The internationally known Jesse White Tumbling Team has been thrilling audiences since 1959. Their acrobatic performances can frequently be seen during half-time shows for the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and Major League Baseball games. The team entertains at business and sporting events year-round, including colleges and universities nation-wide.

A number of the Jesse White Tumblers, beginning as young as 6 years old, are residents of Chicago's Cabrini Green and Henry Horner housing developments. Other members of the team are residents from 10 communities within the Chicago metropolitan area. Jesse White, founder and coach, created the team in 1959 to provide a recreational, athletic, educational and cultural enrichment experience for the team members. This is a juvenile delinquency prevention program that is designed to help youngsters grow tall and straight. The members are required to abide by Jesse White's strict rules, which include staying in school, maintaining a "C" average in academic coursework and staying away from gangs and drugs.

Since the team's inception, over 10,000 young men and women have benefited from the program. Jesse White's key to success is "tough love." He serves as coach, teacher, friend, mentor, confident and surrogate father to the members.

As heroes in the Chicago area, the Jesse White Tumbling Team have attracted national and international attention. Their fans can be found from Chicago area neighborhoods to the White House, Tokyo, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Bermuda, Jamaica and Canada.

They have appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show starring Jay Leno, Good Morning America, The Jenny Jones Show, Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club, CBS' How'd They Do That, as well as several performances on Nippon Television in Tokyo. The team has also been featured in commercials for Coca-Cola, Jewel Food Store, the Chicago White Sox and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. In addition, they have appeared in the movies Heaven is a Playground, Ferris Buehler's Day Off and performed stunts in the movie The Meteor Man starring Robert Townsend.

The Tumblers also performed during the 52nd and 53rd Presidential Inaugural Parades. Fifteen current and former members of the Team have toured with the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus as the Chicago Kidz. The tumblers have also toured and performed with the Harlem Globetrotters.

The Jesse White Tumbling Team makes over 1000 appearances each year.

The Jesse White Tumbling Team Organization consists of three components:

• The Tumbling Team
• The Training Program
• The Scholars Program