Burnley Grammar School

We had PE kit consisting of Yellow rugby top, reversible for playing on separate teams (no skins), black shirts and black socks. It was the same for the girls. White PE kit for indoor sports.

Showers were communal (about eight shower heads in a line facing each other) and enforced. Boys had the choice of showering naked or in trunks. Most of us showered naked, a few did wear trunks. It was daunting at first but after a while it became the norm. Am not sure what the girls did regarding showering, it was never discussed. This was 1993.

Thanks for your suggestion Tom B.

Charlie B

Well I have gone retro now at 72, I tried boxer briefs but found them too restrictive, so now it's "old mans trunks" again for me M&S mostly but have bought off Ebay at retailers who specialise, the fly hole has got better and stays shut now, probably due to my age, I remember back then they weren't with the cheaper brands, and I guess because of the onset of puberty easily opening fly holes annoyed and embarrassed me, so briefs were for me then, but every opportunity I ditched the vest, going into the school toilets to take it off and be like the other boys.

Back then I didn't appreciate the amount of PE we did at school, but in my forties and fifties when I joined a gym I used to think I wished I had kept up with fitness a bit back then after I left school and went into the big wide world of work.

Really enjoyed Gregory's Girl in the mid eighties! Being Scottish based it seemed more realistic thanks TimH for the memory!

Charlie B, have you looked at Oddballs, the cancer fundraiser? They sell a wide range of underwear, sportswear and accessories - even facemasks in a huge range of styles and colourful patterns. It’s worth checking out and profits go to a good cause.

Keith John
I too had a period just after starting secondary school when I wore the "old man style" trunks. I was so pleased when I had briefs to wear. I find it strange now how things have changed and it seems that briefs or slips are out of vogue and trunks and boxers have come back into fashion. I find it difficult to purchase briefs/slips in decent colours like boxers are sold. In the same way my preference for "speedo" type swim trunks are considered a no no.

Back in the early 1960s, the boys in my class were frequently referred to as a 'bunch of softies' by the PE teacher. He said that we needed to be 'toughened-up', and over the years, he succeeded in doing exactly that.

Looking back, I have to admit that his 'assertive encouragement' was necessary from time to time, or few of us would have made the effort to get physically fit.

Where the hazy line is drawn between encouragement and bullying is probably a matter of opinion, (or how accurate one's memory is!)

As I say, perhaps it is the rose tinted specs but I wish I had been pushed out of my comfort zone both on the sports field and to get over my shyness.

So many allowances were made with gym and sporting activity that I was able to be lazy.

After lessons, the shower policies weren’t enforced and so it wasn’t until many years later I learned there was nothing to be fearful of. While we are not all the same as another poster commented, we are more the same than we are different and boys benefit from understanding that.

Hi, Reading all the post here on bare chested PE and shorts, I started senior school in 1959 at age 11, and of course it was a culture shock to me as my primary school was a small one and inner city, the curriculum was totally different and when it came to PE also totally different well, 3 times a week instead of 1 at primary, 1 lesson in the sports hall bare chested but you could wear underpants under your dark blue shorts, they were a very coarse cotton fabric, 1 lesson outdoors that was basically football or cricket depending on the season and 1 lesson that was cross country normally the last lesson on a Friday so if you ran well you quickly shower and get dressed and home, that was bare chested as well, being on the edge of town we had to run through the back streets until we reached a path that took us into the fields, then up to the canal and along the towpath back to the town and down the back streets again to school.

Though underpants could be worn I ended up not wearing any at all in PE, why ? because I wore trunk underpants white of course, aka ("old mans pants") and the hem showed beneath my PE shorts and I got teased and some boys loved pulling down the hem of my pants in PE, so I stopped wearing them, I did end up wearing underpants when at 13 I got my mum to buy me briefs, but still white ones, with vests, Urgh!

Danny C
I do sympathise with you. Because some off the lads in our class were very athletic and football mad it was always assumed that every one "enjoyed" sports & pe. Not necessarily so.
But was you allowed to wear pants under your shorts or was it like my school no underwear for either pe or outdoor games.

I just want to say how much I agree with Danny C's post. I think a lot of the posters here fail to realise that some boys were and are quite shy, and for whatever reason found it embarrassing to have to run around just wearing shorts - and remember in a lot of schools there were mixed sex lessons or you might have teachers from other departments walking through or past the gym and seeing you.

Some boys didn't mind this or didn't care, but others did, and allowance should be made - nobody regardless of age ought to be "made" to do things just because a teacher or employer has power. I am sure some of these old teachers put boys off sport rather than turned them on to it. I hope it doesn't happen anywhere today in the Britain of the 21st century.

I may be accused of looking at the past through rose tinted glasses but I oddly feel the opposite.

I read these accounts and feel I would have benefited from a tougher experience. On the field or in the gymnasium I was able to get away with far too much.

In terms of modesty and shyness, looking back, the best way to have “got over” those feelings and fears would have been to have no option but to experience minimal PE kit and communal showers.

Joining a gym some years later I have certainly found results with the help of a trainer constantly pushing me to work harder, I feel comfortable training in shorts and a vest or shirtless in the summer and have realised that there is no need to be shy in the changing room.

