Sideline Legends In Their Own Words
For 6 decades, men and women have cheered for the National Football League. In this podcast, you will meet them, hear their stories, and find out what it's like to be a National Football Pro Cheerleader.
Sideline Legends In Their Own Words
Shannon Baker Werthman. How our time with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders made us family.
When the Texas sun set on those high-spirited days of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, bonds were forged that outlasted the glitz of pom-poms and stadium lights. Today, my laughter intertwines with Shannon Baker-Worthman's as we revisit the camaraderie that turned teammates into lifelong sisters. From the comic escapades of maintaining the era's defining big hair to navigating the emotional intensity of shared grief, Shannon and I uncover the deep-rooted connections that have anchored us through life's tumultuous waves. Her tales, both humorous and heartfelt, exemplify the unbreakable ties that dance and dedication can create.
Our conversation takes a heartfelt turn, weaving through the fabric of an evolving sports era—where passion intertwined with play and the Dallas Cowboys felt more like kin than competitors. We pay homage to the legacy of the Dallas Doomsday Defense and the familial bonds that once defined the game. As we share the story of rallying around each other during the heart-wrenching news of Dr. Baker's passing, the true strength of our sisterhood shines through. This episode is more than a cheerleading chronicle; it celebrates the resilience and unwavering support found in friendships forged on the sidelines. Join Shannon and me as we shine a light on a lifetime of memories that continue to cheer us on through every high kick and hurdle.
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Hi and welcome to another episode of Sideline Legends, in their own words. I'm Tammy, your host, and you are in for a great time. This week I sat down with Shannon Baker-Worthman. Shannon is a legend. For four years, shannon performed at Texas Stadium and around the world as one of the most talented and iconic cheerleaders of all time. Following her cheer years, shannon was hand-picked by the infamous Texie Waterman to be the first cheerleader to become their choreographer. Shannon was on posters, a favorite of the photographers on game day for the television audience and.
Speaker 1:I humbly and proudly call her my best friend and sister. Shannon and I share our time together, our shenanigans and our bond that has grown and continued for the past 45 years. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without her. We have so much to share that I decided to make her interview a two-part series, which means you're going to have to tune in to part two. I know you're going to be dazzled and amazed by this woman who has accomplished so much and continues to be one of the bravest, strongest and interesting women that has ever worn the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders uniform. Okay, hi everybody, this is Tammy, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and today is the most special day I have been waiting for. One of the reasons that I made the decision to do Sideline Legends Back in 1977, I met the bestest friend ever. We are truly sisters in so many ways. I want to introduce you to Shannon Baker-Worthman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, BFFs before we knew what BFF was.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right. We just, we just knew, yes, but like I was telling Shannon right before we started in December and and I'm sorry y'all, my parent in the background is singing O McDonald, but that's OK, I mean I was telling her that in December when I was in Dallas, and of course I get together with Shannon and then I observe, I just observe what we have as national football cheerleaders alumni. It's a family like I've never made before. Friends come, friends go. Some friends stay a very long time.
Speaker 1:I'm still friends with my kindergarten friends, but this is different. This is a connection that lasts a lifetime. We develop feelings, familiarity and wonderful memories each and every day of our lives and it continues to grow. So I wanted shannon to come on and we're going to tell you some of our shenanigans and it's been so yep, we I'll be perfectly honest with you we we've kind of decided the top four or five, because shannon and I could probably be on here for about four days telling you everything we've done together that we could remember that well, yeah yeah, yeah and uh, but I think we should start with um.
Speaker 1:Shannon wants to start with hair.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're Texas, right, we're Texas in the 70s, in the 70s, tall, big hair which is coming back. Have you heard?
Speaker 1:Big hair, big hair, oh sure right when mine's falling out. Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha. But Shannon, tell me Big hair, big hair, oh sure Right when mine's falling out. But Shannon, tell me about your first year, because you were already a veteran by my rookie year. You started in 76.
Speaker 2:I started in 77. So tell the difference between just 76 and then as the hair grew. Yes, as the hair grew. Okay, um, in 76 we were kind of the guinea pig um of bcc, because it was the first time it was open to the public. So Texie Waterman, our legendary, oh our legendary.
Speaker 2:Texie, yes, she had kind of handpicked who she wanted, okay. So I don't even know if she was ready for this public stuff going on. I'm sure not, probably not. So as we came in, there was kind of just getting to know each other, but they wanted a look for each girl so they could market them that way, of course, you know, and base for individual girls, and so that was kind of the big marketing plan. Um, it really didn't take off, I think too much till 77 though, since we were the guinea pig group. So, um, I would roll my hair in hot curlers the night before a game ouch, ouch, and then I would sit up all night. I I put my cowboy band on over the rollers. I remember, remember seeing that.
