Burnley Grammar School

Couldn't agree more with Tony, Laura and Alan here. About time it was said.

I've been sick and tired of dipping in here and hearing about bloody jockstraps. We don't get the ladies coming on blathering on about when they had to start wearing a bra across their bosoms to keep things from swinging about during their teens at school do we.

Bravo Laura. You'll either now get ignored or pilloried for that masteful response. Well said.

Okay Pete, you lit the fuse, expect the blowback.

Friday was my first post from a longtime 'lurker'.

When you decide to stand up against something it's always the way that you can place yourself in the firing line, even on a benign history forum it seems. For some reason I've been called sanctimonious and without any foundation been bound together with someone named Alan as one and the same. Maybe Pete you are judging others by your own standards of behaviour and have been dropping in on this forum under countless named guises with jockstrap comments galore. Maybe you have or maybe you haven't, on balance probably not, but please don't accuse me of being somebody else just because you chose not to like the fact I've taken some elements of the direction of this history site to task for a quite patently obvious over obsession.

Let's have a bit of civility. I know it's hard even for some well into adulthood. This is not the school playground now and it's not great to read here and see some people singled out for groundless attacks. Based on what I came on here and read tonight I read back through many of Alan's posts this past few months and saw nothing to justify such singling out. I don't agree with Alan on some of what he says or the angle he chooses to say it but I'll absolutely defend his right to say it without having to endure personal abuse and forum intimidation which I'd guess he had during school like so many I've come across in my own job.

If you endure deep hurt in school it lasts your lifetime. The oldest person I've worked with was eighty years of age and once related to me in intricate detail their life from almost 70 years earlier. I'm currently seeing some still in school today regards anxiety, confidence, self esteem, pandemic and bullying issues.

Tony, yes when I mentioned the PE teacher it was the comment by Graham on March 24th I was thinking about.

Incase anyone wishes to know about me, both my parents were in the teaching profession and I'm working in NHS psychology and deal a lot with mindfulness issues privately of those who were bullied in childhood and into adulthood. There is no shortage of work sadly.

I had a wondeful time in school, including PE which I loved and got stuck into with gusto. I continue as an adult, playing tennis some weeks on the local court. But I was always aware I was lucky like that and many others were not like me. It gave me a passion in life to think about others and what they think and how they react and to always stand up for the underdog and never turn a blind eye to injustice.

I'll go with Laura here and concur and also with the entry placed on 24-3-22 which said something similar to her thoughts yesterday and I presume is one of the entries on here that Laura made passing reference to.

Alan on 8th April 2022 at 20:28

Oh dear, I see you are back trying to call out others for your own faults. Two wrongs do not make a right.

To anyone who has no notion of what Alan is referring to, just scroll back two or more pages and you will find his disordered posts. There are plenty of them and also his being called out by a number of posters who see straight through him.

Strikes me that Alan = Laura, Laura = Alan. Either way each could spare us the sanctimonious sneering!

I agree with Laura. Some weeks ago a few contributors accused me of being a fantasist, or even a liar because they didn't like some things I had written based on true events that happened in my life albeit some years ago now. What I wrote was true, and was my own genuine experiences. at a now thankfully defunct school, I notice those who were hurrumphing about me, haven't said a word about these seedy underwear fetishists.

I'm struggling to understand the direction that this school history site has taken recently. Although I've come to my own conclusions into why there seems to be this obsessive and completely disproportionate focussing on male underwear, lack of, and especially jockstraps in particular. Of all the things that go on in schooldays and even within just games lessons, to zone in constantly on this issue speaks plenty to me and I assume other readers who have a genuine interest in genuine memories.

No wonder this site has failed to get any half decent memories for a while when this kind of fetishist trivia is indulged time and again in a conversation going nowhere and never developing and yet some people who recently wrote readable input here last month, that PE teacher was completely passed by as someone even worth reacting to by anyone here. You couldn't make it up!

One has to presume that the mere act of talking about them has the same effect as outlined below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwear_fetishism#Jockstraps

Mark. Completely agree with your memories of initially wearing jockstraps. Once we were told that we could wear them we too wanted to be like the older boys and be very "manly". Whether we achieved that is debateable !

Julian S and Edward

I remember late 60s early 70s l turned 13 and we wore jockstrap + pouch for box for cricket and jockstrap without pouch for all other sport like rugby, rowing and running. Why? Because we wanted to be like the boys older than us!

