As a young lad, growing up in Los Angeles, I was a Rams fan.  They had good teams in the 70’s, but somehow found a way to lose to the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs…at least that’s how I remember it.

When I was in college (Go UCLA!), Al Davis and the Raiders packed their bags and moved from the Oakland Coliseum to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.  The Raiders of the 80’s had some legendary and likable characters on that team like Lyle Alzado, Ted “The Mad Stork” Hendricks, erudite Todd Christensen, Howie Long, Matt Millen, Mr. Stickum Lester Hayes et al.

The Los Angeles Raiders were also known for the Raiderettes, Football’s Fabulous Females.  And let me tell you, those Los Angeles Raiderette squads had some very beautiful, talented and sexy girls.  Al Davis hadn’t quite lost his mind yet and he knew to win over Los Angelenos, he’d have to put a good product on the field AND on the sidelines.  I became a fan immediately and a season ticket holder a bit later.

One of the most beautiful and sexy Raiderettes of that era was Gretchen Stockdale, a former St. Louis Cardinals cheerleader who made the trek out west upon graduating from college.  In this edition of From The Archives, we focus on one of the most memorable Los Angeles Raiderettes.  Here are a few photographs of Gretchen spanning her 6 year career as a Raiderette.

Beautiful, articulate and intelligent, Ms. Stockdale earned her law degree from Loyola Marymount Law School and is currently Vice President and General Counsel  for Pilgrim Films and Television, Inc.

What’s hotter than a California wildfire?  The Charger Girls.  But before we begin our parade of sideline beauties, let me start with my annual rant about preseason football.

The third week of the NFL preseason is considered the best because the first string players usually play for a half or more.  In contrast, the fourth week of the preseason is considered the worst, since most teams rest their starters for fear of injuries.  So, what is left is a bunch of third and fourth stringers playing their hearts out to make the practice squad.  Frankly, its terrible football, but then again you get to see some things you would never see in a real game, like the Chargers trying an onside kick on the first play of the game…and recovering it.  Never happens in real life.

For those interested, the Chargers fourth stringers beat the 49er fourth stringers in dominating fashion, 26-7.  The significance of this win?  No starter was injured as a result of play.

Well, onto to what really matters.  The hottest dance team in the NFL, your Charger Girls!

As is custom, let’s start this week’s introductions with the Line Captains, Ashlie, Marlina, Marisa and Tonya.

This week’s Charger Girl of the Day is a former USC Song Girl, introducing Jacquelyn.

I like shooting nice, tight close up shots of the Charger Girls and I rarely include a full body photo.  Well, I thought I would change things up and include one.  Here’s rookie Lauren showing off the full Charger Girl uniform and demonstrating the proper posing technique…notice the toe point.

Okay, let’s get this party started by introducing some of the veterans: Casie, Heather, Michelle, Carly N., Brittany W. and  Nicole L.

And what party would be complete without some photos of the rookies: Carly S., Brittany R., former CGOTD Victoria (I got her name correct this week!), Andrea, Lauren, Melanie and Katherine.

And let’s finish this week’s coverage with a few photos of Ashley, Natalie, Carly S. and Brittany W.

Thankfully, preseason football has come to an end.  And while I love football, I can’t say that having four or five preseason games is a good thing, especially if you are going to charge full price admission to a game that is about as good as a Division IAA football.  The one thing that is worth the price of admission…the cheerleaders who give it their all at a game that is as meaningful as an intra squad scrimmage.

Thank you Charger Girls.

For more Charger Girl article and photos, please visit my blog: The Hottest Dance Team in the NFL.

In this installment of From The Archives, we focus our attention on Raiderette Michelle Budano. Michelle and her sister Melissa were Raiderettes in the mid 1990’s when the Raiders played their games in the venerable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

You can tell how old these photos are by the track on the field, a legacy from the 1984 Olympics and beyond.

I mentioned in a previous From The Archives article that back in the day, the Raiderettes were very accessible and had their own following in the community.  Many of them were local models that made the Southern California Photo Days circuit and were regularly featured in magazines such as HotRodder and other such lifestyle magazines.  Many of us remember these girls from these events and if I recall correctly, one enterprising Raiderette sponsored her own photo day shoot with the Raiderettes…regretfully, I missed that one.

Former Charger Girl Summer (’04-’09), one of my all time favorites, is expecting a baby boy in November! Let us all wish Summer, her husband Lennie and the new baby to be health, happiness and good fortune.

And just in case you’ve forgotten what Summer looks like, here are a few photos of her “back in the day”.

To see more photos of Summer, please check out my new blog, The Hottest Dance Team in the NFL.

Ah, preseason football!  It’s what a football fan eagerly awaits, the start of another year of football.  Well, not exactly for me.  Preseason football is, in a word, terrible.  But as a season ticket holder, I pay full price for these less than NFL caliber football games.  So, I was more interested in checking out the new Charger Girl squad than the Charger’s third and fourth stringers.  Let’s see how the new squad shapes up.

As a new season is upon us, let me introduce the 2009 Charger Girl Line Captains, Ashlie, Marlina, Marisa, and Tonya.

Last year, I introduced a new feature, the Charger Girl of the Day.  And this year, we will continue to recognize the Charger Girl who provided the most memorable photograph of the day.  Though I had a few to choose from, one image stood out.  Presenting this week’s CGOTD, rookie Amanda.

Author’s note:  a kindly reader pointed out that this lovely Charger Girl is actually named Victoria.  Unfortunately, I based my information on the Chargers.com original audition finals photo identification, as the organization has not updated their website with up to date Charger Girl bios.  Please forgive the confusion.

