Retro Fair Haven Tigers Cheer! — Rumson-Fair Haven Retrospect

Fair Haven Tigers cheerleaders circa 1973 or '74 Photo/courtesy of Karen Memmot Hooten — Fair Haven Tigers cheerleaders circa 1973 or ’74
Photo/courtesy of Karen Memmot Hooten

A reprise of a cheery Retro Pic of the Day, originally posted in September of 2016, in honor of the spirit of football for the pint-and-a-half sized of the Rumson-Fair Haven area …

Can we have a retro cheer for the football season of a pandemic kind ahead?

The year was 1973 (maybe ’74). The cheerleaders were cheering for the Fair Haven Tigers — Pop Warner. It wasn’t the Knights back then.

The Tigers played on the RFH field and their gear, as was the cheerleaders, was aptly orange and black.

Karen Memmot Hooten sent this Retro Pic of the Day of the the girls who she said knew absolutely nothing about football, but could do a mad good cheer! “We didn’t know half the time which cheers we should be calling,” she joked.

The Tigers’ cheerleaders donned hand-me-down, hand-sewn uniforms funded by bake sales and nothing else. Turtle necks, knee socks and saddle shoes were supplied by the girls’ parents and they made their own pom-poms for the shoes. The budget back in the day was a very small one.

Mrs. Eelman and Mrs. Butler were the cheer coaches. And, yes, Jo Butler Heath, still a Fair Havenite, was one of the cheerleaders and is in this pic. Can you find her?

Recognize anyone else? A lot of these girls are still in the area. You’d be likely to run into a couple or more of them at the Acme now and then.

Goooooo Tigers!

— Elaine Van Develde