TCF Bank Stadium will welcome more than a football team onto the field this Fall. The Gopher Spirit Squad will have an important place in the new stadium. Regardless of how the Golden Gopher Football team does in any given season, there is one certainty that fans can always count on...great cheerleaders. Another division of the Gopher Spirit Squad, the Gopher Dance Team, won the national championship for four straight years from 2003-2006. Here's a YouTube video of their 2004 competition:
Cheerleading was invented at the University of Minnesota. In 1898, a University of Minnesota student named Johnny Campbell headed up a group known as "yell leaders" which eventually gave rise to the tradition of cheerleading in America. Thankfully, it evolved into something other than men yelling.
Spirit squads head coach Sam Owens was recently named the United Performance Association's Coach of the Year.
So the next time you get to a game early, the referees take their time making a call, halftime arrives, or you have a chance to spend time outside of TCF Bank Stadium before the game, remember how lucky we are to have the Gopher cheerleaders. Here's a link to some quality pics, and here's a link to a page that lists their newsletters.