One Tennessee State University cheerleader is a bit more experienced than the rest. After all, former student Burnece Walker Brunson was first a student and cheerleader back in 1934, before many of us were even born.
That was a time when the football teams played in leather helmets and the basketball teams played games at Washington Junior High and even to when the legendary school and band, had a different name — Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College.
Even though she’s a little wiser and older than she was when she was a student, some things about Brunson never change. Like her cheerleading style. She doesn’t do back flips, cart wheels or is apart of a cheerleader pyramid. She never did those things. Cheerleaders didn’t do what Brunson calls that “fancy stuff” back then.
This won’t be the first Brunson has gone back to cheer on her team. The retired schoolteacher got back into uniform for the 2003 TSU homecoming, as well as in 2012. But 2015 was special since she is celebrating her centennial birthday. And she was back again doing it 2016.
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Brunson, a native of Mt. Pleasant, celebrated her 100th birthday in March 2015 but still held her excitement for this fall’s homecoming.
Not only was Brunson one of TSU’s first cheerleaders, but she also shares a birthday with the school’s alumni association, which began in 1915, three years after the school opened.
In her full cheerleading outfit, she joined many of the school’s other cheerleading alumni and shook her pompoms at a pep rally at Hale Stadium in advance of the football game against Eastern Illinois at Nissan Stadium.
Brunson also was part of the homecoming parade on Jefferson Street, which led to the school where she was a…
…cheerleader from 1934-35.
“I like being involved with everything that’s going on; if the cheerleaders are there, I want to be there,” Brunson said.
She also joined the other alumni cheerleaders on the sideline during the al game to cheer on the Tigers.
“We didn’t do any of what they do today,” Brunson said. “The most we did was probably a flip. I am more than amazed at how far cheerleading has come. As long as it’s clean, I like what they’re doing today.”
During Brunson’s time as a cheerleader, social security was established, the board game Monopoly was created, and a host of other “firsts.” But for Brunson, that just means she’s a trailblazer.
Along with participating in TSU’s homecoming festivities, Brunson also joins the alumni cheerleaders each spring for the football team’s annual Legend’s Game, some basketball games and for performances at several assisted living facilities throughout the year.
The cheerleaders association is raising funds to establish two scholarships for TSU cheerleaders. One will even be named in Brunson’s honor.
“Once you’re a cheerleader, you’re always a cheerleader,” Brunson said. “I have just as much enthusiasm as I ever did. I just can’t show it like I once could.”
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