Let’s begin the introductions with the returning Veterans: Brittany W, Heather, Giselle, Jacquelyn, Nicole L., Nicole M., Ashley, Michelle, and Vanesa.

This year, there are thirteen rookie Charger Girls.  They are: Katherine, Lauren, Carly S., Belinda, Melanie, Tiffany, Amanda, Natalie, Kimberly, Andrea, Brittany R., Emily, and Kate.  Unfortunately, I did not see Kate on the sidelines, so there is no photo of her.

And we have two former Charger Girls making a return appearance on the squad, Carly N. and Casie.

You may remember Casie from the NFL Cheerleader Playoffs a few years ago.  She and Shantel won the whole darn thing!  Glad to see her back in the uniform.

Well, a new NFL season is upon us and I am eagerly awaiting the start of the regular season, when we get to see some real football.  But for now, I’ll have to content myself and pass the preseason by watching some real cheerleading.  Go Charger Girls!

For more Charger Girl articles and photos, check out my new Charger Girls blog, The Hottest Dance Team in the NFL.

In this installment of From The Archives, I introduce one of my all time favorite Charger Girls, Danielle Ditonto. Photographically speaking, cheerleaders with great smiles always make for an interesting and compelling photograph and Danielle always had a smile on her face.

This photo of Danielle shows her in the Charger Girl throwback uniform, worn when the Charger players wore their throwback uniforms.  I don’t think the Charger Girls ever wore uniforms like these officially and I was never a fan of this college style uniform.  But I included it here since they don’t wear these outfits anymore and we should have a visual record of such things.

And continuing our theme of beautiful and intelligent cheerleaders, Danielle Ditonto became an accountant after she hung up the pom poms.  Wow.  And I always thought accounting was boring.

I have been photographing cheerleaders since my college days at UCLA.  Through the years, I have attended many USC vs UCLA football games and have had the honor to photograph several of these titanic struggles between the Good and the Evil. I have to say that USC has arguably the finest cheerleaders/dance team in college football.  Certainly the USC Song Girls are the most renown.  And in this installment of From The Archives, we take a look back to 1996 and 1998 and feature one of the most memorable USC Song Girls, Erin Gielow.

Why was she so memorable?  Well, she had a certain flair and personality that shined through her dancing, a special quality that all exceptional cheerleaders possess.  She was one of those cheerleaders that just demanded your attention. (And yes, I know they are called Song Girls!)

Beauty and brains.  I did a search on the internet before writing this article and discovered that Erin is currently employed as a lawyer, which reinforces the perception of cheerleaders as being very motivated and achievement oriented.

And on a footnote, unfortunately for Song Girl Erin…UCLA beat USC those two years that these photographs were taken.  GO BRUINS!

In this installment of From The Archives, I introduce my all time favorite Raiderette, Kelly Morris.  These photographs were taken in the mid 1990’s with my old film camera and a 300 2.8 super telephoto lens (you know those big white lenses, the sports photographers use to shoot football games).  Back in the “good ol’ days” before 9/11, you could take in pretty much any camera equipment that you wanted…at least that was the case at the Los Angeles Coliseum.  Though Raiders fans have a rather surly reputation, safety and security were never a problem in the Coliseum because of the number of uniformed LAPD officers that patrolled the sidelines.  In fact, the season ticket holders in the row in front of me, were LAPD.  So, I never felt unsafe at the Coliseum, though there was once incident where those off duty LAPD officers spotted a Raider fan with a handgun in his pants…he was promptly escorted out by the uniformed LAPD.

But enough of my Raider anecdotes and on to the photos of my all time favorite Raiderette Kelly Morris.

The great thing about a Raiders home game was that the Raiderettes mingled with the fans before the game, signing autographs and posing for photos.  They were accessible, friendly, and very good looking.   You could really get up close and get to know them; it was a very close knit experience.  The Raiderettes and their fans were family.   Those were the days, back in the 90’s…it was a different time and place.

In this installment of From The Archives, I share a few photographs from a post-college days road trip to Norman, Oklahoma.  In 1986, UCLA traveled to Oklahoma to play the Sooners and a friend in UCLA’s Sports Information Department secured a media credential for me to photograph the game.  It was early September and the weather was very hot and very humid, typical for that part of the country.  Jamelle Holieway, a local boy from Carson, CA, was the starting QB for the Sooners.  The Bruins fans who made the trek to Norman, Oklahoma were optimistic that we could put up a good fight against the perennial college football powerhouse Sooners, but we were to be disappointed.

UCLA scored the first three points of the game and then surrendered the next 38 points to the better conditioned Sooners.  It was quite apparent after the first quarter, that the day was going to be long, so I turned my attention to the OU Pom squad.  One girl in particular caught my eye.  Blonde and beautiful, she was as photogenic as they come.  So, the day was not a total loss.

I would later discover that she was the daughter of OU Basketball Coach Billy Tubbs.  Her name, Taylor Tubbs.  Oh, to be young and in college again.

In the early 90’s, I was a Los Angeles Raiders season ticket holder and when Al Davis packed his bags and went back north to Oakland, I decided to check out a few San Diego Charger games to get my fill of NFL football.  In this installment of From the Archives, I present one of my earliest photographs of the Charger Girls, taken with my old Canon film camera.

The environment at old Jack Murphy Stadium was much more family friendly than the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the excitement and pagentry of the NFL was so compelling that I soon became a San Diego Charger season ticket holder.  Of course, the Charger Girls were also one of the reasons for becoming a Charger fan, as you can tell from this photograph of Shelby C. from the mid 90’s.

Check out how high the waist is on this version of the venerable Charger Girl skirt!  It’s almost Victorian by modern day standards, but still, perhaps, my favorite version of the uniform.