Rick Chandler of Off the Bench posted a note on Friday about Phyllis from “The Office” being a former NFL cheerleader, citing a story from years ago on Deadspin.
The actress who plays Phyllis is named Phyllis Smith, and she’s got a fun piece of trivia: She’s a former cheerleader for The Buzzsaw That Is The Arizona St. Louis Cardinals. She was a dancer in the mid-80s, a cheerleader and burlesque performer, before she blew out her knee and became a receptionist for casting agencies. That ended up with her, by chance, being cast on “The Office” and becoming the most famous former Buzzsaw cheerleader we know.
Neither story featured any photographic evidence, so it was one of those things that boiled down to “huh”, and you prepared to move on from it with something to nudge people and say should The Office come up in conversation. Well, “pics or it didn’t happen” is now happy to take a back seat to “holy sh** that is phyllis from the office as an nfl cheerleader”.
The pic comes from St. Louis radio station Y98, who conducted an interview with the Bad Teacher star and delivered the goods. It’s a sort of heartwarming reminder of what cheerleaders used to be back in the day, when it was about dancing and having fun and not so much about doing that little hand waggle to move your pom pom while you squat in hot pants.
So with Mose Schrute turning out to be a prominent sports blogger and Phyllis having been a pro cheerleader, what’s next? Did Toby Flenderson compete in the ’96 Olympics? Was Bob Vance the original Ronald McDonald? Come on, out with it.
Edit: So the picture Y98 used is from Sports Illustrated from the long long ago. Thanks to Otto Man (with appropriate quotation marks) for pointing it out. Regardless, hey, she was supposedly a cheerleader, and if you didn’t read Deadspin like six years ago, consider it news.
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Don’t forget that Creed was a member of the ’60s rock band The Grass Roots either
I’d love to see some pictures of her as a burlesque performer.
That top photo is really supposed to be of her? Even though it looks nothing like her?
And it’s supposed to be from the mid-1980s, despite the 1960s hairdo, makeup, clothing, and photo discoloration? Really? I mean, really?
Crap, I ran out of question marks.
Yeah, I Googled “Cardinals Cheerleader 1960s” and look what came up:
[sportsillustrated.cnn.com]
You owe me some question marks.
@Otto, I read she was born in 1959. That pic has to be from the early 70′s when she was in her early 20′s.
Yeah, I Googled “Cardinals Cheerleader 1960s” and look what was the first image that came up.
You people owe me some question marks.
I keep getting stuck in moderation for providing links — Google “Cardinals cheerleader 1960s” and click on the first link.
That ain’t her.
I’m not saying she wasn’t a cheerleader for Cardinals, but that top photo is most definitely *not* her.
Again, I tried to add a link, but do a Google search and you’ll see the photo is shown in a Sports Illustrated gallery of “Cheerleaders of the 1960s.” If that’s not proof enough, the uncropped photo shows her in a old-timey pleated skirt and sweater set, which definitely wasn’t the style of NFL cheerleaders in the mid-1980s. (I was a teenage boy in the throes of puberty in the mid-1980s. Trust me on this.)
Hard to believe the Zoo Crew at radio station Y98 dropped the journalistic ball with that photo credit, but there you have it.
okay otto, jeez,
B-b-ut the make up, hair and clothing is still accurate for St. Louis today.
@Otto, I think you are right as my math is way off. She would have been in her early 20′s in the 80′s not the 70′s. As bad as some 80′s hair was that style is not from the 80′s.
/also a teenage boy in the throes of puberty in the mid-1980s
Sorry. Slow afternoon at work.
Del Jue solved the mystery, I think. The sleuths at Y98 must’ve assumed that was high fashion for St. Louis in the ’80s.
The nose seems to match, but the fat face makes it hard to tell for sure, if it’s her, she really let herself go, gawd damn!
Apparently, she was born in 1951, so this could be her after all, and the reporting that she was a cheerleader in the mid-1980s could be what was wrong.
Basically, this was time well spent for me.
so that’s what’s been hiding under that fat for all these years…
p.s: I really don’t see it
Toby is actually the executive producer, show-runner, and head writer of the whole damn show… mind = blown.
[nymag.com]
Confirmed. [www.slate.com]
It’s 13 months later and this article is at number 4! For some reason.