The first woman will be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame. Here's why she earned it.
FOXBORO, Mass. — Tracy Sormanti was exhausted so she needed to pull over.
After another grueling chemotherapy treatment sapped her energy, she needed to close her eyes for a few moments before restarting the ignition.
It was difficult for Sormanti to slow down. Even in the final months of her life, which ended Dec. 4 at the age of 58 after an extended battle with cancer, this extraordinary woman kept going. When the cancer in her body made her feel ill, it was nearly impossible to get this wonder woman to stop moving. Not when she had work to do.
That meant traveling to Boston to get treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and then going back to her Gillette Stadium office. For three years, Sormanti battled multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells. The way she worked, people didn’t notice. That’s how dedicated Sormanti was to the Patriots organization as the team's cheerleading director for 27 years.
On Saturday, the Providence, Rhode Island native will become the first woman inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.
“She literally worked to the very, very end to the point where she just physically couldn't get into work,” said her brother, Timothy Madden. “I’ll tell you, she worked even at times when she would have to pull over and sleep on the side of the road because she was so sick … but she just loved that job so much.”
“It was incredible to watch," said Patriots cheerleading manager Jenn Sullivan. "She would have treatments all day long and then she would go to practice all night. You honestly would have never even known that she was sick because she just was so positive.”
Her time with the Patriots was extraordinary
You might think you have an idea of what a cheerleading director does but you have no clue what Sormanti did for the Patriots.
She redefined what it meant to be a Patriots cheerleader. She developed the boot camp audition process. She choreographed the routines, set up calendar shoots, made wardrobe choices and mentored everyone in her circle. She taught her cheerleaders about the game of football and Patriots team history. She taught them public speaking. Even the Patriots mascot fell under her direction.
Looking back: Patriots cheerleading director Sormanti dies at 58
Her family estimated that she took off just a dozen days a year.
“She really created the Patriots Cheerleaders program and the foundation for what it's grown into today with all of our appearances in the community and what we do on the sidelines,” Sullivan said. “It really was just in honor to work with her. She was an incredible boss, but also a really great mentor. This was my first job when I graduated college, so she really helped me grow as a person both professionally and personally.”
Then there was her work with the military. After 9/11, Sormanti traveled the globe with a group of Patriots cheerleaders to put on shows for U.S. troops serving overseas. She visited 30 countries representing the NFL and the Patriots.
In 2005, Sormanti brought members of the cheerleading squad to bases in Germany, Turkey, Iceland and Southwest Asia. In 2009, she spent Thanksgiving with soldiers stationed at the Contingency Operating Base in Basra, Iraq. That was her fourth military tour that year.
Those visits led to extraordinary stories. On July 11, 2002, Sormanti was in a military plane that took off and landed on an aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy. On May 16, 2008, she flew in an F-16 Viper out of the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Westworth Village, Texas. While in the air, the plane hit 9 G’s. That translates to 900 pounds of pressure on your body.
“For a 115-pound girl to hit 9 G's, that's like an elephant lying on your chest,” said Sormanti’s longtime companion, Dennis Brolin. “She had no fear whatsoever but she did a lot of great things.”
That included her work with children.
Sormanti created the Patriots Junior Cheerleaders program, which collaborated with Dana Farber and raised more than $400,000 toward cancer research. If she heard about a student cheerleader with cancer, she’d be at their bedside in the hospital.
In 2013, she traveled to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to see cheerleader Alexis Morel’s first game after the 16-year-old had lost her left leg because of bone cancer.
That was before her own diagnosis.
“She did a lot of things that were not in the public eye,” Brolin said. “I don't know how many times we went to see girls that were junior cheerleaders that were fighting cancer.”
She was the life of the party
Born in Providence, Sormanti grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island, attending Veterans High School and later Johnson & Wales University.
A cheerleader, she was a pint-size spitfire. If there was a party, she was the main attraction. If there was a dinner, she was the star of the show.
