Attending a Longhorn sports event means seeing the cheerleaders and pom team on the sidelines stunting, dancing and leading cheers to help boost crowd spirit.
As part of a reunion during the Texas vs. Wyoming football game, about 150 Texas Spirit alumni took their pom poms out of retirement to take the field and cheer on the Longhorns as part of a fundraiser which raised $29,000 for scholarships.
“It’s a fun way to reconnect with some of your old teammates from back in your years,” said Shelley Shuman, a 2009 cheer alum. “It’s also a good way to connect with some of the younger and older Texas cheer and pom alumni.”
An annual tradition since 1987, the reunion proves a long-standing tradition, however this marks the first year Texas Cheer & Pom Alumni (TCPA) hosted it. Associated with Texas Exes and founded last year by Texas Spirit alumni, the TCPA raises scholarship funds to support current Texas Spirit members. Cheerleading alumni pay $250 to cheer on the sideline for a quarter of the game, and pom alumni pay the same amount to perform Wabash Cannon during third quarter. Alumni come from all over the country to participate in the reunion. Beverley Weitzel Mackey, a 1975 cheer alum, lives in Arizona and loyally attends all of the alumni reunions going back to 1999.
“There is no high greater than what we feel when our boys come out of that locker room and (the band) plays Texas Fight,” Weitzel-Mackey said. “We will be singing Eyes of Texas at my funeral. My blood bleeds burnt orange. I drive a burnt orange BMW. My plate has two letters on it — UT. I bet you didn’t know they make washers and dryers in burnt orange”
Martin Luecke, a 1985 cheer alum and TCPA board member said that as head cheerleader in 1984, he started the tradition of using signs on the sidelines to promote crowd engagement. At the time, only 5 boys and 5 girls made up the squad. Each couple would do a shoulder stand, and each girl would hold the letter and reveal it during March Grandisimo.
“There was no such thing as this lightweight foam board where you put posters on it and hold them up where they weigh nothing,” Luecke said. “I had to make mine out of cloth. I made five letters: T-E-X-A-S.”
The reunion allows the alumni to share with their family the UT traditions from when they attended school on the Forty Acres. Shuman’s grandmother and mother both attended UT, and she brings her 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son to the games to share the things she loves about UT with them.
“It’s fun to share the memories and the legacy with them,” Shuman said. “ I love to see my daughter in a little Longhorn cheerleader outfit, and my son in a little Longhorn football jersey. It warms my heart, and it’s a fun thing to share.”
