Burnley Grammar School

Hi Dave,
I went to a mixed school in the eighties and we just wore our shorts for PE and nothing else at all.We wore different colored shorts to identify us for our teams. It was a 'speech topic' among ourselves, but we were coerced to wearing just our shorts whether we objected or not.

Dave: Why should it be a 'speech topic' amongst boys about what they wear for PE? - let them get on with it.

Hi Dave, so in reply...
When did you go to schoo? 90s - 00s
Did you go to a boys only or a mixed school? Mixed
How did you play team sports everyone being shirtless? We wore coloured sashes
What did you have to wear outside? Activity dependent either white polo white shorts and bare feet or rugby shirt navy shorts and trainers
What was the boy's reaction having to be shirtless for PE ? No reaction we just took our shirts off. I think more were bothered by having to be barefoot in the gym.
Was it a speech topic amongst you? Sorry I don't understand the question

Hi Toby T!

You've written you wore only white shorts for PE. When did you go to schoo?Did you go to a boys only or a mixed school? How did you play team sports everyone being shirtless? What did you have to wear outside? What was the boy's reaction having to be shirtless for PE ? Was it a speech topic amongst you?

These lads seem to be wearing a similar kit to the one I wore which was plain white shorts and nothing else. No shirts, underpants, socks or plimsolls just shorts and bare feet for all indoor PE. Nice easy and simple.

No, it probably wasn't hygienic, especially if you were one of the last in!

I remember watching a documentary about amateur rugby in days gone by.

The former players commented on the baths, in constant use by all the different teams. The senior first team would use the baths first and get them hot, with seconds thirds etc down to younger players after to the point where they would be cold and muddy by the time the teenagers got in.

Unhygienic, but I wonder if it did them any harm.

Stuart, a couple of my friends went to schools where a PE teacher was discipline master. One said initially that his PE teacher had done only what was needed. Later on, he admitted that he had actually done his job enthusiastically. The other, who had been in secondary late '40s and early'50s, said his PE master had his canes out on his desk at 8:30am and that they were in constant use through the day. O tempora, o mores!

Thanks Drew. lt doesn't sound very hygienic!

From a quick search for Barnard Castle School, it looks as though they had space for a separate bathroom for each boy.

Turner,
Boys grammar school in the north of England in late 1960s / early 1970s.

Don't know about school communal baths, but in my youth our school went to compete against Barnard Castle school in County Durham. Instead of the showers we expecting, there was a room filled with 20+ individual bath tubs! We were all taken aback at such opulence!

Drew

I had never heard of a communal bath in a school. Could you tell us what years that was and perhaps what type of school/location?

On the subject of the length of shorts, I understood that long shorts were introduced when Rupert Murdoch wished to broadcast the Premier League to Muslim-majority countries where the sight of bare male thigh was not permitted - or is that a canard?

Copying out the school rules was the punishment used at my school for more serious offences.

As for communal baths, you hear of them at rugby and football clubs In days gone by but I’d not heard of them in schools. All a thing of the past now due to risk of the spread of infection anyway.

As for the fashion for shorts, pre WWII they started out longer and got shorter in the 60s before going longer again in the mid 90s.

We may see a return to shorter shorts at some point but fashion has moved from Jocks to compression shorts and I’m not sure that’ll reverse.

I find the Umbro shorts from the 80s very comfortable and have purchased a few pairs off eBay.

Andrea, yes her brother wore one for PE, so she had seen it on the washing line.
With regard to corporal punishment, only the headteacher used a cane at our school. The main occasions would be when someone was caught smoking and a list of names were read out in morning assembly for boys who were to report to his office. Thankfully I was never on the list. Our PE teacher would sometimes resort to using a plimsoll as a punishment, but other than that the usual punishments were detentions, and copying out lines from a sheet or writing a 100 word essay . In addition to teachers, prefects were allowed to had out 'words' or essays as a punishment.

On another topic, others have mentioned compulsory showers. We had to shower after indoor PE, but the games changing room had a large communal bath that we had to use. OK for the first few in, but not so for the last few, particularly after a muddy cross-country run.

On the subject of the cane, in my school (all boys) each teacher had his own cane and administered the punishment., which was done in front of the class, on the hand. I never saw anyone be made to "bend over". However, the cane was very rarely used. The normal punishments were having to write out lines, or detention after school. the problem with the latter was that your parents would know you were late home from school and want to know why.
Then you got a further punishment.
Only once did a boy receive corporal punishment in PE and that was done by the PE teacher. For some reason one of the lads had his underpants on under his shorts. A BIG mistake!! He had to return to the changing room remove the pants knowing that when he returned he would get the slipper. To add insult to injury, he was whacked with his own plimsoll.

Fortunately the cane had been withdrawn before my experience.

While I believe in harsh discipline and tough PE lessons I think the cane is generally counterproductive and while on the subject, using exercise (Press ups, laps, etc) as punishment can fix a psychological link in children’s minds which puts them off exercise.

Did anyone ever get called from a PE lesson to the Head's office to be caned.

Happened to boys in my class a couple of times. They returned 10 mins later having been caned, often upset. We wore just shorts, no top, bare feet, no pants, so that's what they had been caned in.