Speaker 2:And I would sit up all night and then I would get up, take it out, roll it again to get in the car to go to the game. And then at the time we had to park really far away from our tunnel, the cheerleading tunnel that we'd go down at Texas stadium. And I was allowed I guess everybody was but I would walk the mile and a half in my hot curlers and uniform and uniform. Of course yes, hot curlers and uniform and uniform. Of course yes, hot curlers, uniforms. And we were supposed to wear leg pantyhose but I didn't want to because they were too tight on my legs, so I wore my own um pantyhose and I would walk all that way and have my bandana on, and then I'd get into the locker room and I would take it out and Aquanet All weather, extra super hold yes, and it was a. You know it's a canister, it's and it's, it's, it's, it's a canister and it's it's aerosol, aerosol.
Speaker 1:I think you can blame the Dallas. Cowboy cheerleaders for the climate change. Climate change.
Speaker 2:So I would spray it and the whole thing. When I would bend over to do anything would, as a helmet, come forward and back and I was trying to get the Farrah Fawcett look, that's what they told me to get. That was going to be my, that was you, you were, yeah, that was me. So so, everything you know, I had to curl individually, aquanet it and just have it as a helmet. I got better when you came along. Oh, I have to first. So, on the field, something I thought was very funny Taxi Waterman was the one we really knew. Suzanne, I don't know, she wasn't there yet, she wasn't there yet. She wasn't there yet. She was just a secretary, she was with SRAM. So they were conniving behind our backs and Texi, you know fun, texi, she just said girls, please, if there's one thing I have to ask you is do not smoke or drink alcohol on the field. So I'm thinking it was okay in the tunnel before we went out on them.
Speaker 1:oh, I know it was okay in the dressing room dressing Dressing room Because there are pictures of girls smoking in the dressing room Right.
Speaker 2:In colors With my aerosol going on, so that does not seem like a great combination.
Speaker 1:And the dressing room, ladies and gentlemen, had one stall bathroom, a teeny, tiny mirror. I think we had a couple of full-length mirrors that were propped against a wall. They were propped against a wall and we had concrete walls and benches, true? So you just sat on the floor, the concrete floor, if you wanted to get in front of the mirror the concrete floor if you want to get in front of the mirror.
Speaker 2:I sat against this column with my book and I could stick my head on the column because of my aquanet. So when you came along, the rules had to change, of course, because they knew that Tammy Barber was going to challenge every rule.
Speaker 1:That is not true.
Speaker 2:It is so true, not true at all, ladies and gentlemen, and I think they let you have your own hair for a little while First year, First year but then you were yeah rookie year I had.
Speaker 1:I felt grown up and pretty and I curled and I aquanetted and then the hammer came down. Yes, and I was told by Suzanne you need a gimmick.
Speaker 2:You're not pretty enough, kind of like Gypsy Rose Lee yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need a gimmick. You're not pretty enough and I had mistakenly been wearing pigtails to practice because Texas Studio had no air conditioning.
Speaker 2:And this is Dallas, Texas in the summer and the field and the field.
Speaker 1:Oh what was it?
Speaker 2:140 on the field at some point so they didn't have it like they do today with no roof no, no, no roof, we had a hole.
Speaker 1:We had a hole and the water came in and we stood in water and it was a tortoise shaped field so that if it rained the players did not stand in water. But we did up to our ankles in our plastic boots.
Speaker 2:But anyway, you know my toes are still frostbitten. Oh, I'm sure I take very good care of my toes because of the vinyl boot, the vinyl boots were divine.
Speaker 1:They were divine and you had to wear knee socks under them. And we're going to get back to the legs, because I love legs. I was not going to let Shannon wear clothes that started to bag by halftime Her slickery. Non-lycra, non-binding compression hose.
Speaker 1:Legs were the first compression hose of the world, but anyway, so there I was. It was going to be pigtails forever. So the pigtails were in. I was not happy. Shannon talked to me off the ledge and said oh, it's no big deal, Just wear them. And so Shannon was in charge of. Is my part straight?
Speaker 2:Yes, and you were able to get your hairdo done pretty quickly. Oh seconds. Yes, and you would ask me if your part was straight. And then you did a curling iron and did one and the other and you were done and I was aquanetting, aquanetting and free Farrah Kirk.
Speaker 1:And at halftime all you girls had to curl it again. That was full of cigarette butts and aquanet had 20 hot curling sets cooking on the field. Very true, all the good old days it all so fun. And the smell of that tunnel, that it had a distinct odor that just said we're here, we're here.
