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Bud Light Daredevils


The Bud Light Daredevils were an American acrobatic basketball show that performed during the halftime of college and NBA basketball games from 1983 to 1998. The show combined gymnastics, trampoline, acrobatics, and basketball. The team was started by University of Mississippi cheerleaders Ty Cobb, Sam Martin, Robert Kirby, Tyler Hubbard, John White, and Ty Cobb's younger brother Guy Cobb.

In 1980, Ty Cobb, along with fellow cheerleaders Sam Martin, John White, and Jeff Hubbard (as Ole Miss Rebels mascot Colonel Reb) began performing ball handling skits and acrobatics which incorporated a mini-trampoline during the time-outs and half-time of Ole Miss basketball games. Using his previous trampoline and diving skills and the cheerleader's mini-trampoline, Ty Cobb, on a dare performed the first successful acrobatic "flip dunk" at the Ole Miss vs. Alabama basketball game in 1980 and received a standing ovation by Alabama fans. Ole Miss Head Basketball Coach Bob Weltlich, recognizing the group's potential to soften up an opposing team's crowd, began flying the foursome with the Ole Miss Basketball team to away games.

In 1980, Ty Cobb's fraternity brother and fellow Ole Miss cheerleader Walt Shinault was practicing stunts using a mini-trampoline in the yard of his apartment complex in Oxford when he fell and broke his neck. The fall left him a quadriplegic. After the accident the Southeastern Conference (SEC) banned the use of mini-trampolines by all cheerleaders at SEC games.

With the banning of the use of mini-trampolines by cheerleaders throughout the SEC, Ty Cobb began looking for other ways for the group to continue performing their developing halftime show. Working on a marketing class project which had asked that students create their own company, Ty Cobb created a company called "The Ole Miss Cheerleaders Half Time Show". He designed marketing brochures and advertising materials that he then sent to National Basketball Association (NBA) promotional directors as part of a direct marketing campaign. The concept worked as the promotional directors at many of the NBA teams were looking for new ways to increase attendance and contacted Ty to schedule the "Ole Miss Cheerleaders" to perform during the time outs and halftime of their home games. The first professional NBA performance by The Ole Miss Cheerleaders was for the San Antonio Spurs in 1980, followed by shows for the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks.


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