She was a people person and beloved older sister to her younger brother, Timothy Madden.
“Well before the Patriots, she was always the shining star in the room,” Madden said. “People were always drawn to her — the life of the party, always the one holding court and having conversations with people. She always had so much interest in what other people had to say. She was able to impact people or touch them in some way that they felt comfortable and felt valued.
“So, she made people feel very good about themselves. And to have that as a big sister was awesome because, you know, she was always the coolest kid around; and to be her dopey little brother, it was pretty great.”
In 1983, at age 19, Sormanti became the youngest woman on the Patriots' cheerleading squad. She spent two separate stints in that role in 1983-1984 and 1991-1993. She represented the Patriots at the 1993 Pro Bowl. After Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994, Sormanti was one of his first hires as the team's cheerleading director.
She lived and breathed her job, but outside of work, she had an affinity for animals, especially her cats. Sormanti was also a second-degree black belt in karate.
While delivering his sister’s eulogy, Madden said she had three loves in her life: "Denny" Brolin, her cats and the Patriots.
“Her whole being is defined by those three things,” Madden said. “Everyone in their own way wants to make an impact, but I think Tracy really left behind a legacy.”
'She was perfection'
Brolin remembers arriving home at about 7 p.m. one evening and the house was empty. He was surprised when he realized Sormanti was not there since she had had a chemotherapy treatment that day at 2 p.m., so he called to see where she was.
“I'm like, ‘Are you coming home?’ and she's like, ‘I got a couple of more things to do," Brolin said. “I was like, 'A couple of more things to do? What are you doing? You went to treatment today?’ ”
Instead of going home, Sormanti had gone back to her cheerleading office. She worked until 11 that night. Brolin didn’t completely comprehend what his partner was doing until a week before she died, Sormanti handed him a folder.
She told him, “This is everything.”
Sormanti had all the events following her death planned — what was going to her family, gravestone information, funeral arrangements, etc. For Sullivan, it had been similar. When she had taken over direction of the Patriots' cheerleaders, Sormanti had left her files from previous seasons with information about everything — auditions, rehearsals, promotions, tryouts, potential trips, calendar shoots and more.
“She had everything planned,” Brolin said. “She had who was going to talk, who was going to do a eulogy, who's going to sing. She had everything right down. She left the same way she ran her life and she ran her team to the T, to perfection.
“She was perfection.”
Sormanti will be remembered in the Patriots Hall
When Madden picked up the phone one day this summer, he was surprised to hear Robert Kraft’s voice. The Patriots owner had called to let him know that his sister was going to be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.
The announcement: Former Patriots cheer director, RI native Tracy Sormanti to become first woman inducted into Patriots Hall of Fame
On Saturday, she'll be inducted along with with defensive lineman Richard Seymour and become the third contributor, joining Patriots founder Billy Sullivan (inducted in 2009) and broadcaster Gil Santos (2013) selected by the Kraft family.
“I was blown away,” Madden said. “To say we’re proud would be an understatement. We're really just over the moon and it's just incomprehensible.”
“She loved this organization so much,” Sullivan said. “The Patriots cheerleaders — that's her team and to just see her being honored this way, it really is just so special. It's honestly hard to even put into words because she just had so much dedication for this team.”
If you head into the Patriots Hall of Fame, you'll encounter a display set up in honor of Sormanti. You’ll see the first cheerleading uniform she wore in 1983 — it’s red, white and blue and looks like something Wonder Woman might have worn in the 1980s. Also on display are the jumpsuit she wore when she flew in that fighter jet and a bedazzled Patriots jersey with her name on it.
It’s a small snapshot into the life of a courageous, hard-working woman — one who will be remembered among the New England Patriots' greats.
“It's an incredible honor for her,” Brolin said. “She was the hardest-working person I knew. She was so proud of her position. She was obviously the best ambassador the Patriots ever had. She gave her life and soul to that place.”