At the end of the lesson they had to shower as normal, so welts on full view..

Drew, I guess that mums know when not to ask questions!
I hadn't seen or even heard about jockstraps until my Ex-husband's appeared in the wash soon after we got married. Do you know whether your wife knew about them before you were married?

Football shorts have certainly become longer over the decades; the ones my son wore at secondary school were much longer than the one's my Ex used to wear when playing football.

Martin you are right how fashion dictates. In 1966 the fashion for football shorts was quite short as worn by the England team and that was what was worn by the majority. Nowadays people pay a lot of money just to wear the latest kit of the team they support, and it is a lot of money.

Drew, I was a boarder and so was able to get our jockstraps washed and dried at school, mind you some boys were pretty complacent in putting stuff in the laundry and I remember that jock itch was rife at my school!

I still wear a jockstrap for exercise even today. Nowadays there is a wide choice of jockstrap, and who knows they may come back into vogue. Just takes one boy to take the lead and the rest will follow like sheep. How fashion dictates.

Martin,
Were you able to get your jockstraps washed and dried at school, or did you have to keep wearing them without getting them washed?

I did eventually buy myself one when I was about 18 and continue to wear them for exercise to this day.
I was still living with my parents at the time, but thankfully mum never commented about it when my Litesome appeared in the wash with the rest of my football kit for the first time!

On the subject of string vests and underpants, I never wore them, but I remember my dad wearing them in the early 1970s.

It is interesting to read comments about Litesomes and jockstraps. We were never advised by our pe teachers about these, or to wear any kind of "support"
They seemed to be talked about in the changing room towards the end of our school days, but too late and as far as I know, one ever wore one. Thinking about it we were not advised to wear anything for protection when we played cricket for the games period in the summer. It was some years later that I found out that we should have worn a cricket box for protection. If we had been advised to, it might have saved some "discomfort" over the year.

Hi Toby,
Very interesting comment about your experience in the 80ies which reminds me of my own time in secondary school. You mentioned a notice reminding boys to be shirtless which took me right back into the boys changing room at my school. There was a large notice on the walls with a drawing of a boy in shorts only reminding us to wear the correct kit which went somthing like this:
Correct PE Kit matters!
Boys wear PLAIN WHITE SHORTS.
Boys exercise BARE-CHESTED and in BARE-FEET at all times.
DO NOT ask to be allowed to wear a T-shirt.
DO NOT ask to be allowed to wear socks.
DO NOT ask to be allowed to wear shoes.
Stick to the rules!
I has stayed in my head all these years as I found it extremly unfair against us boys at the time although I would today think differently. Approval of the shirtless PE regime for boys probably started to diminish in the 80ies which made this kind of gentle reminder necessary.

Yes I agree with Martin that jockstraps were and probably still are the best. At school from age 15ish onwards most of us lads wore them for sports. I carried on after school too. Very comfortable bit of kit !
A message to Spelvin in the States or Canada (not sure which he said), were jockstraps part of kit for young lads in school and college? If so, like here have they fallen out of popularity and use?

Drew, like you l wish that 'Litesomes' appeared on the school's clothing list. Quite a few boys started wearing them but l didn't as l was embarrassed to broach the subject at home. Like you I didn't have any older brothers and my father never mentioned a jockstrap to me. Thankfully, a very good friend of mine at school persuaded me to buy some Litesomes, one with a pouch and a standard. I always kept them at school and never took them home. But l never regret the day l started to wear a jockstrap. Nothing beats them.

Jeff, I don't think that the 'Litesomes' actually appeared on the kit list, but were recommended by our teacher as we were getting changed after the first PE lesson of our third year. A few boys did appear with them for the next lesson, but as Michael says, some of us found it rather embarrassing to bring up subject at home. Not having any older brothers or a father who played sports, I fell into the latter category. Thankfully, after a few weeks a few boys started to wear trunks under their shorts so I followed suit.
In some ways it would have been better if Litesomes had been on a kit list as they would have been purchased along with the rest of the kit.

Barry - yes, my understanding is there is NO doing PE in underwear now, and certainly not as punishment.

Last time I saw the guidance around that it also said overly gendered PE kits should be avoided. So you could have boys in shorts and girls in 'skorts', but you couldn't have the girls in the more traditional 'gym skirt and knickers' kit they wore in my day (the 90s).

Hello Dave, Yes this was in England. I started boarding school in the September and just after my 9th birthday and remained until after my A levels. I have to be honest and say I didn't mind being made to strip to the waist to exercise, a couple of my roommate friends did and found it really tough for a few months before getting used to it. We kept it within the room so there was no teasing from those who thought they were "tougher" than others. I remember a large notice being permanently fixed by the dorm notice board reminding everyone the time of the 3 lap run, where to assemble and to be barechested each morning.

Thanks Toby for your answering.Yes, I could get an insight. Are you from England? You've written you started in 1985 ad left in 1995. I've heard grammar/secondary schools are from the age of 11-16 (18). Or was it a primary/grammar-secondary school connected?

To Spelvin. It is also the trend amongst some youngsters here in the U.K. Especially in the summer when the fellows have no shirts on