Cheerleading at UT began in 1907 when Professor Robert Clayton “Red” Matthews brought cartwheels and handstands to his one-man cheerleading show on the football field. He ceased to lead the cheers in 1915, and the selection of cheerleaders was put on a competitive basis in 1916. There is a distinction between the cheerleaders who performed at athletic contests and the “cheer leaders” who led cheers at pep meetings. (In 1924, for example, Frances Wallace was one of the cheer leaders at the October 9 first pep meeting of the year.)
In 1927 a formal cheerleading squad of one head cheerleader and two assistants was organized. The uniform for the 1927 cheerleaders (all male) was an orange blazer trimmed in white, white shirts, orange-and-white ties, and white pants with an orange stripe on the outside seams. By 1930 sweaters had replaced the blazers. Women were first added to the cheerleading squad in 1938.
In 1976 clinics to train prospective cheerleaders and a new method of selecting cheerleaders was instituted in response to student complaints that as Philip Scheurer, director of Student Activities told the Daily Beacon, “tryouts were a closed shop affair.” The previous system of having former cheerleaders, alumni, and sponsors choose the group was replaced with a committee broadly representative of the student body, and tumbling skills were deemphasized.
Lady Vol teams first had their own cheerleaders in 1982 when a squad of four was formed specifically to cheer for women’s athletics teams. In fall 1986 cheerleaders were first provided with scholarships and began receiving in-state tuition and books. The current cheerleading program, an entity within the Athletics Department (part of the Spirit Squad), consists of two varsity squads. Full and partial scholarships are provided to varsity cheerleaders. In 1992 the Southeastern Conference banned the use of microphones and other amplified sound systems except in very specific instances.