The Embraceable Ewes, L.A.’s First Pro Cheerleaders, Reunite

The 1978 Los Angeles Rams cheer squad didn’t just stand on the sidelines

By Joshua Neuman
LAMAG.com

At the Boathouse on the Bay restaurant in Long Beach, just three miles south of where the Los Angeles Rams once held practice, more than 50 of the team’s former cheerleaders gathered last Sunday to celebrate the 1978 squad—Los Angeles’ first professional cheerleaders. One of them, Janet Cournoyer, had lent her daughter Janelle Liebl, 25, her old outfit for the occasion. “She’s the exact age I was when I wore it, and it fits perfectly,” she beamed.

“Everything is coming full circle with all this talk about the Rams coming back,” said David Mirisch, the man behind the gathering and the establishment of the group of cheerleaders he named the Embraceable Ewes. “It was a good time for a reunion.”

The Ewes were the Laker Girls before there were Laker Girls, but the restaurant’s Sunday afternoon regulars went back and forth between NFL games being televised behind the bar—less interested in NFL past than present. They neither recognized the women hugging each other like long lost relatives nor the impact those women collectively had upon the city of Los Angeles, the sports world, and American popular culture.

“Some of us actually cheered for the Lakers,” said Kristi Wheeler, a member of the original ’78 squad. “The Lakers didn’t have cheerleaders yet, so some of us went over there and cheered in the gold and the blue. I think the Lakers wanted to test it out.” Jerry Buss green-lit the formation of the Laker Girls months later.

The rest of the article and more photos here.