Cheerleading Facts

George W. Bush was also the head of the cheerleading team in his high school.

The Herkie is the cheer jump: one leg kicked straight out, the other bent back. It started as a flub. Dallas teenager Lawrence Herkimer went up for a clean split jump and missed. "It was just a poor split jump," he said later. "I don't like to tell people that." The jump took his name anyway. Squads still throw it every Friday night.

On Oct. 15, 1981, a professional cheerleader named Krazy George Henderson led a cheer at a playoff game in the Oakland Coliseum. After a few false starts, fans stood and threw up their arms one section at a time until it rolled around the whole stadium. The A's highlight film caught it. Forty-five years later, crowds still start the wave in stadiums every season.