While perhaps not one of the more obvious traditions at Meredith College, the practice of cheers, yells and songs erupting on campus appears to be a long-standing one. The campus may have been a noisier place in the past.
For the first 10 years or so of the college's existence - before the modern day idea of cheerleaders - clubs, classes and teams published their calls, yells and songs in the yearbook - and presumably called, yelled and sung their favorites. Some of these are reproduced in a photo collages below.
In the monthly Acorn literary magazine, which also served as a sort of newsletter for campus events, there are occasional descriptions of times when such calling was deemed appropriate. For example, during a multi-vehicle senior excursion to Wake Forest College in 1910:
Every one was thoroughly alive with anticipation and the drive over... was glorious. When in the distance faint lights began to glimmer a deafening yell for Wake Forest rang out through the crisp night air, and was kept up until we reached our destination....
And in April 1911, a writer for the Acorn reported in "Athletic Notes" that the interclass basketball games had begun. During the Freshman/Junior match, the Freshmen - nicknamed the "Black and Gold," cheered "Ray! Ray! Bully for the Freshmen! Ray!" while the ultimately triumphant Juniors (Red and White) responded with their "yell":
Boomelacka! Boomelacka!
Bow-wow-wow!
Chickelacka! Chickelacka!
Chow! Chow Chow!
Boomelacka! Chickelacka!
Who are we?
Juniors, Juniors,
Don't you see?
According to A History of Meredith College, in 1919 the young women petitioned the faculty for permission to respond with their own yells when the students came from Wake Forest and NC State to serenade them while painting the sophomore class numbers on the sidewalk. Mary Lynch Johnson continues that "the faculty had gravely responded that if the students made a 'musical yell' which met with approval , it could be used in response to serenaders as well as at ball games."
In the Twig, which began weekly publication in 1921, reports of of "yells" and "cheers" were reported as a regular part of meetings, celebrations, games and day-to-day hi-jinx.
For example, in September, 1923, the students were surprised by the administration with an outing to the site of the new campus on the outskitrts of Raleigh. So, there were
frank expression(s) of the holiday spirit as the girls piled into the waiting trucks at two-thirty. The residents of Edenton and Hillsboro streets were soon aware that Meredith was out for a good time, if songs and yells and happy faces are capable of creating such an impression.
In October, 1923, it was the men from N.C.S.U. that provoked the hulaballo. Students from State apparently made it a practice to make the trek downtown to "serenade" the Meredith students after a winning football game. According to The Twig, on Saturday the 13th:
After dinner...a horizon colored almost entirely of red... appeared. After such anxious waiting, a man-filled campus dazzled our eyes... after about three of their shrill shoutings the assistant cheer leaders had well established their foothold and each succeeding yell to "team," State," and "Meredith" was enthusiastically answered with fifiteen rahs! An "um-pah!" or an "ip-skid-i-ik-i rah!"
In return, the women of Meredith greeted the men of State when they arrived to paint the Sophomore class numbers on the street near the campus - their "established tradition." The unknown writer for The Twig explains that the
Meredith Sophs always get inside information as to when the painting is to occur and they're always ready with yells and songs for the boys... the girls yelled for the boys and the boys for the girls. Sophomore songs rang across the campus.
In the twenties, cheers linked solely to clubs and classes disappeared from the Oak Leaves. But beginning in 1924, photos of the Athletic Association's official cheerleaders in matching sweaters and skirts and in action poses appeared in the yearbooks, possibly in response to the acceptance of women cheerleaders nationally. Alongside were often included the popular calls, yells and cheers that were used that year, some of which were credited to the students themselves. As explained later in the 1940 Oak Leaves, "A college cheerleader, aided by cheerleaders from each class, directs all group singing, which includes step-singing and Christmas caroling, and leads the cheering section at intermural games." This tradition of student-led singing continued for decades and still appears today at special events.
During these early decades, Meredith College athletes were still a long way from competing with other schools, but college and student affiliations promoted creativity, interclass rivalries were playfully fierce, and group singing was taken seriously.
The Athletic Association was formed in 1903-1904. In the 1906 yearbook, they printed their own cheer, supportive of both the basketball and tennis teams.
"We are the girls!
We are the girls!
We are the girls the people see!
O! Who are the girls?
Why, We are the girls!
We are the girls of Varsity!"
In the first Oak Leaves in 1904, each class included their own class calls/yells.