Speaker 2:It's here. So it was. It was a lingering aroma.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think it was the many years of sopping, wet, moldy, astroturf. That would be in the tunnel too, and sometimes you'd be walking down the tunnel to the field and your I'm sure plastic heel to your vinyl boot would tip and you'd slide and you but you had. But you had all these other girls to catch you. And one of the things that Shannon and I talk about all the time is how people always wanted to say to us oh, y'all don't really get along. You hate each other, you're at each other's throats constantly. Oh no, oh no. I lived for these girls to help me, protect me, save me. And there well, we didn't.
Speaker 2:We just didn't have a sense of humor. Oh yeah, could have been back in that day. Yeah, you know? What do the girls now talk about? The enclosed roof, the air conditioning field, the air conditioned field, the beautiful, everything that they have yes, the their, oh their dressing room.
Speaker 1:Uh, those of you who've never been to at&t stadium, if you go you've got to do a tour and you have got to see the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders dressing room. It rivals Hollywood.
Speaker 2:I'd love before and after shots.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and our induction into makeup hair was somebody else who maybe knew how.
Speaker 2:no makeovers, no makeovers just blue eyeshadow, which I've also heard can be back in, but bright blue eyeshadow, very red round.
Speaker 1:Yes, raggedy end, yes, yes, right and lips. And then you get on the field in August and it's 140 degrees and you're wilting and we were not allowed, okay. So we did a pre-K show. We got there early, we practiced, we went back in, we rolled our hair again, then we came out, we did a pregame, then they introduced the players and then we went to our corners. So there was 32 of us and we had four corners, the four corners.
Speaker 2:Oh, I must interrupt a minute. Guess's coming in is that? Is that hubby? This is so. Not only are we sisters, you are related as well through me yes, but that was our wedding that we invited craig to.
Speaker 1:That's true. It's an actual wedding picture of Shannon and I at her wedding.
Speaker 2:It looks like a third wheel.
Speaker 1:And Craig's off to the side like well, it was nice of him to come. I'm good with being a third wheel to be around you all, of course, you always have been.
Speaker 2:Love you, craig, love you too, dear we can go walk the dog.
Speaker 1:So we would in our corners. In our corners, we were not allowed to get a drink. We had to stand at attention and do the first quarter and all our palm routines. Well, there was some sweat that could possibly run down into your mouth, but as soon as and when you're talking, we couldn't get a drink.
Speaker 2:That's not an alcoholic drink, oh right.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, I'm talking. They had coolers of Gatorade. There you go. Yes, I'm sorry, no water, no, nothing. And then, finally, the second quarter, you would switch corners so that the fans saw each group, and then we could, one by one, walk up to the Gatorade cooler. Fill a cup. Yeah, that Dixie cup. You know the one you gargle with at the dentist, that cup you filled. Thatixie cup. You know the one you gargle with at the dentist, that cup you filled that. You got to drink it. You set it down, you picked your palms back up and you walked back to your spot and that was your refreshment.
Speaker 2:Did anyone tell us that there was waterproof mascara, or was there not back then?
Speaker 1:I don't think there was mascara, or was there not back then?
Speaker 1:because there was, so it just kind of mascara as we sweat yeah, mascara, as we sweat plus it went in your eyes and burned your eyes and and every now and then I, when we would be doing the introduction of the players and they were running through, I would look over at a couple of girls and the heat and everything was getting to them and they were kind of swaying a little bit, but nobody dared faint, no way, no way. If you fainted, the world ended. And some girls sweat more than others, but I think everything.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine if the players one at a time, when you get thirsty, you can go over to the Gatorade one at a time?
Speaker 1:And use your little dentist Dixie cup Get a swig. Then you go back, you put your helmet on and you wait. I think we've gone a long way since then, oh yeah, where were the guys that came out with the little squirt bottle that everybody gets while they're in the huddle? I mean, our players didn't even really get that much, but we did have the players. Whoa, oh, dallas Doomsday Defense. Roger Staubach. Excuse me, you know what was Landry coach.
Speaker 2:What was so great then, though and, yes, I'm you're a bigger football fan than I am now, but what made me such a huge football fan back in those days was it felt like a family. It didn't feel so much like a business that somebody was going to be traded this and the other was. I mean, I knew we're going to see these players, yeah, you know, and I mean we couldn't. I knew those players, I knew their stats, I knew this, you know, and it was. It was just, it was a different time.
Speaker 1:They came out on the field and you were like, oh, there they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's our guys, and you knew they'd be there the next week. Oh, yes, yeah, the next week. You know they. Yeah it, yes, or the next week.
Speaker 1:You know they? Yeah, it was a totally different world. I'm grateful that we were there then.
