Physical education teacher and drill team coach Gussie Davis from Texas has been credited with creating a “living art form.” Photo credit: Kilgore College Rangerettes
Every once in awhile I come across the story of a pioneering teacher that I feel I simply must share. One of them is Gussie Nell Davis, a physical education teacher and drill team coach from Texas who is credited for creating a “living art form.”
Gussie was born in Farmersville, Texas, on Nov. 4 1906. As a child she was trained to be a concert pianist. However, after she began her education at the College of Industrial Arts, now known as Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, she changed her major to physical education. Later she earned a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California.
Gussie inaugurated her career as an educator at Greenville High School in Greenville, Texas, in 1928. There she worked as a physical education teacher and pep squad direction. During her tenure there, she developed the first “dancing” pep squad in 1929.
Because of her success at Greenville, Gussie was hired to develop a similar program at Kilgore College in 1939. She developed a dancing drill team known as the Kilgore College Rangerettes, and established a performance genre that has served as a model for drill teams around the nation.
During Gussie’s 40 years as Director of the Rangerettes, her team traveled all over the country and internationally, representing Texas and the United States in South America, the Far East, Europe, and elsewhere around the world. The Rangerettes have been featured at numerous football bowl games across the nation, on national television, in movies, and on hundreds of magazine covers.
For this trailblazing work, Gussie earned many honors. She was named Honorary Citizen of Fort Worth in 1965. She received the International Citizen Citizenship Award in 1969, the Cotton Bowl Association 25th Anniversary Participation Award in 1974, a State of Texas House of Representatives Certificate of Citation, and a Distinguished Alumnae of Texas Woman’s University in 1978. She was also inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1996 she was named posthumously to the TDDTEA Texas Drill Team Hall of Fame, and in 1999, she was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame. Kilgore College named the Rangerette Residence on their campus in her honor.
Gussie Nell Davis retired in 1979. She passed away Dec. 20, 1993, from respiratory complications. She was interred in Farmersville Cemetery in Texas.
To learn more about this trailblazing educator and coach, click on this link to the Kilgore College Rangerettes.
