By Lauren Bishop
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Fran Nordman of Mount Airy was an original Ben-Gal in 1969. The Cincinnati Enquirer/BRANDI STAFFORD

Picture this: It's 1969. A new American Football League team called the Cincinnati Bengals plays home games at Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati. And cheering them on are the very first group of Ben-Gals, wearing tiger suits with tails, ears and white go-go boots.

Don't believe it? Ask Fran Nordman of Mount Airy. At age 25, she was one of the original Ben-Gals, and she has the pictures to prove it.

"It was like putting on a bathing suit and zipping it up," she says of the outfits. "It was so embarrassing I could have died."

The Ben-Gals - not to mention the Bengals - have changed a lot since those days. Those attending Saturday's tryouts for this season's 28-member squad won't have to hop on a scale, submit to measurements of certain body parts or don costumes that look like something out of Josie and the Pussycats.

PHOTO GALLERY

Ben-Gals through the years

Even with such stiff requirements, though, former Ben-Gals say they wouldn't trade the experience for anything - and that it's given their professional careers a boost to boot.

Ben-Gals have always had to be either students or employed. A former cheerleader at Dayton High School in Northern Kentucky, Nordman was a surgical dental assistant for an oral surgeon, and went to her first tryout wearing her nursing uniform.

Despite her beef with the cheerleading uniform, she says her year-long stint on the squad was tough, but fun, and boosted her self-confidence.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Number of Ben-Gals, 2004: 28 • Number of Ben-Gals, 1969: 7 • Average payment per Ben-Gal per game, 2004: $50 • Average payment per Ben-Gal per game, 1969: $10 • Minimum Ben-Gal age: 20 • Maximum number of miles Ben-Gals can live from Paul Brown Stadium: 40 • Number of hours a week Ben-Gals spend in practice: 5-9 • Number of years of average Ben-Gal stint: 6 Sources: Fran Nordman, Charlotte Jacobs, bengals.com

WANNA BE A BEN-GAL?

Think you've got what it takes to be a Ben-Gal? Here's what you need to know: • Candidates must be at least 20 years old and must either be a student or employed. Cheerleaders participate in all home games and do charity work throughout the year. • Tryouts begin with an optional, but recommended, workshop at noon Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium. Those interested in trying out must call squad coordinator Charlotte Jacobs at (513) 621-3550 to register and request a packet of information. There is a $30 fee for the workshop, but there is no fee to try out. • Preliminary competitions take place May 1 and May 15. Semifinals take place May 17 and finals are May 23.

"If I were younger, I'd do it again," she says.

Stacy Hertenstein of Glendale was 24 and working for Procter & Gamble in 1994 when she tried out for the squad. A dancer since age 3 and new to Cincinnati, she says she was hoping to meet new people and get back into dance.

"It was really so much more than I ever hoped it would be," she says. "It was quite an exhilarating experience to be on the field during the game, and to meet the other ladies on the squad. I formed friendships that I will have forever here."

She stresses that all the women were - and are - young professionals or students who cheered as a sidelight, with charity work as a requirement of their Ben-Gal stints.

"It's like having a second full-time job," she says.

Hertenstein was a Ben-Gal for five years, part of that as captain. Her involvement with the Ben-Gals, she says, carried over to her corporate job by boosting her confidence and teaching her how to handle different personalities and situations. She's now an assistant coach, in addition to her job as a perfumer at P&G.

Other former Ben-Gals echo those sentiments. Mary Daniels, a Milford resident who cheered as a Ben-Gal from 1991 to 1997, says she used to be shy about getting in front of a crowd.

She remembers walking with a friend into their first tryout when she was 24 and working at Cincinnati Financial Corp.

Out of 350 candidates, she remembers about "340 were tall, blonde bombshells." She's a short brunette, and she and her friend wondered what they were doing there. Still, Daniels ended up making the squad.

'I was so excited'

"I was just elated. I was so excited," she says. "I couldn't stop jumping up and down when I got that letter in the mail. It didn't feel real to me."

Daniels, who is also an assistant coach of the squad, said her time as a cheerleader gave her the confidence to speak in front of people. She still works at Cincinnati Financial Corp., is also a real estate agent and runs an Internet business.

Julie Raleigh, who now lives in the San Francisco area, credits the charity work she does to her Ben-Gals experience.

Raleigh founded the Diablo Valley Women's League and plans fund-raisers for groups including the Okizu Foundation, which runs a camp for children who are cancer patients and their families. They've raised $700,000 for the foundation in the past seven years, she says.

Back in 1985, Raleigh was a 20-year-old nursing student at the University of Cincinnati when she went up against 500 other women at her first Ben-Gals tryout.

It was a fabulous three years, she says, in which she made great friends and met former Bengals greats such as Ken Anderson and Cris Collinsworth. Raleigh said they're not supposed to say who was involved in any dating between Bengals and Ben-Gals, "but we did some of that, too," she says.

Raleigh admits the experience wasn't always fabulous for some of her Ben-Gals colleagues. All of them were weighed every Tuesday, and if they weren't within three pounds of their target weight, they had to sit out a game while an alternate took their place, Raleigh says. That practice drove a few women to develop eating disorders, she says.

The days of measuring are over, assistant coach Daniels says. They do weigh the women who make the squad twice a week, taking each body type into consideration, she says. She and squad coordinator Charlotte Jacobs say the Ben-Gals are expected to stay in shape with regular exercise.

"We just want to make sure they look good in their uniforms," Daniels says.

Battling stereotype

Jacobs, a former Ben-Gal and the squad coordinator for the past 10 years, says she's worked hard to battle the cheerleader stereotype, improve the Ben-Gals' dance routines and scope of their charity work, and raise their profile in Cincinnati and nationwide.

Last year, she worked with a photographer to produce the Ben-Gals' first calendar and took some members of the squad on their first overseas USO tour.

With the Bengals' improved 2003 season, Jacobs expects this Saturday's tryouts will attract even more talented hopefuls than in recent seasons.

"We have some great, professional, intelligent ladies here," says Jacobs, herself a major account sales executive for Pitney Bowes. "That's part of what continues to challenge me. I'd love to keep that fire going."

E-mail lbishop@enquirer.com