Burnley Grammar School

Hi , interesting comments from both of you , I think it must have been down to school policy or the head of sports as to what underwear boys should or should not wear.
My school was a mixture of day and boarding and it was a boarder who I first watched wearing a supporter.

Strangely, like William, I can't remember anyone at my boys' grammar school in the 60s wearing jockstraps either. Could it be a demographic/cultural thing?

I went to a State High School in the 60s. Most boys by the time that we reached the 6th form wore a jockstrap for PE and games. Yes they were Litesome jockstraps. I remember two of us going to the local sports shop to buy them for the first time. We felt very grown up at the time. Afterwards it just became quite normal to wear them. The sports teaching staff encouraged us to wear them, particularly as we eventually realised that they wore them too. In my view it is a great pity that jockstraps are no longer in vogue.

Jon and Dave

I wonder exactly when you were at school. At a boys' grammar school in the '60s I never saw or heard of jock straps. We never wore anything under our shorts, not for gym, athletics, rugby or hockey. In retrospect, jock straps would have been welcome in the sixth form.

And on the thread in December, no-one tried to get round the "no pants" rule. I made the mistake of wearing pants at my first gym lesson - I was absent for the "no pants" order - and was screamed at by the master when we stripped for the showers. It made an indelible impression on me and probably on everyone else.

Dave
Yes very similar experience. I went to a public school in Hertfordshire. I was a boarder and would say that we practically all had jockstraps (athletic supporters) by the time we'd reached sixth form, whereas the day boys weren't so enthusiastic. Don't know why that was really. Perhaps boarders were more inclined to follow the lead boy for fear of being seen out of line/ fashion. I only ever geall remember there being Litesome jockstraps with or without pouches (with for sport like cricket to carry a box). Most boys had both types.

Hi Andrea and Jon , after I had seen the other boy wearing his jockstrap I wanted one so went on my own to a local sports shop and bought an athletic supporter as they were called along with a new running vest and shorts. I remember being very excited and rushed home to try them on , it did take some time and nerve to wear them at school for the first time. My games master did comment that it was good to see I was wearing proper athletic`s kit !!
Jon I went to a public school here in Somerset.

Hi Dave,
If my memory is correct, I think my Ex said their PE teacher advised all the boys to purchase a 'Litesome Supporter' when they started their 3rd year at secondary school (so aged about 13). Before that they weren't allowed anything under their shorts.

He got his dad to go with him to buy one; did you do the same or did you buy it yourself?

Dave

Like experience ... at the age of 14 we started to invest in a jockstrap once one boy had bought one. Which school were you at?

Dave

Like experience ... at the age of 14 we started to invest in a jockstrap once one boy had bought one. Which school were you at?

Hi,I have been reading the comments here and most of them ring true to my time at school. We were not allowed to wear underwear at all under our white pe shorts up to 14 when most of us started wearing tight pants or swimming trunks under the shorts for support. When I was 16 I saw a lad putting on a jockstrap before a cross country race and by that weekend I had my first litesome jockstrap, one or two of my friends also got one and the small athletic shorts which were the fashion in the late 70`s early 80`s.

The spirit of the 1959 Burnley Grammar photo is alive and well in the form of Olympian gymnast Nile Wilson.Check out his You Tube videos,Ultimate Gymnast Challenge.

I agree that single sex primary schools were rare although in secondary schools they were common both in the private and state school sectors.

Hi Ben,

Personally I didn't find it embarrassing as I was still totally flat-chested when I left primary school. Also, like many of the girls, I became adept at putting on my PE shorts before removing my skirt!
I think some of the early developers did start to feel self-conscious about their bodies, not helped some of the boys making comments. Did that happen in your school too?

Certainly in earlier years a few pupils of both sexes did PE in their vest and pants if they forgot their PE kit, but I don't recall it happening in the final year.

Andrea, did you or any of the other girls feel embarrassed stripping and changing for PE in front of the boys in class?

Also was there some sort of punishment if you forgot your PE kit, like making you do PE in just underpants which seems to have been common in some schools?

Hi Ben,

A follow up question - had any of the budding girls actually started to wear bras? If so it seems particularly harsh that they had to remove them.
As I said in my previous post, a few of my classmates did start to wear bras during our final year at primary school, but there were others who had small buds but were still wearing vests. Of course this was in the days before cami-tops etc were available as a 'half-way house' between a vest and a bra.

Hi Ben,

I left primary school in 1971. We were allowed to wear T shirts and shorts or pe skirts, but boys and girls had to change in the same classroom (supervised by our teacher).
As you say, some of the girls started to develop budding breasts during the final year at Primary and a few started to wear bras rather than vests. They were normally allowed to change separately in the toilets.

