Kay Teer Crawford: The Woman Who Helped Build Dance Team as We Know It
How one Texas teenager helped shape modern drill team, created the first national dance team competition, carried the activity around the world, and spent her life pushing toward an Olympic future
By Activate Arroyo | Dance Team World
If you ask someone about the origins of dance/drill team, one name usually comes up first: Gussie Nell Davis, founder of the Kilgore College Rangerettes.
Gussie absolutely belongs in that history.
But she is not the whole story.
At nearly the same moment that Gussie was helping transform the pep squad tradition in East Texas, another young woman hundreds of miles away was developing her own vision for what girls could do on a football field.
Her name was Kay Teer Crawford.
Kay would eventually become known as the “Mother of the Drill Team,” but even that title only tells part of the story. She helped shape one of the earliest modern school-based drill teams, created what became the first national dance/drill team competition, built an international network that carried the activity around the world, directed thousands of performers in major national spectacles, and spent the final years of her life arguing that dance/drill team deserved recognition as a legitimate athletic sport with an Olympic future.[1][4]
Today, almost a century after her first work in Texas, that last idea no longer seems nearly as far-fetched.
The terminology has changed. The organizations have changed. The competitive landscape has changed.
But many of the ideas Kay spent her life developing are still very much alive.
It Started With the Girls Who Did Not Make Cheerleader
Kay Waweehie Teer was a student at Edinburg High School in South Texas when her story with drill team began around 1929-1930.
Kay made the cheerleading squad. Many of her classmates did not.
Rather than simply celebrating her own selection, she became concerned about the large number of girls who also wanted to participate in school spirit activities but had nowhere to go.
At the same time, Kay had been watching the precision marching of male ROTC cadets. Their formations, discipline, synchronization and military structure fascinated her.
Those two ideas came together.
The National Dance Coaches Association’s 2018 Hall of Fame biography of Kay credits her with starting the first “modern dance drill team” in 1929. According to the NDCA account, Kay had earned a place on the cheerleading squad while approximately 90 other girls had not, and the marching style of ROTC cadets helped inspire her idea. The organization that developed from that concept took the field the following year.[1]
Dance/drill team historian Joyce E. Pennington records the story with a slightly different date. In her history of the activity’s first twenty years, Pennington places Kay’s cheerleader election in 1930 and describes her approaching Edinburg High School principal C.A. Davis about creating a group for more than fifty girls who had not been selected.[2]
The difference between 1929 and 1930 is worth preserving rather than pretending every historical record lines up perfectly. What the accounts clearly agree upon is much more important.
Kay was developing this idea at the very beginning of the modern dance/drill team era.
After college, she returned to Edinburg to teach physical education and direct the group that became known as the Red and Blue Sergeanettes. Pennington’s research describes their red and blue military-style uniforms, brass buttons, army-style caps and a performance approach referred to as “military swing.” The Sergeanettes eventually evolved into a precision dance group, with a formal constitution and organizational guidelines established under Kay’s direction in 1936.[2]
The foundations were already there: precision, formations, discipline, synchronization, performance, teamwork and school representation.
Sound familiar?
Those ideas remain embedded in the DNA of dance team today.
Kay Crawford and Gussie Nell Davis: A Bigger Origin Story
The history gets more interesting when we stop trying to force everything into the story of one inventor.
During roughly the same period, Gussie Nell Davis was working in East Texas.
Pennington’s history describes two women in opposite areas of the state independently helping change the world of precision performance, each establishing her own identity before their paths crossed decades later.[2]
Gussie arrived at Greenville High School in 1929 and was placed in charge of an existing pep squad. During her first year, the group performed stunts, displayed letters and incorporated some marching. Over the following years, the organization expanded its marching drills and eventually added rhythm and dance steps to music, developing into the Greenville Flaming Flashes.[2]
Gussie’s most famous contribution came later.
In 1939, she was recruited by Kilgore College to develop a halftime organization that could keep spectators entertained during football games. The Kilgore College Rangerettes emerged from that work and became one of the most recognizable precision dance organizations in the world.[3]
Their influence cannot be overstated.
The Rangerettes helped elevate precision dance performance, introduced generations of audiences to the visual power of synchronized high kick and field choreography, and became an international symbol of the American drill team tradition.
Kay’s path was different.
Her work in Edinburg centered on building a new participation opportunity for girls, inspired partly by the precision and discipline she observed in military drill.
Rather than asking whether Kay Crawford or Gussie Nell Davis deserves to “win” the origin story, I think the historical record supports something much richer.
Both women were pioneers.
