In the midst of the Equal Rights Amendment controversy, Title IX implementation and female assertiveness, one might wonder if males are making any advancement into new territory of their own. With the addition of three male members to Harding's cheerleading squad for 1978-79, male rights activists can take heart that, at Harding at least, men have entered a field heretofore dominated by females. Although male members are new to the squad this year, the idea of male cheerleaders at Harding is not totally new. Seventeen years ago Harding saw its last male cheerleaders until this year. In the spring of 1978 when it was announced that males could try out for the squad, Jim Davenport decided to take his chances. "I decided to tryout for cheerleader when I learned the gymnastics team would be disbanded , and cheerleading was an activity that interested me," stated the Walden, New York native. After participating in tryouts, Jim was chosen along with E. C. Umberger and Mark Evans to become the first male cheerleaders since 1962. "Cheerleading takes a lot of time," remarked Davenport. "Being a cheerleader, I have to work around my studies, especially on Mondays and Thursdays during the basketball season . It's really hard when you have a test the next day and must go cheer. " In some ways , though , the spirit of the fans made the time factor seem not so great. "I've never seen the Harding fans more involved in the games before ," remarked Jim. "You could see the spirit too , because the fans got involved at most every game. Everybody I've talked to has had the same opinion. During the basketball season the spirit really picked up with lots more students going to the away games to support the teams." 132 ~ Cheerleaders
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