There have been coeds at UT since 1883. It is a point of pride that Texas has made sure women were allowed in higher education, equal to men. It was a revolutionary idea in the 19th century. It would be almost 40 years until the 19th Amendment would give women the right to vote. In the early days at Texas, more than half the graduates were women.​

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I found two women’s groups in the 1895 Cactus Yearbook:  The Brownies and the YWCA. A few years later, the Women’s Athletic Association was formed. The first and longest-lasting WAA team was the Texas Turtle Club, a swimming group.

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After the hiring of Anna Hiss in 1918 to invent a women's physical education program, women’s athletics became more organized and plentiful.  By 1920 Hiss had developed a program of scoring points for each sport, which would qualify women to win a letter, a sweater, or a blanket.  The sweater honor was earned by very few women, and one of them was Beatrice Lytle, who’s 1923 Cactus Yearbook graduate listing reads like a novel:  Pre-Med Society; Cap and Gown; YWCA Cabinet ’21; W.A.A. Council ’20-’23; Girl’s Cheer Leader ’20 ’21 ’22; W.A.A. T; W.A.A. Sweater; Students Assembly ’22-’23.

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According to the Daily Texan, the WAA became involved in cheers and chants at the football games under the leadership of Beatrice Lytle. In those days women were seated separately from men at sporting events and Beatrice worked with her WAA teammates to create cheers, yells and songs of support, thus becoming in 1920 the first female cheer leader at Texas. Beatrice was not allowed on the field with the male yell leaders, but instead worked from her section of the Clark Field bleachers. It’s not a coincidence the 19th Amendment was certified by Congress one week before the beginning of the school year. I think Beatrice Lytle, at 19 years of age, got the message and applied it to leading cheers where no woman had gone before.​

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That kind of leadership and commitment tends to inspire followers. Two other women have the graduate listing of Girl’s Cheer Leader: Jessie Church in ’24 - ’25; and Natalie Sherrill in ’26 - ’27. There are no other mentions. The 1929 Cactus Yell Leaders’ page states “the fight yells, drill formations, and other pandemonium were executed in very efficient manner, the effectiveness of which was greatly enhanced by the work of the Women’s Athletic Association, the Texas Cowboys, and the Longhorn Band.” It makes sense that the WAA had a lot of members in the stands, and Beatrice was the first woman to recognize the power of the group and provided leadership. Beatrice had lots of Texas Spirit.

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In the fall of 1938 Yell Leader Presley Werlein decided to add two women to the cheer squad, which had been all male since day one.  At a pep rally in early September before the first game of the season, Presley invited girls to try out, and from that group is chosen Glenn Appling and Doris Billings. They become the first women to cheer on the football field. Appling is specially regarded, and appears many times in the Cactus Yearbook including as a University Sweetheart Nominee, winner of the posture contest, member of the Justice Committee, women’s intramural table tennis champion, and President of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. Glenn is the 'It Girl' of 1938.

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