They were working independently. They approached the activity from different starting points. Their organizations developed differently. Their later contributions were different.
And together, they helped establish the foundation of what became modern dance/drill team.
Interestingly, the International Cheer Union’s own history of the sport now formally identifies both Kay Teer Crawford and Gussie Nell Davis as instrumental figures in the development of what the ICU today categorizes within Performance Cheer.[9]
That modern recognition matters because it moves the history beyond competing organizational traditions.
There is room for both women.
But there also needs to be room for Kay’s story to begin in 1929-1930, not in 1968.
California Changed the Scale of Kay’s Vision
Kay eventually moved west and continued her career in physical education, dance and drill team. Her professional and academic path included Santa Monica College, UCLA and USC, and her graduate work focused directly on drill team.[1][4]
This is where her story begins moving from the development of individual teams toward something that did not yet exist: COMPETITION
Historical accounts vary slightly in describing exactly how Kay’s university work led to the event. NDCA and the Los Angeles Times connect her USC graduate work with the subject of drill team, while Joyce Pennington’s history describes Kay developing a national dance/drill team competition as a project within a graduate methods class and then being required to carry the project through.[1][2][4]
The precise academic sequence is something I would still love to see documented through Kay’s original university records.
But there is no real mystery about the bigger idea.
Kay had spent decades inside this activity. Now she began imagining what would happen if teams from different schools could be brought together and evaluated under common competitive standards.
She was essentially combining traditions that already existed.
Military drill contributed formations, discipline and precision.
Dance contributed choreography and performance.
The school spirit world contributed songleaders, majorettes, flag teams and drill teams.
The individual title competition also incorporated elements familiar from American pageantry, including modeling, public presentation and speaking.
Kay combined those pieces into something new.
She created a framework for competitive dance/drill team.
1967 or 1968? Here Is the Distinction
One source of confusion in telling Miss Drill Team USA history has been whether the organization began in 1967 or 1968.
Both dates can make sense when properly explained.
The concept and development of the competition itself dates to 1967, which is why Miss Dance Drill Team USA has historically used “Since 1967” in its organizational branding.[6]
The first national Miss Drill Team U.S.A. competition was held in 1968 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.[4][5][6]
The Los Angeles Times reported that Kay’s inaugural competition included 268 participants.[4] Historical records identify dancers representing 56 high schools and colleges from across the United States.[5][6]
This was not yet the sprawling menu of jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, kick, military, prop, novelty and production categories familiar to later generations.
The FIRST documented team divisions at the inaugural event were:
- Songleading (Pom)
- Baton Twirling (Majorette)
- Flag Twirling
Mark Keppel High School won the Songleading/Pom division. Temple City High School won the Flag and Baton categories.[5][6] (Coincidentally, I am now the current dance teacher at Mark Keppel High School)
The competition categories themselves give us a snapshot of the activity at that moment in history. This competition was emerging directly from the world of school spirit, precision movement, majorettes, flag teams and drill organizations.
The dance team competition industry had not yet become what we recognize today.
Kay was helping invent the structure as she went.
Miss Drill Team Was Never Just a Dance Solo
One of my favorite pieces of this history is the original structure of the Miss Drill Team individual title competition.
I spent many years working directly within Miss Dance Drill Team USA, and these details were also part of the institutional history shared through the Crawford family and longtime MDDTUSA staff.[8]
Miss Drill Team USA solo contestants were evaluated in three areas.
Dance Routine – 70 percent
The dance solo carried the overwhelming majority of the score. But there was one requirement that preserved a direct link to drill team’s military roots.
The first ten seconds of the routine had to be military.
Only after demonstrating that military-style drill vocabulary could the contestant transition into other dance movement. The military opening is also documented in surviving published descriptions of the Miss Drill Team competition.[5]
Dance Modeling – 15 percent
Contestants performed a timed compulsory dance-modeling presentation with a maximum length of approximately 45 seconds.
Speech on Drill Team – 15 percent
Contestants also delivered a speech on the subject of drill team, again limited to approximately 45 seconds.[8] That structure tells us a lot about Kay’s idea of a titleholder. She was not simply trying to identify the dancer who could perform the most difficult solo.
The Miss Drill Team national solo champion was supposed to represent the activity itself. She needed to perform. She needed poise. She needed to communicate. She needed to understand what drill team meant. That is why the word “pageant” historically made sense, even though 70 percent of the contestant’s score was based on dance…
Kay was searching for an ambassador.
Why 1968 Changed Dance Team
Today, dance competitions are everywhere.
Regional competitions. State competitions. National championships. Solo divisions. Scoresheets. Judges. Classification systems. Awards ceremonies.