Speaker 2:Me too.
Speaker 1:Well, for one, we got to go to two Super Bowls and we actually won games, but that's not right Too soon, and it was. It was, though it was a family. There was not a lot of hoopla, there was hard hits, and I think you and I remember this because we were standing next to each other. Do you remember when Roger got knocked out and he was right by us and they came with the smelling salts and he opened his eyes and said did Army get the ball? Yes, do you remember that game?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, roger thinks he's in college and they probably didn't have much confession of you know protocol at that point.
Speaker 1:No protocol for any and he went back in Kind of like us. But there was a very special time in Shannon's my relationship that changed her world Definitely and it brought us closer together than I think anything else could have. And this has been 40 years ago how many years ago.
Speaker 2:Since 78. 78., 78.
Speaker 1:I don't even remember now. It might have even been on the news. On a Saturday morning I was watching the news or listening to the radio and I found out that Dr Baker of Dallas had been killed in a car accident and his son was in critical condition. Well, back then there's only one Dr Baker. I do not even remember driving to Shannon's house.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure I ran red lights, no stop signs, and when Craig actually opened the door and Shannon came walking down the stairs out of her room, I saw absolute silence, devastation, and my first instinct was I need to fix this. I was 20 years old 21 maybe and I'd never had anything like this happen in my life. But my heart broke and my protection screen grew like the Grinch's heart, and during that time I did grow up a lot. I know, shannon, you did. Your entire family was shocked and broken. Your brother did recover, your mom lost her world and you lost your dad, and from that moment on, you could not have pried, shannon and I apart with a crowbar, and that's where we still are today.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:Shannon go ahead.
Speaker 2:You were the first one and I didn't even know that at the time that people told me you were the first one to come to our house. That people told me you were the first one to come to our house and you were so gentle with me, and didn't? You always made me laugh and you didn't try to bring any of that to the table, you just listened and you just held me and you said you'd be there for me and it. I didn't want to go back to cheerleading, I didn't want to do anything, didn't want to go back to SMU, back to cheerleading. I didn't want to do anything, didn't want to go back to SMU, I just wanted to hide.
Speaker 2:And you helped put my pieces back together and I will forever, forever, tammy, be grateful to you for doing that, because people don't like to be around people that are that sad and depressed and they might bring a meal at first or, you know, go to the funeral or whatever. But you were there for years after, helping put these pieces back together and, as I've told you before, no, um, it was a different puzzle, but I felt that I could get more control of my new world if I had you there to support me to support me and you know, over time, that's what happened and, in turn, in November of 2020, when I was diagnosed with stage 3B ovarian cancer and not given a 30% chance of survival, my first call was to Shannon survival.
Speaker 1:My first call was to Shannon Because I knew that I wasn't going to get a standard rah, rah, rah. You've got this. You go, girl. You're the strongest person I knew and I was not. I was not even close to any of those things. I was petrified and I was traveling across the country to get to Louisiana for care and I stopped in Dallas and I just thought, if I can just hear her voice and maybe I'll process it. I didn't. I didn't process it for a very long time. You can't, you can't and I think that was the same with you and your dad. You can't process it. Your brain won't let you. You're afraid you'll shatter. So, after the years we've shared, I knew I was safe with you and you have put together my puzzle and, again, I'm never going to be the girl I was before that diagnosis. I'm never going to be absolutely carefree that it's not going to take me, because that cancer takes you. No, no discrimination. You never know.
Speaker 1:One day is fine. The next day it's over and Shannon has been my rock. She has a brilliant son who happens to do research and I would get my papers, my chemo papers, my treatment papers, my papers, papers, papers, and I would take pictures of them and send them. I probably could have said to my doctor well, what does that mean? But I didn't. I would just be like, that's okay, shannon will figure it out, and Shannon okay. I told her which doctor I had picked, before I even saw the doctor. Shannon had investigated her and gave her approval. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:I remember that.
Speaker 1:That woman may do your surgery. That'll be fine. And here we are, three and a half years past that and she still does it, wow, well, this is where we'll stop today. I know there's so much more to our story. I hope you'll join us on the next Sideline Legends for the rest of Shannon's story and more of the behind the scenes and we're just getting started. I have many more NFL cheerleader alumni lined up to tell their stories this year. While we wait for football to start again, it's going to fly by with the men and women of the NFL. Thank you for tuning in this week. I know you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat for the rest of Shannon's story and it's so fun. Subscribe, share and reach out. If you have any questions to SidelineLegends at gmailcom. You can also join the Facebook group Sideline Legends. I'm getting pictures up and making sure you meet all the men and women that I call legends. Talk to you soon. You're my people.