Early Foundations

In the 1940s and 1950s, NFL teams did not maintain dedicated entertainment squads. Halftime programming was typically provided by:

Local high school or college marching bands
Military bands
Civic performance groups

Many of these organizations included majorettes or baton twirlers. In cities like Green Bay and Chicago, team-affiliated or community bands performed regularly, bringing established baton traditions into professional stadiums.

The Green Bay Packers, for example, maintained a team band for decades, and majorettes appeared as part of those performances. Similarly, the Chicago Bears regularly featured halftime entertainment built around marching ensembles.

The “Ramettes” were part of an early era of entertainment associated with the Los Angeles Rams, when professional football halftime shows often featured majorettes, marching bands, and baton twirlers rather than modern dance squads. In 1947, Marion Caster was hired as a Rams majorette alongside Barbara Schmidt Chrestman and Jo Ellen Weitzel. The trio performed at the team’s home games and, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, earned $35 per game. Their appearances helped bring Hollywood-style pageantry and precision performance to the NFL during the league’s early years in Los Angeles. Marion later became a California cultural icon and is widely believed to have inspired the famous neon majorette sign installed near San Diego State University in 1948.

Later coverage involving talented twirlers such as Alice Williams also revealed how these highly visible majorette roles could intersect with racial barriers during the 1950s.

Additional Ramettes we’ve come across include Linda Gorham and Beverly J. Lee (nee Blanchard), also active in the 1950s. 

In addition, Robyn Sharp, Sharp International, also served as a majorette for the Rams sometime during the 1970s. She may have also twirled for the Los Angeles Lakers. (Source: Sharp International)

Also, Candace Starr, who graduated high school in the early 1980s, was reportedly a majorette for the Rams. 

Green Bay Packers

The Packers had baton-twirling roots through the Lumberjack Band and later the Golden Girls. The Packers’ website confirms Mary Jane Sorgel (nee Van Nuyse) was a baton twirler and majorette for the Packers Lumberjack Band beginning in 1951. Later, she organized the Golden Girls squad.

According to a March 2025 report in the Press Times (Green Bay, Wisconsin), the first majorette for the Packers was Carol Jean Collard. She twirled for the team for 12 years. Other majorettes mentioned in the story include Germaine Pirlot, Shirley Schwaller, Marge Lambert, Rosemary Schwebs, Phyllis Kessler, Bernadine Boyere, Beth Gale, Pat Lison, Dolores Vander Loop, LaVona Lefebvre, Sharrell Wadzinski, Jane Sibilsky, Pat Parins, Susie Nelson, Donna Weckler and Shirley Remich, daughter of band drummer Walter Remich. All of these individuals came before Sorgel.

LeeAnn Christiansen followed Sorgel.  

***

DeDe Nagan Yankoski (1932-2019) was a baton twirler and drum majorette for the Packers. 

This section will be updated as additional information is provided or discovered. 

The Golden Era: The Heart of Wisconsin Sidelines 

The Golden Era: The Heart of Wisconsin Sidelines explores a nearly forgotten chapter of Midwestern sports culture, when baton twirlers, majorettes, marching bands, and spirited sideline performers were central to the game-day experience across Wisconsin. Through rare photographs, personal stories, and historical research, the book captures the pageantry and community traditions that once defined football Saturdays and Sundays long before modern entertainment took over the sidelines. From small-town parades to the early days of professional football, The Golden Era preserves the people, performances, and traditions that helped shape Wisconsin’s rich sports heritage.

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers once featured majorettes and baton twirlers as part of the early NFL tradition of marching bands, sideline pageantry, and halftime entertainment. During the 1950s and early 1960s, performers at Kezar Stadium helped create a collegiate-style football atmosphere rooted in parade and community traditions. One of the most notable figures connected to this era was champion baton twirler Diane Shelton, who at age 15 became the first “Pirate Girl” for the rival Oakland Raiders in 1961. Her role marked the beginning of the Raiderettes and reflected the strong presence of majorette culture in early professional football across the Bay Area.

San Francisco 49ers

Laura Caldwell Lanthier (1948-2021)
Deanna Cope
Arlette Genevieve Smith (1940–2017):
Teresa Raquel Bangert (1931-2004):
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