Lindley Bothwell

Born in Los Angeles, Bothwell entered the University of Southern California (USC) in the year 1919. His choice of school made sense: his grandfather, Dr. Walter Lindley, was the first dean of the USC School of Medicine, and his aunts founded USC's chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta^[1][2] There he completed both his undergraduate and master's degrees while founding many organizations and groups that are still present at the university today. In addition to his studies and involvement with organizations on campus, Bothwell was a varsity member of the baseball team, and was good enough to be offered a $10,000 signing bonus to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, an offer he turned down so that he could continue his education.^[1][2]

In his freshman year at USC (1919), Bothwell and some of his friends decided that the fans at USC Trojans football games were not loud enough or energetic enough, and that having an energetic crowd could be a large factor in the success of the team.^[1][3] In pursuit of this goal, Bothwell formed the USC Yell Leading Squad (better known as the Yell Leaders), with Bothwell dubbed the "Yell King". The Yell Leaders were a group of male students who led the university's student section in cheers at football games. All of the cheers were original, and had an immediate effect on the fans and the team.^[3]

One of the more impressive and creative cheers created by Bothwell and organized by the Yell Leaders was the "Floating 'T'". Whenever it was called out, students would release balloons that had been assigned to their seats at the same time, giving the effect of a giant golden 'T' rising from the stands, shortly followed by a mass of cardinal balloons with an 'T' shape in the middle. The "Floating 'T'" drew such a large response from the crowd that Lindley organized an even bigger stunt with a group of spirited students.^[3]

On October 21, 1922, during the Trojans' game against the University of Nevada, the Yell Leaders commenced in performing the first ever moving card stunt consisting of 500 men sitting on the 50-yard line. The cards spelled out "Trojans" in sequence and was immediately successful; over the next few years, many other universities began performing similar card stunts.^[3]

In addition to the USC Yell Leaders, Bothwell – along with fellow students Harry Pryor and Harry Kennedy – decided to found an organization that would be dedicated to upholding the traditions of the university. In 1921, the three students formed the Trojan Knights, a spirit and service fraternity specific to the University of Southern California. A non-Greek fraternity, the Trojan Knights are still referred to as both the university's official hosts and its "guardians of tradition". The Knights have been responsible and/or influential in many of the university's traditions, including the Victory Bell, the adoption of George Tirebiter, USC's first (unofficial) mascot, and the origin story of the current mascot, Traveler.^[4]

In 1924, after Bothwell had graduated from USC with two degrees, he decided to attend Oregon State University), known then as Oregon Agricultural College, to study agriculture.^[1][2] There he continued his fondness for leading in spirit by becoming OAC's yell king as well. He continued with his trademark moving card stunts, improving from the simple spelling of words to animated pictures, the most famous being the OAC Beaver squashing rival Oregon University's yellow 'O'.^[1]

The spirit with which he led the student section of OAC reached many people, including Notre Dame's head football coach Knute Rockne. Rockne was so impressed with Bothwell that he asked him to be an honorary cheerleader for the Fighting Irish in their upcoming 1925 Rose Bowl game with Stanford, a request that Bothwell was more than happy to agree to.^[1][3]