Those things feel so normal that it is easy to forget someone had to create the competitive structure in the first place. Before organized dance/drill team competition, most teams existed primarily within their own schools and communities. They performed at games, parades, rallies and local events.
Competition changed the ecosystem. Suddenly directors could see what programs in other regions were doing. Dancers could watch performers from schools they had never encountered. Judging standards could develop. Styles could spread. Competitive categories could evolve. Teams could measure themselves against programs outside their own community. The activity could begin developing a national identity.
That is why Kay’s contribution in 1968 matters far beyond one competition company. She helped create the idea of dance team as a competitive activity.
Then Kay Took Dance/Drill Team Around the World
Kay’s ambition did not stop at a national championship.
In 1981 she launched the international phase of the program, with the first Miss Dance Drill Team International world championship held in California in 1982. Historical accounts describe more than 2,000 high school-aged participants representing nine countries at the inaugural international event.[6]
Over the years, the international system included teams and delegations from Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, England, Germany, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore and South Africa, in addition to the United States.[6][8]
The Los Angeles Times independently documented international participation from South Africa, Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, Lithuania and later Japan.[4]
The international championship eventually moved to Japan permanently, where it was staged at major venues including Kokugikan in Tokyo, Yoyogi National Gymnasium and later Rainbow Hall in Nagoya. The Miss Dance Drill Team International event was also later held in Australia and South Africa.[6]
From my years inside MDDTUSA and my proximity to the Crawford family, it is important to understand that this was more than international teams simply showing up at an American competition. Kay developed relationships with people who became organizers, directors and advocates for dance/drill team within their own countries. Those relationships helped establish and strengthen organized dance/drill team programs and competition structures internationally.[8]
Teams came to learn.
Directors returned home.
Organizations developed.
Delegations came back.
The network grew.
Kay was not just exporting a competition.
She was exporting an activity.
The Olympics Gave Kay Her Biggest Stage
Then came 1984.
Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympic Games, and producer David L. Wolper brought Kay Crawford into the massive opening and closing ceremony operation. Kay recruited and directed 1,268 drill team performers from Los Angeles and Orange counties for the ceremonies.[4]
Think about the symbolism of that… The activity that had begun decades earlier with a teenage girl trying to create a place for students who had not made cheerleader was now filling an Olympic stadium.
Kay’s large-scale performance work continued beyond Los Angeles. She directed approximately 1,000 performers in connection with the 1986 rededication of the Statue of Liberty and organized hundreds of dancers dressed as angels for Pope John Paul II’s 1987 Mass at Dodger Stadium.[4] MDDTUSA and Crawford family history also preserves Kay’s later recruitment for performance work connected to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.[6][8]
For Kay, however, performing at the Olympics was not the final goal: She wanted dance/drill team to become part of the Olympics.
Kay’s Olympic Dream Was Decades Ahead of Its Time
This is one of the most important pieces of Kay Crawford’s story.
She believed dance/drill team was athletic. She believed it was a legitimate sport. And she wanted precision dance competition recognized within the Olympic movement.
The Los Angeles Times documented that Kay continued campaigning for dance-sport precision teams and dance/drill competition to receive recognition as an athletic Olympic event through the end of her life.[4] Within the Crawford family and MDDTUSA, that Olympic ambition was a well-known part of Kay’s long-term vision.[8]
At the time, the idea could be easy to dismiss. Because dance teams were still fighting in many places simply to be treated as athletes or valid performing arts programs within their own schools. The thought of Olympic recognition probably sounded impossibly ambitious.
Kay died in 2001.
And then something interesting happened.
The terminology changed.
Today, the International Cheer Union governs both Cheerleading and Performance Cheer internationally. Performance Cheer encompasses forms including Pom, Jazz, Hip Hop and High Kick.[9][10] Even more striking, the ICU’s own history identifies Kay Crawford and Gussie Nell Davis as instrumental founders in the development of the discipline it now categorizes as Performance Cheer.[9] The International Olympic Committee provisionally recognized the ICU in 2016 and granted it full recognition in 2021 as the international governing body for the sport of Cheer and its disciplines.[10]
That does not mean dance team is currently an Olympic medal event.
It does mean something Kay advocated decades ago has moved considerably closer to the Olympic sports structure than most people during her lifetime probably imagined.
The modern governing system is not Kay Crawford’s organization. Today’s Performance Cheer movement has its own leaders, institutions and evolution, including the enormous influence of the Varsity system and Jeff Webb, who founded both Varsity Spirit and the International Cheer Union.
