By Alex Marchand
Signs of the Times
The changing of decades brought new styles and trends to Western, and the Mustangs cheer team was no exception. The neat bobs once sported by the Mustangs ladies made way for fully grown-out hairstyles, often tied into braids or pigtails. The men, who before appeared clean-shaven with military-esque hairdos, were now keen to show off large mustaches and shoulder-length hair. The 1970s and early 1980s were the only years that facial hair was permitted among Mustang men, as male cheerleaders reverted to the “clean cut” look of yesteryear by the 1990s.
During this era, cheerleading attire continued to change as the sport developed into a quicker, more intense endeavour. In 1986, the Mustangs men ditched their signature white pants for shorts. The thick, knit sweaters of decades past were quickly becoming unsuitable for these athletes as well, eventually being traded for t-shirts and crewnecks. Consider differences in the team’s attire in 1983 and again in 1989. No other decade saw such a drastic change in the team’s look over such a short amount of time.
The National Collegiate Cheerleading Championship
Is cheerleading a sport? Over the first sixty years of cheer at Western, most would argue that despite their athleticism, Western cheerleaders were never competing in a “sport.” Most Western yearbooks listed cheerleading as a “club” or “spirit squad,” and one could reason that a squad can’t be a sports team if its main purpose is to cheer on another sports team.
Today, however, the Mustangs cheerleaders are lauded as one of Western’s most successful and visible sports teams. Vital to cheerleading’s crossover as a legitimate sporting endeavour was the birth of nation-level competitions in which the cheerleaders themselves became the main athletic attractions. Interestingly, the competitive landscape of cheerleading has its roots at Western in the 1980s.
Each November, over twenty cheerleading clubs from across Canada descend to the CAA Centre in Brampton to compete at the National Collegiate Cheerleading Championships (NCCC), Canada’s premier university competition. November 25, 2022, marked the NCCC’s 36th edition, and first since 2019. The very first collegiate championship, shown in the photo below, was held at Western’s Alumni Hall in 1985.
During the 1980s, cheerleading began to grow as a competitive athletic discipline in the United States. In 1982, Western’s Head Cheerleader, David-Lee Tracey, decided to form his own cheerleading group called “PCA” – Power Cheerleading Athletics. PCA began hosting competitions and workshops for teams all over the country, helping to build the competitive discipline of power cheerleading in Canada. In the decades since, PCA has held national competitions at Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum (now the First Ontario Centre), Mississauga’s Hershey Centre (now the Paramount Fine Foods Centre), and even Toronto’s Skydome (now the Rogers Centre). From 1985 to 1996, the Mustangs co-ed squad won 12 consecutive titles, beginning a streak of dominance not seen by any university squad before or since.
Mustangs South of the Border
Today the Mustangs are renowned for their incredible competitive record against cheer teams from the United States. In the 1990s, however, American competitions were hesitant to allow Canadian teams to compete. The first time the Mustangs competed south of the border was on March 18, 1995, at the U.S. National Cheerleading Championships in Minneapolis. According to Coach Tracey, “They originally didn’t want to give us a shot because we are Canadian.”
On the day of the competition, the Mustangs beat out 32 American teams to win the title. For their efforts, the team had the chance to perform at a Minnesota Timberwolves game the next night.
In 1994, the Mustangs co-ed team was cast in the Disney film “The Air Up There” featuring Kevin Bacon. The team can be seen performing numerous stunts at the very end of the film. This was perhaps the only time the team wore colours aside from purple and white!
Stunts of the Era
“Split catches” 1985 – in front of the Western Observatory – a staple skill throughout the decade.