Quick answer: yes. Organised cheerleading in the United States began in the late 1800s as an all-male activity, performed by college men appointed to lead crowd chants at football games. Women were largely absent from cheerleading in its first few decades.
Why Cheerleading Started as a Men's Activity
In the era organised cheerleading began, American college sports culture - and college attendance generally - was dominated by men. Leading a football crowd was viewed as a visible, prestigious student role, similar in status to other student leadership positions of the time, which is part of why it was initially filled exclusively by men.
How Long This Lasted
For roughly the first few decades of organised cheerleading's history, from the late 1800s through the early 20th century, the activity remained overwhelmingly male. The University of Minnesota - where cheerleading is usually said to have started - first allowed women to cheer in 1923, and other colleges gradually followed, but women remained a minority for another two decades.
What Changed the Balance
The most significant shift toward women's participation is generally linked to the 1940s, when large numbers of male college students were away during the Second World War, opening space for women to take on cheerleading roles in far greater numbers. See When Did Women Start Cheerleading? for more detail on this shift and what followed it.
Why This Surprises People Today
Because cheerleading today, particularly in its sideline and school forms, is strongly associated with women, its all-male origins often come as a genuine surprise - a useful reminder that the sport's image has changed dramatically over more than a century of history.
A Note on Dates
Some early details vary slightly between sources. Where sources disagree, we give the most widely cited version and avoid false precision - the sources we used are listed below.
Sources: Cheerleading (Wikipedia); Being a Cheerleader - History of Cheerleading (Varsity)