'Rah! Rah! Rah!' 101-Year-Old Former Cheerleader Honored at TSU Homecoming

— -- For Burnece Walker Brunson, trying out for and making the cheerleading squad at what was then-Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College wasn't about showing off, it was simply about getting to see the games and cheer on her beloved school.

"We didn't do flips and pyramids," she said. "We just cheered, mostly 'Rah! Rah! Rah!' And that was about it. I didn't do any flipping at all."

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Brunson, 101, was a member of the cheerleading team from 1934-1935. Last weekend, she served as the co-grand marshal of the school's homecoming parade. The historically black college is now known as Tennessee State University.

Tanya Allen of the Tennessee State University Cheerleaders Alumni said that before the parade, Brunson had called her to request a favor.

"[She said:] 'I want to know the cheers we're going to do in the parade for homecoming because I don't just want to be on the float waving my pom-poms. I want to do the cheers!'" Allen said.

Brunson received her teaching certificate from the university in 1936 and went on to Chicago, where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees. She taught kindergarten and first grade in the Chicago public schools from about 1954 till she retired in 1975.

"I won't ever forget A&I," Brunson said recently in an interview with the university. "That school meant so much. The dorm life, eating in the cafeteria, having the cooks save you a special piece of cornbread."

Brunson, who is also an author, later returned to Tennessee and settled down in Nashville. The mother of two is also a grandmother of four and a great-grandmother of two. She swam regularly throughout her life till two years ago, at the age of 99.

"I would love to have as many A&I students as possible together, someplace, either Tennessee State or it came be anywhere, it can be in my backyard, to just remember some of the wonderful things that happened," she said.

Tennessee State College said that Brunson was honored at several homecoming events and that a scholarship had been created in her name.

"Ms. Brunson's team spirit is real," Allen said. "We were talking about cheerleading and she said, 'You know, once you're [a] cheerleader,' she says, 'you just have it. That's something you never lose and I just enjoy it.'"