For Greensboro residents Nancy Simon and Bonnie Snider, the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in this year’s Super Bowl was extra special.
Simon and Snider met during the 1980 NFL season when they were both cheerleaders for the Eagles.
After the Eagles beat rival Dallas Cowboys in the final playoff to send the team to the Super Bowl for the first time, the Philadelphia Liberty Belles traveled with the team to the now-demolished Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans to cheer from the sidelines as the Eagles took on the Oakland Raiders.
The Superdome was wrapped in a yellow ribbon as part of pre-game ceremonies to honor the 40 American hostages held in Iran for more than a year who were released five days before the game. The Liberty Belles ran into the stadium wearing yellow ribbons to honor the hostages and danced their pre-game performance to “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.
While the Raiders ultimately beat the Eagles 27-10, Snider said the Eagles’ spirits still ran high as they finished a winning season and celebrated the hostages’ homecoming.
“The excitement of it all was really over the top,” she shared.
According to Simon, the fun and excitement of being an Eagles cheerleader didn’t end on the field.
The Liberty Belles were community ambassadors. They supported charity events with football players, helped local businesses draw attention to events, and starred in TV and radio promotions. The cheerleaders also participated in unique opportunities, like dancing at the opening of Philadelphia’s annual Thanksgiving parade.
“Gameday pay was a meager $20 per game, but the rewards were greater than money, and the jobs outside the gameday performances would pay $100 an hour or more,” Simon said.
She noted that one of the rewards was the ability to build long-lasting relationships. Many of the cheerleaders are still friends 44 years later as they devote time to charity work.
Simon said that around 1990, she initiated the idea to get alumni cheerleaders together to volunteer in the greater Philadelphia area. As alums, she and Snider worked for years with the Philadelphia NFL Alumni Chapter, raising money for charities such as the Jaws Youth Fund in New Jersey, Caring for Kids, the Ronald McDonald House, the Philadelphia Zoo, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Now living in the lake area, Simon and Snider are still members of the alumni chapter and continue to donate to charities and cheer on the Eagles.
This year, when the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl again in New Orleans, Simon and Snider cheered on the team by decorating a golf cart while playing a round at The Preserve Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee the Friday before the big game.
“My husband quipped, ‘Hey, make the most of it — the stars and planets won’t line up like this again with your team playing in New Orleans at the Super Bowl,’” Simon said.
So, she and Snider decorated the cart with an Eagles balloon and pompoms and wore green, with Preserve’s putting greens and staff members’ green shirts “playing into the theme, too.”
Snider said repping the Eagles at Lake Oconee also supported the six former Georgia Bulldogs on the Eagles team this year — Nolan Smith Jr., Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Kelee Ringo, Lewis Cine, and Nakobe Dean — who were all on Georgia’s defense in 2021 when the team won the national championship.
“We had a lot of local support for the Eagles to win. Enthusiasm for the Dawgs runs very high around here,” Snider acknowledged.
She and Simon credited their connection with other alumni cheerleaders with being key to celebrating the Eagles’ win in Georgia.
“I couldn’t be happier to see the Eagles win this one,” Snider said. “[As part of the alumni chapter,] we are connected with women who cheered for the Eagles beginning in the ‘60s, all the way through to those who just retired. This organization helps keep the enthusiasm for our team going. Even if we are now miles away in Georgia, we still feel like we are part of the team. ‘Fly, Eagles, Fly … E-A-G-L-E-S! EAGLES!’”