Hi Claire, at least you were all girls and presumably with all female teachers during PE.
In our case it was mixed and with both male and female teachers, depending on who your class teacher was.

I also think that it was rare to have boys only or girls only primary schools, though I coulld be wrong.
Although single sex secondary schools were not that uncommon.

Hi Ben, I attended an all girls school leaving in 1997. We were made to go "bare top" in gym until 11yo when bra's were required by many. I am pretty "flat chested" our gym teacher kept myself and a couple of other girls as skins. I was 15 before requiring a bra.

We did PE in just underpants, both boys and girls, throughout primary school till age 11. Some girls had budding breasts in the last years and some boys were also beginning to develop.
I guess most of us started to feel embarrassed being half naked or almost naked in front of the opposite sex at that age.
We all undressed down to our underpants in class under the supervision of our teacher and were taken for PE exercises.
This was in the early 60s.
I wonder if this is still permitted in any schools.

I attended a co-educational secondary school and was initially embarrassed being barechested in front of girls whilst doing mixed sex PE lessons. It would seem from quite a few posts that lads in early teens have not wanted to have to strip to the waist in the presence of girls. I wish that I had been to a single sex school where I would not have been bothered being stripped to the waist amongst other boys. There is much to be said for single sex education until the age of 16, boys can concentrate on their education without the distraction of girls.

Peter B,

Of course these days the cane is banned so it just couldn't happen but back in the 1960s a headmaster, particularly of a private school had pretty free reign where anything was concerned.

Corporal punishment was overseen by the governors but in reality that meant it was left to the headmaster's discretion unless a parent complained and as you say, a parent then would almost certainly side with the school - mine always did and had I not already had the strap at home, I would have been given it just for getting a caning at school. The governors were all retired ex-military types anyway who no doubt thought the more severe a caning the better - never done them any harm and so on.

The headmaster maintained a list of boys who he saw as rebellious and after the skinhead cut I was on it alongside a few more. It guaranteed you a bare bottom caning if you were sent to him and up to twelve strokes - which I never got though I did get eight a couple of times - surprisingly much worse than six.

I doubt any parent today would use a strap like my father had either - it was about eighteen inches long and two wide and half an inch thick, it really packed a punch and a dozen of it on my bare bottom was the norm. I suspect any father today even giving a couple with it would be arrested.

Is the situation today better? I'm not sure, I look at lads heading for school and the state of them and sometimes think that the threat of a rarely used cane might smarten them up no end.

As many have stated the Bare Chest policy was quite popular amongst many female onlookers. I attended an all boys school. The ladies who worked in the canteen certainly enjoyed extended cigarette breaks while watching the shirtless shenanigans on the pitch!

There are other ways to distinguish teams but none as effective or practical than stripping off. Boys realise that there's no hiding place when you're stripped to the waist. Everyone can see you sweat!

Certainly I noticed especially during the Summer Terms at my mixed Grammar School when we did athletics outdoors many of the girls would gravitate to the boys who were stripped to the waist - nearly all of us - like bees around a honeypot.

Matt, thanks for clarifying that. I think the same split would apply if boys were given the choice, even if only for outdoor PE. But I agree it's fairer for every boy to be treated the same and more logical if indoor PE kit is restricted to shorts (and perhaps footwear) only.

Spot on Matt. Stripping to the waist to exercise also gave the confidence when it came to girls. One girl who later became my wife remembers watching me in the gym and doing numerous laps of the field stripped down. Worked wonders!

Paul

Your comments show how times have changed (whether for the better that is debatable) But to think that these days a headmaster would take a boy into his off ice and make him drop his trousers and cane him in his pants would nowadays be unthinkable. And then on a subsequent occasion to cane a bare backside there would now be a court case.

Was the punishment right? I do know that parents usually upheld the schools authority and if parents found out there was further punishment at home.

When I see and read how pupils behave at school nowadays with no respect for the staff perhaps we should return to single sex schools and bring back corporal punsihment

Thank you, James, for your input. I would suspect that your teachers who stripped to the waist, didn't wear underpants and showered with sixth-formers would be pretty unusual but let's see if there were any more schools like yours.

Simon,when I said that boys should be offered a choice of wearing a shirt or not I meant for outdoor PE. For indoor PE boys should be stripped to the waist and it is much fairer for all boys to be treated the same. Doing PE shirtless helps to develop more confidence regarding body image.

Marc, yes, our PE teachers were always bare chested regardless of where we were, indoors or out. There were three men who taught PE and I never saw them any other way but they obviously did put a shirt on at break time. It was also obvious that they didn't wear underpants either when you might be running behind them or seeing them bend and stretch while demonstrating exercises.

It wasn't either unusual that they joined us in the showers more particularly when we were in the sixth form. We never thought anything of it and nothing untoward ever happened and I don't think I even imagined that it could.