DCC Alumni Spotlight – Dawn Broadus Smith

I had the honor of interviewing and getting to know Dawn Broadus Smith! Dawn cheered for two years, 1986 to 1988. Dawn was a small town girl with a big city dream! Originally from Mississippi, Dawn dreamt of becoming a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader after visiting her older sister in Dallas. She grew up loving to dance and perform, but knew she would have to learn a lot along the way. When Dawn showed up to the audition, she said that there were over 2,000 women there! Instead of getting nervous, she looked around and realized, “those aren’t dancer legs, those aren’t dancer legs…” Dawn believed in her talents, her passion, and her drive! It certainly paid off, because not only did Dawn make the team, but she made Show Group her rookie year!

Along Dawn’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader journey, she met her life long best friend, Julee! She met Julee on DCC and they grew closer through the extra hours of show group rehearsals. Through practices, performances, and a million of laughs – the two of them became “very, very close – like sisters,” Dawn explained. To this day, Dawn and Julee chat on the phone every night! And they have a weekly Tuesday Night Zoom with 3 of their other DCC besties! Dawn said, “It’s such a special sisterhood and these are memories made together that you will remember, share and laugh about for the rest of your lives! I’m literally serious about that because we all retired 32 years ago. That’s crazy to even say out loud but since then we have shared in each others lives, weddings, kids, vacations, DCC reunions…it’s just so so special.”

I loved hearing about Dawn’s family, her DCC journey, her post DCC life, and everything in between. As Dawn shared hilarious stories and beautiful memories, she also told me about, “sniglets”! Dawn explained that sniglets are two words pushed together to describe something that could only be understood by Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. They are too good! Here are a few examples: “1. Hasheleration – Accelerating at an impossible speed while moving from one hash to the next on the field. 2. Stadiastrophy – Dancing so hard at a game in the stadium that you almost have a catastrophic fall or crash. 3. Squobia – Fear of the squares of your sheer energy pantyhose reinforcement panel sliding out of the bottom of your hotpants while performing in colder weather. This would require a trip to the wall to try to “scootch” the square back up.” While we no longer wear Sheer Energy pantyhose, I did realize that there are many parallels between Dawn’s DCC experience and my own. We discussed our journey out of state to Dallas to pursue a dream. We made plans to go on “double dates” with our DCC besties. And we shared hilarious locker room stories, practice shenanigans, and the things that can only be understood in “DCC Land”.

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