India, March 23 -- Jeff Webb, the Texas businessman who transformed cheerleading into a multibillion-dollar industry and served as an early mentor to conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died at the age of 76 after suffering a serious head injury in a freak pickleball accident, Cheer Daily reported.

Jeff Webb was widely known as the 'father of modern cheerleading'. At just 24, he started a company in 1974 that later became Varsity Spirit, running it from his apartment in the early days. Over time, he changed cheerleading from a simple school activity into a huge, billion-dollar industry in the United States.

He created training camps where teams learned routines, competitions where they performed and organizations that made the rules....