woman hanging from his neck. They spun in a fast circle, the legs of one woman flying out behind her, the head and shoulders of the other stretched out in the opposite direction.
Keppler, who wasn't at all out of breath, took time out to talk. "We're trying to change our image this year," she said. "In the past, we tended to be totally out of control — more of a show than anything else. This year we want to get the crowd going — lead cheers — as well as put on a show."
Why bother? we asked. "I'm the type who would be crazy in the stands anyway. I love school spirit. I don't think it's corny, at all. It's important. Cheering at a game is one time when everyone can come together, no matter what their differences are." But it doesn't always click, she admitted. Usually, it's fun, but when people are sitting in the rain and the team is losing, the crowd is sometimes slow. "It can be disappointing." One time like that, Keppler recounted, in a moment of inspiration, the cheerleaders rolled in the mud, just to bring spirits up. Another stunt in Keppler's repertoire is to dye her hair green, or to paint a green "D" on her face.
Keppler told us that Dartmouth's cheerleaders have more spirit than their Ivy counterparts, and also have more people cm the squad. "Yale is the only other Ivy that stands out," she said. "Some of the others just have token guys on the field." We inquired about the mascot situation, and she confirmed our hunch that, from a cheerleading point of view, not having one is sometimes a problem. The athletic office tried promoting a green giant last year, but the attempt fell flat. And when fans break into the "Indian Cheer" following the closing strains of "As The Backs Go Tearing By," the cheerleaders have learned not to compete by trying to lead a different cheer. At that point, they turn their backs on the stands.
The job isn't all pompons, either. The squad practices three times a week, travels to all the games, makes flags and banners, helps to organize pep rallies, and distributes the little pep tags with catchy sayings on them — like "Flush the Johns" for a Harvard game. The football office covers expenses.
"My high school squad was very conservative, with lots of jumps and traditional formations," Keppler explained. "Here, there's room for individual effort and initiative." We pressed her about the "corny" nature of leading cheers, but she held her ground: "If people think school spirit is dumb, then they'll think cheerleading is dumb, and they'll laugh at us. But at Dartmouth, school spirit seems to be important, and we contribute to that."
Dartmouth's cheerleaders: " ... there's room for individual effort and initiative."