But historical credit still matters. The idea that competitive dance teams could be treated as athletes, organized internationally and someday pursue an Olympic pathway did not suddenly appear in the twenty-first century.
Kay Crawford was arguing for that future decades earlier… And as a dance community, we must remember that inarguable fact.
A Timeline of Kay Teer Crawford’s Dance/Drill Team Legacy
1929-1930
As a student at Edinburg High School in Texas, Kay develops the idea of creating an organized precision performance opportunity for girls who were not selected for cheerleading. Her concept is influenced by ROTC military marching.[1][2]
1930s
The Edinburg program develops into the Red and Blue Sergeanettes. Military precision, synchronized formations and “military swing” become part of the team’s identity. Formal organizational guidelines are established under Kay’s direction.[2]
Late 1930s and 1940s
Kay continues her education and relocates to California, where she expands her work in physical education, drill team and precision performance.[1][2]
1967
Kay develops the concept that becomes Miss Drill Team U.S.A., establishing the foundation for a national dance/drill team competition.[2][6]
1968
The inaugural Miss Drill Team U.S.A. national competition is held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with 268 participants representing 56 high schools and colleges.[4][5][6]
1976
Kay publishes The World of Drill Team, a major instructional resource for the activity. She also becomes closely associated with Let’s Cheer, a publication devoted to cheer, drill team and pep arts.[1][4]
1981-1982
Miss Dance Drill Team expands internationally, beginning the World Championship era.[4][6]
1985 and beyond
International championships expand to major venues in Japan and later to Australia and South Africa. Teams and delegations participate from countries across Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Oceania.[6][8]
1984
Kay recruits and directs 1,268 drill team performers for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympic Games.[4]
1986
Approximately 1,000 performers participate in a production connected with the rededication of the Statue of Liberty.[4]
1987
Kay organizes hundreds of performers for Pope John Paul II’s Mass at Dodger Stadium.[4]
1996
MDDTUSA and Crawford family history documents Kay’s continued Olympic-related performance involvement connected with the Atlanta Games.[6][8]
2001
Kay Crawford dies in California. Until the end of her life, she continues advocating for recognition of dance/drill team and precision dance as a legitimate athletic activity with Olympic potential.[4][8]
2016
The International Olympic Committee grants provisional recognition to the International Cheer Union.[10]
2018
Kay Crawford is inducted into the National Dance Coaches Association Hall of Fame.[1]
2021
The International Olympic Committee grants full recognition to the International Cheer Union, whose Performance Cheer disciplines now include modern forms closely associated with dance team.[10]
Today
The ICU’s official history recognizes both Kay Teer Crawford and Gussie Nell Davis as foundational figures in the development of the discipline now called Performance Cheer.[9]
Kay’s Legacy Is Bigger Than Miss Drill Team USA
For many dancers who came through MDDTUSA, Kay Crawford is remembered primarily as the founder of Miss Drill Team USA.
That is true. It is just incomplete. She was involved in the activity before there was a Miss Drill Team USA pageant & national competition.
Her story begins around 1929-1930 with an idea about participation. More girls wanted to be involved, so she imagined another opportunity. She helped develop an early precision team. She became an educator. She developed competitive structures. She helped establish a national championship. She built an international network. She put dance/drill team performers into massive national productions. And eventually she argued that the activity she had spent her life developing deserved recognition alongside other sports on the international stage.
That is a much bigger legacy.
And Gussie Nell Davis Still Belongs in This Story
Recognizing Kay’s history does not require rewriting Gussie Nell Davis out of dance/drill team history.
The opposite is true.
The story gets better when we stop forcing it into a single founder narrative.
Gussie developed the Greenville Flaming Flashes and later created the Kilgore College Rangerettes, whose visual style, precision and influence transformed the activity.
Kay developed her work in Edinburg, eventually moved west, helped create competitive dance/drill team and later built an international competition network.
Different paths.
Different contributions.
Shared history.
Joyce Pennington’s research captures that dynamic particularly well because she recognizes these women as separate pioneers developing precision performance traditions in different parts of Texas during the same era.[2]
Nearly a century later, even the International Cheer Union’s historical account now places both women within the origins of Performance Cheer.[9]
There is enough history here to give them both their flowers.
Why Dance Team World Is Preserving This History
I spent many years working directly with Miss Dance Drill Team USA and had the unusual opportunity to learn parts of this history through the organization itself, longtime staff and the Crawford family.
I also ended up preserving a substantial amount of historical material along the way, including photographs, event materials and an extensive collection of Let’s Cheer magazines.
Much of dance-team history still lives in places like that.
Boxes.
Photo albums.
Programs.
Old magazines.
Competition results.
