A man who started an empire through cheerleading competitions died.

Jeff Webb was 76 years old.

The New York Times said Webb “transformed cheerleading from a sideline school-spirit activity into a multibillion-dollar industry” thanks to Varsity Spirit, a company he founded in 1974.

The company announced his death on social media but did not provide how or where he died.

The International Cheer Union, which he also founded, told the Times by email that Webb “suffered a tragic accident resulting in a severe head injury.”

On Facebook, the organization said he died “following complications after an accident.”

NBC News said he was a conservative activist and a mentor to Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

TPUSA said in a statement on X that Webb was “A visionary who helped shape generations of young leaders and believed deeply in the power of community and country,” and that “He will be greatly missed.”

Webb was among those at the White House when Kirk was posthumously given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He said that when Kirk was killed, “We may have lost a future president,” The Independent reported.

Born in 1949 and raised in Dallas, Texas, the entrepreneur got his start in cheerleading in high school and was a yell leader at the University of Oklahoma.

He worked for the National Cheerleaders Association under the “grandfather of modern cheerleading, Lawrence Herkimer, while still in college, and eventually worked for the group full-time instead of going to law school, The Independent and the Times reported.

He eventually became the head instructor at the NCA’s largest camps and at 23, the general manager.

Webb started the Universal Cheerleaders Association, and because of him and the innovations he developed, the country has competitive cheerleading as it is now, the Times reported.

He ran camps where cheerleaders learned routines, he started the competitions where those routines were performed, and he even set the groups that made the rules, according to the newspaper. Webb’s companies even sold the uniforms and pompoms the cheerleaders used.

Varsity Spirit was sold to private equity in 2014 for $1.5 billion and he left the company six years later.

Webb’s plane was nicknamed “Cheer Force One” and he was often called “John D. Rockefeller with glitter” because of his control over the cheerleading industry.

Because of his influence, Webb and the International Cheer Union had been pushing to make cheerleading an Olympic sport. A decade ago, the International Olympic Committee gave it provisional recognition, which Webb called “the culmination of my life’s work.”

Webb leaves behind his wife, two children, his brother, his sister and two grandchildren, the Times reported.

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