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Lawrence Herkimer's Contribution To Sport

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Lawrence Herkimer, the man who brought cheerleading, "from the raccoon coat and pennant to greater heights". While he was at Southern Methodist University, he was a cheerleader, and a teacher's aid. Lawrence also was a very large contribution to the field of cheerleading. Herkimer, also known as “Herkie” has invented many things, and has become an enormous contribution to the sport. Although, he was such a busy man, he still made time for school and family. While Lawrence was a young boy, he did gymnastics and was not very interested in any other sports. His parents were extremely accepting and empowering , they helped him with everything, especially cheerleading. Herkie cheered through high school and through college. When he was still young the war had started,so college-aged men were shipped out to fight for our country. Since he was not of age Herkimer still participated in the sport. While our brave men were fighting girls decided to take the sport into their own hands.
While most of the men were fighting and training, Lawrence was also very busy. He was making pom-pons. He had borrowed around 600 dollars from his friends father-in-law, to start manufacturing them in …show more content…

The first year that the camp was open he had 53 participants, one boy and 52 girls. The camp was formed in 1948, and it was held at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas. The next year the camp’s participants grew to 350 with around 500 instructors. Shortly thereafter, Lawrence was making more money from his summer camps than he was teaching the remainder of the year at Southern Methodist University, so he gave up teaching and took up the cheerleading business full time. Herkie’s camps had as many as 1,500 instructors teaching tens of thousands of students nationwide each summer. The camp has spread from Texas to Florida and California, there are also small day camps in mostly every state

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