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Cheerleading first started at Princeton University in the 1880’s. A few years later, Princeton graduated. Thomas Peebles introduced the idea of organized crowd chanting to the University of Minnesota in 1884. Although it wasn’t until 1898 that University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell stood in front of the crowd. Then he directed them into a chant, making Campbell the very first cheerleader. It estimated that 90% of today’s cheerleaders are female. Cheerleading started out as an all male activity. Females started to participate in cheerleading in the 1920’s, due to limited availability of female collegiate sports. Although cheerleading started off as mostly just a school or collage idea, it has come a long way. Now the cheerleading you hear most about is mostly competitive.