Continuing the jockstrap saga ... as far as I can recall no-one at my school in the early-mid 60s wore a jock, but that it not to say no-one did. I have a memory of one lad talking to a teacher about his 'bits' and it being suggested he wear swimming trunks under his shorts.
As as been commented before, by the mid-60s underwear was becoming a bit more 'adventurous' and some of us were wearing 'Speedo's' or similar for cross-country, etc..

Our PE uniform list specified no underwear to be worn under our pe shorts for "hyginic reasons" although I suppose now I think I'm glad I took off my underwear so I wasn't sat in sweaty underpants for the rest of the school day. It just felt normal to us and nobody ever complained, they were never any checks and certainly nobody else wore a jock strap

Like Edward we started wearing a jockstrap at around 13. Most of us wanted to follow what the older boys were already doing i.e. wearing a jockstrap. That said, it was by no means compulsory as some lads preferred to stick with wearing swimming trunks.

Like Edward we started wearing a jockstrap at around 13. Most of us wanted to follow what the older boys were already doing i.e. wearing a jockstrap. That said, it was by no means compulsory as some lads preferred to stick with wearing swimming trunks.

Andrea. It wasn't mentioned before that and we hadn't heard of them. A few of us did notice however some of the older boys in the changing room at the same time as us wore something "strange" but didn't know what they were.

Andrea,
At our school that I attended we weren't allowed to wear anything under our shorts.We went through secondary school without wearing a jock strap.

Edward,
Did any of you try wear a jockstrap before your teacher said they were 'allowed' or was it just that they weren't mentioned until you were nearly 15?
My Ex said he felt more 'secure' when he started wearing one (at about 13).

Tim H, particularly at the end of the day but at other times too, our PE teachers joined us in the showers. I never thought anything of it and I'm sure there was nothing sinister about it. Nor was it sinister that they saw us naked as we changed, showered or got dried.

Not wanting to get too involved in the 'teachers in showers' discussion but ...
Our school games fields were a good distance from the school. It was not unknown for teachers to strip off and use the showers alongside the boys. As far as I can recall there were no comments - it was just part of growing up.

Like other comments our pe shorts were short and there was the risk of exposure due to wearing no pants.

Edward,
It was customary at the school that I attended not to wear anything under our shorts and then shorts were much shorter than they are today.
Like yourself we were always conscious about the risk of being "exposed"

To Phil Hargreaves.

This could just be a story made up by somebody who didn't like him. Was there ever any proof?

Jeff. You were lucky being allowed to wear a jockstrap from the age of 13. We were nearer 15 before our PE teacher allowed us to wear one. After that we continued to wear them for all sports - and felt better, and less "exposed" as a result.

I went to Burnley Grammar from 1973 to 75, and Ron Parry was still there as sports teacher. He was known for inviting boys for a chat in his private changing room and he was always naked in the shower when they went in...someone commented earlier that he was known as 'Gay Paris' haha

Michael and Edward:
I too wore a jockstrap for support at school, for PE, running, rugby etc. I got it at the beginning of third form, when I was 13. Before that nothing was worn under the shorts.

Rachel, in our school PE was done in shorts only shirtless and barefoot. No lad was exempt from being shirtless that I remember and especially for me since I was a little chubby and had a hairy chest and back

Edward.
Obviously the teacher felt the same way as we do.
Please email if you wish to chat further and anyone with similar memories is of course most welcome.

Interesting question Rachel and, as someone whose chest hair started coming through at 14-15, I feel well qualified to answer it!
I guess you wondered whether exemptions might have been made to avoid embarrassing boys who were self conscious about having visible body hair? Well, I was one of those boys and would certainly have been grateful for it at the time... but then so, I'm sure, would boys who were overweight, or very thin or had acne on their backs, for example. The short answer is no, the rules were the same for every boy. That meant if I was selected as a 'skin' in PE I had to take off my t-shirt and do the lesson with my hairy chest on show. That continued to be the case until I left school but by then many more of my classmates had hairy chests too!

Michael. I think that your amusing story of your young PE teacher going outside to put his jockstrap on explains simply why some of us felt that we needed to wear one for sport and PE when we reached a certain age. It was the support that was needed rather than have things loose. Briefs and other pants did not give the same type of support that we needed. Thanks for the story.

Bernard, we had the same rule - excused PE meant that you still had to change in to shorts and watch or more often do jobs assigned by the teacher. A favourite was to clear out the recess in the gym and wipe equipment, I was never excused PE but lads who had to do that rarely brought a note on a second occasion because it was filthy work and at the end of it, they had to join us in the (cold) showers just the same.