Dee Brock, founding director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, died Sept. 23 at 96, the organization confirmed. America’s Sweethearts director Greg Whiteley said she integrated the squad in 1965, when Dallas was still largely segregated.
Whiteley said Brock was said to have sketched the original uniform on a legal notepad; designer Paula Van Wagoner and seamstress Leveta Crager made it. The uniform entered the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History collection in 2018, according to the cheerleaders’ website.
Brock initially used high school students to perform traditional cheers at Cowboys games. The squad later added choreography after she met Frances Roberson, a local high school drill-team director.
