Lawrence “Herkie” Herkimer, a Texas-based sports innovator, is credited with creating cheerleading as a modern, organized sport. While Johnny Campbell of the University of Minnesota became the first cheerleader in 1898, it was Herkimer who systematized cheerleading through education, standardization, and strategic innovation—transforming it from an informal school activity into a structured discipline practiced by millions.
His work in the late 1940s and early 1950s essentially invented the modern cheerleading industry, much like Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile but made it a mass-market phenomenon through assembly-line standardization. Herkimer’s journey offers a powerful lesson in entrepreneurship: he recognized an unmet need—a fragmented, unstandardized activity lacking professional organization—and built a system to capitalize on it. By creating the National Cheerleading Association (NCA) in 1951, he turned scattered school spirit activities into a legitimate, teachable discipline with repeatable methods, national standards, and commercial potential.
Table of Contents
- How a Sports Figure Built an Industry from Grassroots Activity
- Innovation Through Patent and Signature Methods
- Building Community Through Standardized Education
- Scaling Innovation Across Geographic and Demographic Boundaries
- The Challenge of Standardization Without Stifling Innovation
- The Business Model That Built an Industry
- Modern Cheerleading and the Lasting Legacy of Systematic Innovation
- Conclusion
How a Sports Figure Built an Industry from Grassroots Activity
In 1949, Herkimer was invited to administer a cheerleading educational clinic at Texas Teacher’s College (now Sam Houston state University), where he taught partner stunts and crowd leadership techniques to eager students. This wasn’t a casual assignment—it was an opportunity to formalize what had been an ad hoc collection of school spirit activities. Herkimer recognized that cheerleading lacked any standardized curriculum, training methodology, or professional organization, making it vulnerable to inconsistency and lost potential.
By 1951, Herkimer took the entrepreneurial leap and founded the National Cheerleading Association (NCA), creating the first nationwide infrastructure for the sport. This was a critical business move: he didn’t just teach cheerleading; he built an organization to certify instructors, establish consistent standards, and create demand through education and events. The NCA became the backbone of a growing industry, much like how Apple didn’t invent personal computers but created an ecosystem that made them accessible and desirable.
Innovation Through Patent and Signature Methods
Herkimer’s competitive advantage came from tactical innovation: he patented the use of pompoms in cheerleading, a decision that gave him and the NCA a proprietary edge in the early years. More memorably, he invented the “Herkie Jump”—a signature move that bears his name and continues to be a fundamental element of cheerleading today. This personal branding strategy was brilliant marketing; every time a cheerleader performed the Herkie Jump, they were inadvertently promoting Herkimer’s legacy and the standardized training he championed.
However, there’s an important limitation to recognize: while patents and signature moves created early market advantages, the long-term sustainability of the cheerleading industry ultimately depended on the open sharing and democratization of techniques. Herkimer understood this balance—his real asset wasn’t hoarding secrets but building an organization so credible and comprehensive that schools and coaches naturally came to the NCA for certification and training. This mirrors the tension many founders face: exclusive patents create short-term competitive moats but open platforms create long-term ecosystems.
Building Community Through Standardized Education
Herkimer’s true genius was recognizing that cheerleading needed a system of education and certification. He developed partner stunts and crowd leadership techniques that could be taught, repeated, and improved upon—creating a repeatable business model. Schools across America faced the same problem: they had enthusiastic students but no formal training method.
By positioning the NCA as the solution, Herkimer created a scalable product in an era before “scalability” was business jargon. The NCA model also had a social dimension that strengthened its growth: cheerleading became a more respectable, organized activity with documented safety practices and professional instruction. Parents were more comfortable with their children participating in a sport with standardized training and certification. This legitimacy attracted more schools, which created more demand for NCA-certified instructors, which drove more training clinics—a virtuous cycle that many modern startups aspire to create.
Scaling Innovation Across Geographic and Demographic Boundaries
One of Herkimer’s most valuable decisions was making cheerleading education accessible through clinics, workshops, and training events. Rather than building a single training facility, he took the NCA on the road, bringing standardized cheerleading education to schools in different states and regions. This decentralized approach allowed the NCA to scale without massive capital investment—coaches and teachers became local ambassadors who brought the Herkimer system back to their schools.
The tradeoff was clear: a centralized training facility would have generated concentrated revenue but limited reach. The clinic-based model sacrificed per-location intensity for widespread adoption and market penetration. This is a classic entrepreneurial decision: Herkimer chose growth over margin maximization. Modern companies like Crossfit have followed a similar playbook—local affiliates and distributed training create far greater scale than a single corporate location ever could.
The Challenge of Standardization Without Stifling Innovation
One significant challenge Herkimer had to navigate was maintaining standardized training while allowing room for coaches and cheerleaders to develop new techniques and styles. Too rigid a system would have discouraged innovation and risk-taking; too loose a system would have defeated the purpose of standardization. The Herkie Jump itself demonstrates this balance—it’s a standardized, teachable move that became part of the foundation, but it didn’t prevent cheerleaders from creating entirely new stunts and techniques.
A cautionary note: standardization can become a trap. If an organization becomes too focused on enforcing existing standards rather than welcoming evolution, it risks becoming irrelevant. Herkimer avoided this by continuing to adapt and develop new techniques throughout his career, ensuring that the NCA remained a leader in cheerleading innovation rather than merely a guardian of tradition.
The Business Model That Built an Industry
The NCA’s business model was elegantly simple: charge schools and coaches for clinics, certifications, and training materials; hold national competitions that generate revenue through entry fees and sponsorships; create and sell instructional content. This diversified revenue approach meant the organization wasn’t dependent on any single income stream.
Herkimer essentially created what we would now call a “platform” for cheerleading education and competition. By the time cheerleading had grown into a multimillion-dollar industry with college programs, national competitions, and sponsorship deals, Herkimer’s foundation was already deeply embedded. The NCA didn’t just profit from cheerleading’s growth—it had actually created that growth through systematic education, standardization, and professionalization.
Modern Cheerleading and the Lasting Legacy of Systematic Innovation
Decades after Herkimer’s initial innovation, cheerleading is now a sport with dedicated college teams, international competitions, and athletic scholarships. The techniques and stunts he developed remain the foundation of competitive cheerleading. This demonstrates a fundamental truth: when you systematize and professionalize an activity, you unlock its full potential. Cheerleading could have remained a informal school activity with inconsistent quality.
Instead, Herkimer’s vision transformed it into a legitimate sport. Looking forward, the cheerleading industry faces new challenges and opportunities: safety standards, insurance, athlete health, and the integration of technology into training. Yet Herkimer’s core insight remains relevant—any sport or activity that wants to scale and improve must be based on systematized, teachable methods. His legacy isn’t just the Herkie Jump; it’s the model of how to transform an informal practice into a professional discipline.
Conclusion
Lawrence “Herkie” Herkimer’s creation of the National Cheerleading Association in 1951 represents one of the most successful case studies in sports entrepreneurship. He took an unorganized, inconsistent activity and built the systems, standards, and education infrastructure that allowed it to grow into a sport.
His innovations—from the pompom patent to the signature jump to the clinic-based training model—were all in service of a larger vision: proving that cheerleading deserved to be treated as a legitimate, teachable, scalable discipline. For entrepreneurs and business leaders, Herkimer’s legacy offers a clear lesson: identify an unmet need, build systems and standards to address it, make those systems accessible and teachable, and trust that quality and consistency will drive organic growth. Cheerleading’s evolution from scattered school spirit activity to a sport with millions of practitioners worldwide proves that systematic innovation, combined with education and infrastructure, can transform an entire industry.