VHS tapes.
And, most importantly, people’s memories.
Some of the women and men who built this activity are still here.
That will not always be true.
Dance Team World is beginning the process of documenting more of this history publicly because I believe our industry needs somewhere to preserve it.
Not just championship results.
Not just nostalgic photos.
The stories.
Who created these traditions?
Why?
How did competition develop?
Where did our categories come from?
Who trained the next generation?
How did ideas move from one state or country to another?
There is a much larger dance-team history waiting to be documented.
Kay Crawford’s story is a pretty good place to start.
Because when you follow the thread from a Texas high school in 1930 to an Olympic stadium, international championships and today’s emerging international sport structure, something becomes very clear:
We are still living inside a version of the future Kay Teer Crawford spent her life trying to build.
About This Historical Project
This article is part of the Dance Team World Historical Archive, an ongoing effort to document the people, organizations, competitions and traditions that shaped school-based dance team and dance/drill team.
This account combines published historical research with firsthand institutional history acquired through my years working with Miss Dance Drill Team USA and through my relationship with the Crawford family and longtime MDDTUSA staff.
Where published documentation exists, it is cited below. Details identified as MDDTUSA or Crawford family institutional history reflect information preserved within the organization and through people directly connected to Kay’s work.
Historical research is never truly finished. If you knew Kay Crawford, participated in early Miss Drill Team USA events, worked within one of the international programs, or possess photographs, programs, publications or other primary-source material connected to this history, Dance Team World welcomes additional documentation that can help preserve the record accurately.
Sources and Historical References
[1] National Dance Coaches Association. “2018 NDCA Hall of Fame Inductee: Dr. Kay Teer Crawford.” The NDCA biography identifies Crawford with the first “modern dance drill team” beginning in 1929, her ROTC inspiration, education, national competition work, international programs and major performance credits.
[2] Joyce E. Pennington. History of Dance/Drill Team: The First Twenty Years, 1929-1950. American Dance/Drill Team. A particularly important source documenting the parallel early development of Kay Teer Crawford and Gussie Nell Davis, the Sergeanettes, Greenville Flaming Flashes and Kay’s later graduate competition project.
[3] Kilgore College Rangerettes. Official Rangerette historical materials documenting Gussie Nell Davis’ recruitment to Kilgore College and the development of the Rangerettes.
[4] Myrna Oliver. “Kay Crawford; the Mother of the Drill Team.” Los Angeles Times, September 7, 2001. A major retrospective source documenting Crawford’s Edinburg beginnings, ROTC inspiration, teaching career, Miss Drill Team USA, international expansion, 1984 Olympic work, large-scale productions and Olympic aspirations.
[5] Miss Dance Drill Team USA historical record and contemporary Santa Monica College reporting. Includes documentation of the inaugural 1968 Miss Drill Team U.S.A. competition, participating schools, early competitive categories, title competition format and results.
[6] Miss Dance Drill Team USA historical materials. Organizational records documenting the development of the national and international competition programs, participating countries, competition evolution and major production history.
[7] Kay Teer Crawford. The World of Drill Team. Dennis-Landman, 1976. Crawford’s own instructional publication remains an important primary resource for understanding her philosophy, terminology and approach to precision dance/drill team.
[8] Dance Team World archival and firsthand MDDTUSA history. Information preserved through Activate Arroyo’s years working directly with Miss Dance Drill Team USA, proximity to the Crawford family, conversations with Brenda Crawford and longtime MDDTUSA staff, and archival materials. This includes details of Miss Drill Team scoring, compulsory timing, international organizational development, Atlanta Olympic involvement and Kay’s Olympic ambitions.
[9] International Cheer Union. A History of the Sport of Cheer. ICU historical materials identify Kay Teer Crawford and Gussie Nell Davis as foundational figures in the development of the discipline now categorized as Performance Cheer.
[10] International Cheer Union. Official organizational history and IOC recognition records. ICU received provisional recognition from the International Olympic Committee in 2016 and full recognition in 2021 as the world governing body for Cheerleading and Performance Cheer.
Suggested Citation
Arroyo, Activate. “Kay Teer Crawford: The Woman Who Helped Build Dance Team as We Know It.” Dance Team World, October 2026.
Archival Credit
Historical synthesis, commentary and MDDTUSA archival context by Activate Arroyo for Dance Team World.
© 2026 Dance Team World. All rights reserved. Historical facts remain attributable to their underlying sources. The original organization, narrative, analysis, archival context and written expression of this article are the work of Dance Team World and its author. When referencing or quoting this historical synthesis, please credit Dance Team World and link to the original published article.