Some of the complete songs printed in the Oak Leaves, 1904-1912.
Of course, cheers also were still directed toward sports. This call supported 1907-1908's "Tepee Organization":
One, two, three!
Who are we?
We're the girls of the tepee!
Hear them call!
One and all,
Tepee! Tepee! Basket-ball!
Some of the cheers for the basketball teams, typically organized by class, but at least once as the "Blue Team" versus the "Red Team."
In addition to specific cheers related to a class or club, this all-purpose call and response was in the 1906 Oak Leaves, which suggests that the campus might have been a noisy place.
"Good morning! How do you do?"
"I'm well, thank you. How are you?
"Where you from? B.F.U?"
"Ain't that funny, I am, too!"
Many cheers from 1904-1911 were part of club culture - all printed in the yearbooks with the groups' photographs, member names, mottos and any other information deemed relevant. Early clubs were often short-lived organizations formed around a shared home town, hobby or just a silly name, joke, or coincidence. Were these actual cheers? Were they actually used on any occasions? They were possibly created only for the yearbook, but they are fun, nonetheless.
A fictional story published in the 1911 Oak Leaves describes students (men) from A&M (now N.C. State University) coming to the Meredith College campus to exchange cheers and yells with the women there. And in this account, help seal a romance.
Printed throughout the early yearbooks are calls celebrating the college.
For at least one year in 1912, the Meredith Boosters existed as a club.
Unlikely as it seems, based on the promotion of all these calls and cheers, apparently not all students were convinced that school spirits were still not as high as they could be. Mattie Mae Elmore (Class of 1912) opined in the December 10, 1910 Acorn that there was a "deficiency in.... enthusiastic loyalty." She suggested that a "few lively, enthusistic college songs, known and sung by the whole school, would soon work wonders.... We should at least have our own songs and yells, known and loved by every student."
In 1924, a story in the Twig described the (presumably) men from NC State and then from Wake Forest visiting Meredith to celebrate their football victories and to exchange "peppy yells and songs."
The first photos of the cheerleaders in the Oak Leaves appeared in 1924. According to cheerleading history, the first women cheerleaders were permitted on a squad at the University of Minnesota in 1923. Perhaps taking a cue from this development, Meredith College expanded on their own cheerleading tradition, adding uniforms and possibly some choreographed moves. A cheerleader was selected for each class and possibly, as was proposed, for each residence building.
Four cheers appeared on this page as well, including:
Kala, kala, kala, kala,
Sis Boom Bah!
Glorianna! Frankipanner! Eureka!
Razoo, razoo! Johnnie get bazoo.
Ip-skid-i-ik-e-rah!
Kala-mooka-hoo-rah!
Meredith! Meredith! Meredith!
Pauline Powell and her megaphone led cheers in 1928-1929.
The 1931 cheerleaders, Ruth Starling, Gaynelle Hinton and Pat Abernathy.
1932-33's Emily Miller, "College Cheer Leader."
The cheerleaders of 1941-1942: Marjery Pitman, Marie Chesson. D.J. Bordeaux, Onie Shields and Helen Best. D.J. Bordeaux is listed as "College Cheerleader"; the other four women probably represent the four classes.
In 1943, two of the three listed cheerleaders (Margaret Roberson, Betty Cuthrell and Trina Reid) posed for the Oak Leaves.
Group singing on the original steps of Johnson Hall in 1943: the first photo is of the four classes gathered in blocks, the other is of the seniors in class number formation. Both are being conducted by the song leader.
Two of the five cheerleaders of 1944, Jane Watkins (Class of 1946), Peggy Brewer (Class of 1944) and song leader Etheleen Carr (Class of 1944) in action.
(Jane Watkins Sullivan would go on to join the Meredith College Department of Music as an Assistant Professor of Voice and to direct the chorus.)
A group singing on the lawn in 1959 with a leader in front. By the early fifities, the cheerleaders in skirt-and-sweater photographs had disappeared from the yearbook, although the activity still existed in senior accomplishments; at this point, the cheerleaders had likely changed to being a song leader.
Annual Christmas caroling with a song leader, probably from the 1960s.
In this otherwise unidentified fragment saved in the 1973 Class Box, a numbered list of cheers was provided to the participants. The cheers look to be related to cheering on a sports team.
Carlyle Campbell Library
Meredith College
3800 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
919-760-8532
