UT Majorettes: A Tennessee (and family) tradition

Photo by Knoxville Magazine

UT Majorettes

Cassidy Webster with her mom, and former majorette, Eileen Webster

Former majorette Eileen Webster

Photo by Knoxville Magazine

UT Majorettes

It's a magic trick. Like "I can guess which card you're holding behind your back." Only it's more like "I'm going to throw this metal stick that could break my nose, fingers or toes 30 feet into the air, and then I'm going to spin around two, maybe three times, while simultaneously doing high kicks and then catch it without ever looking…and I'm going to smile the whole time."

Amidst the roar inside Neyland Stadium on game day Saturdays, we can't hear the sound of majorettes catching batons in their cradled hands as they move from one routine to the next. The majorettes who have mastered twirling and can focus on throwing out a wink here and a smile there don't hear it anymore either.

Like many athletes who perform "stunts of agility," these women began when they were too young to realize all the "what ifs" and risks that run through the minds of the awe-struck spectator who can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

For many majorettes the story is the same: little girls with pigtails, a ragged blanket in one hand and a small pink baton in the other. These girls started fearlessly throwing batons in the air, often plastic ones filled with a sparkly liquid, at age 4 or 5.

And what were their mothers thinking? "She's following in my footsteps." At least that's the case for several of UT's current majorette line. Their moms were, in fact, encouraging as well as teaching them.

In the upcoming season where University of Tennessee football fans will sit in the bleachers, watching Head Coach Derek Dooley follow in his father's footsteps as a top SEC coach, what few will also know is that among this season's line of 12 fiercely polished, poised and practiced majorettes, many will also be following their own family tradition.

Head Majorette, Kristi Summers is one of those. "It's such a rich tradition," says the Knoxville native and daughter of former UT majorette, Leigh Ann Summers. "For a lot of the girls their aunts, mothers or grandmothers have done this, and it has a special place in our hearts. Come game day you can always hear us yelling and shouting. When we walk down the parade route, people probably think we are crazy because one of us is always crying, but many of us have wanted this for life, and we put our whole hearts into it."

"I started taking lessons at age three and competing at age six," says Kristi, who watched her mom teach baton classes and admits that as a curly-headed, energetic little girl, she followed the older twirlers around in awe. Many great competitors found the sport they have a passion for at an early age, but Kristi may have managed to beat them all. "The day I was born my Grandpa put a Q-Tip in my hand and said that it was my first baton," she says, laughing at the image.

While many girls wouldn't be happy following in their mom's footsteps, she says it's been rewarding in more ways than she'd expected. "I know some of the majorettes she twirled with because now I'm their children's friend, and it's great to hear her stories because we do the same things they did and have the same worries and are going through the same things."

Kristi's mom Leigh Ann calls her majorette career a full-circle experience. She recalls stepping onto the field for the first time as a majorette in 1981. "Your heart is racing and all those people are watching," she says. "There is just nothing in the world to describe that. And now that I get to see Kristi do it, I get to relive it every time through her."

Leigh Ann also remembers attending a UT football game with her grandmother at a very young age and seeing the majorettes in a pregame routine. It was then she made the firm decision that she would be on that field some day. Although Leigh Ann's mom was never a Tennessee majorette, her mom's best friend, Jane Wilson, was and gave her the boost she needed toward becoming a UT majorette.

Among the 11 others on the line, Kristi will twirl with fellow senior Jessica Watson, who is a third-generation UT majorette. Jessica's grandmother passed away her sophomore year, but the twirler says, "She is still watching me every game and now has the best seat in the house." Jessica's grandmother and her Aunt Julie were the first ever mother-daughter majorette team at the University of Tennessee. Julie Anderson Watson, who twirled for UT from 1983 to 1988, still attends every game, and Jessica swears her aunt whistles so loud she can always hear her from the field.

Jessica's younger sister Carolyn will also be standing next to her twirling on the field. This year Aunt Julie will be whistling even louder since she now has two nieces who will be on the field. "I never really wanted to twirl," Carolyn says. Like Jessica, she began her twirling tutelage at age three under her grandma's direction, and typical of many younger sisters, she had her doubts about following so closely in her big sis's footsteps. "Now that I'm here, I am so glad I did. I have a passion for it, definitely."

Jessica confesses to slacking a bit when it came to this year's tryouts, "I was helping my sister more than myself." And while the two have squabbled over borrowing each other's clothes, they swear they really are best friends.

For the University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Band, strong bonds like these serve as a testament to what the band is most famous for: pride. "These girls are very exacting and demanding in a level of excellence," says Dr. Gary Sousa, Director of Bands.

Largely because of their talent, skill and commitment to The Pride of the Southland Band, $3 million was raised this past year to ensure improvements for and continuation of scholarships for band members, as well as endowing a professorship of bands. Dr. Sousa believes the majorettes are an integral part of what UT fans show up to see and support each Saturday. "It's like a Broadway show, and there are different characters that people are attracted to," he says. "These women work extremely hard, if not harder than the average band member. They are practicing all the time."

This year's 12-figure majorette line is large compared to recent years, as is the number of new freshman twirlers. Their reputation is preceding itself, as word is out that fans can expect greatness from the line this year - greatness that was proven last February when the line came home from "Twirlmania," the National Baton Twirling Competition in Orlando, with many trophies and the prestige of taking first place in every single category they participated in.

"We have girls from all over and six new ones this year," says Kristi Summers, who has created this year's routines, among her many duties. "It's kind of strange, but there's already a bond that just wasn't there in past years."

As Head Majorette, Kristi also had a hand in designing the sparkling, one-shoulder uniform worn on the line.

The familial bond grew even stronger this year when Cassidy Webster, a freshman from Indiana, joined the line. And what a small world it is. Back when Kristi's mother first took the field as a freshman in 1981, her head majorette was Cassidy's mother, Eileen Webster. Remember the full-circle experience Leigh Ann Summers mentioned earlier? Déjà vu.

Cassidy is the spitting image of her mother with the same delicate features, angel-blonde hair and beaming smile. Unlike her mom, who came to the University of Tennessee from South Florida after a push from her baton instructor (another former UT majorette), Cassidy jokingly admits she may as well have been "brainwashed" to twirl at UT. But she says she doesn't really mind because twirling is in her blood. When Cassidy was just five, Eileen proudly admits she had to find her daughter a new baton instructor. "She was already saying to me, ‘no Mom, that's not how you do it,'" Eileen says.

Cassidy remembers, too, a story her Mom often tells her about twirling her first game without her contact lenses in. "She couldn't really tell there were that many people," Cassidy says. "So the next game she was amazed at all the people she twirled in front of and didn't even realize it. But that's why I chose UT--to be in the center of it all."

So, what can fans expect from this longer line of majorettes, steeped in family tradition, who admit to feeling more like sisters than teammates?

"The UT majorettes have always looked good to me," Cassidy Webster says. "But the older girls have said we have a lot of talent this year, and it will show up on the field." It's certain to be one more thing University of Tennessee fans can be proud of.

"T," after all, stands for family tradition.

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