It's really striking to me just how much I can relate to so much that has been written on this discussion about PE classes. One in particular from recent days hit home, and it was that description of a "sinking feeling" when realising you would have to do PE barechested. My experiences are from an almost six year period during the 80's.
My school had what can only be described as a very rigid and strict PE dress code. Exceptionally strict infact. I had three PE classes each week, two indoors and one outdoors. Both of the indoors PE classes were compulsory barechested for all boys and there were no exemptions, even for a poor classmate who had a quite severe eczema over his body. One lesson was in the gym, in white shorts and the other was in a sports hall in black shorts. Our 80's shorts were very tight and skimpy too! At no time during indoors PE were we ever allowed to wear any trainers or footwear, it was always bare feet without exception. One of the indoor classes would quite frequently be a mixed boys/girls lesson which kind of made not being allowed to wear very much for boys a real trauma for some of us, especially when you hit about the age of thirteen or fourteen.
Even the outdoors lesson could often be a barechested one, on decent autumn days and more or less always during the summer term, which meant that literally the only time I wore a top in PE over the years was outside in the winter months. I often ran outdoors cross country barechested in autumn from September to November and it was a course that took us out of school grounds into some quite public areas too, which I detested. On one occasion I did accidentally forget my outdoor running shoes and ran the three miles in my bare feet by reluctant choice, as the alternative was to wreck my new leather school shoes in thick mud. Running barefoot through thick mud then gravel paths and onto tarmac before returning to the grassy playing fields was no fun I assure you.
The showers at my school were a very large open plan affair and I always remember them for being extremely hot, steaming away throughout the changing room. I tried to avoid them the first time we had them but got caught with a friend trying to do so and was effectively stripped bare on the spot and frogmarched into them. That's what still grates a bit to me, that there was no acknowledgement that we are not all the same and we have different levels at which we are comfortable. Some boys love getting their kit off and losing the shirt at any opportunity, others never would through choice, and some dived into the showers without a second thought. But quite a large number of us didn't do so, and what discussions like this one here are proving is that there were far more of my type out there than ever realised.
I still wonder just why I had to do literally everything in PE in nothing but a pair of shorts, stuff like squash, badminton etc? You can make the case for actual gym work on apparatus maybe, but why some of the other games needed me in my bare feet and barechested remains a mystery.
Even our summer sports days were compulsory barechested when we had our visiting parents and families watching, which was even more problematic for quite a few of us. I never even walked around at home with my kit off and certainly always kept a t-shirt top on even in summer. A total lack of empathy for the shyer boys amongst us from our PE teachers and I'd sure as hell like to hear from any current or old school PE teacher and what their attitude is to boys who struggle with these kind of "sinking feeling" barechested and shower requirements. It's not as if I had a body to be ashamed of, I didn't.

If anyone wants film of Umbro shorts being worn at school in the early 1980s could I suggest the film 'Gregory's Girl' (which should be fairly easily obtainable)? http://thefootballattic.blogspot.com/2015/06/football-on-film-gregorys-girl.html

Andy - I have never heard of a boy injuring his foot whilst running barefoot outside before. Quite a few times it felt as though I had cut a foot on a sharp stone - usually after the farmer had ploughed the field where we ran up the edge. There was, however, never any injury. The boy in your class must have been unpopular if you all had to run in plimsolls after his injury.

When I started grammar school in the mid 60s our shorts had to be plain - no stripes or patterns, they were cotton, very short and, of course, worn with nothing underneath. This didn't bother us as it was an all boys school. I remember one boy changing into a pair of new black satin-style shorts in the fourth form. They were very thin and shiny and caused quite a stir! I think every-one else carried on with cotton shorts.

In our all boys school which I attended in the 60's what seemed very short shorts.We were not allowed to wear pants underneath the shorts which were so thin it would be obvious if anyone flouted the rules. I suppose nowadays with longer shorts being worn and the preference for boxers as underwear they can get away with wearing them during p.e.

The proper Umbro shorts didn’t have an inner brief. Boys would wear briefs under and the material was so thin you could always see the outline/pattern through the white ones.

Back then boys hadn’t started wearing boxers which would have been far too long.

My Umbro shorts that I wore didn't have inner briefs.

James,
Did your Umbro shorts have inner briefs?

Yes, the Umbro white nylon shorts were standard just before I started at the school.

I remember some boys wearing them (probably handed down from older brothers) but I had slightly longer white polyester shorts for PE and navy cotton rugby shorts for games lessons.

I always liked how light, soft and shiny the Umbro’s looked.

Tom B, Umbro shorts did come in different colors,but most of the boys at my school continued to wear cotton shorts as I'm sure that they didn't want to wear anything different from their contemporaries .They were extremely shiny and short but were accepted as the regulation kit.

Turner, those Umbro shorts in white were the standard in my school just before I started. I thought they were really nice. They came in several colours but for PE and games the boys at my school wore white with the black diamonds.

These are closer to the shorts we wore in the 60s although only white was worn for PE:-

https://www.ifbray.com/2015/10/14/vintage-80-umbro-soccer-shorts-shiny/

Adam,the shorts that I wore were considerably shorter than those pictured and having an inseam of about 5cms. They were extremely bright and shiny and had a tremendous sheen. I agree it took a while to get accustomed to wearing shorts that were quite so short especially when the facilities were shared with the girls.

James - yeah, we had this style of shorts but maybe they were a little bit shorter in the 90s:

https://www.yourschoolwear.co.uk/black-shadow-stripe-shorts-2312-p.asp

I was generally careful how I sat, but I seem to remember that wasn't always possible on some of the machines in the weights room. I suppose the girls seeing up my shorts once or twice was a case of "turnabout is fair play" given how 'exposed' their gym skirts left them at times!

Tom B - We weren't allowed any branded shorts, we just had black ones like these ones but maybe a little shorter:

https://www.yourschoolwear.co.uk/black-shadow-stripe-shorts-2312-p.asp

John

My schooldays were a decade or so before yours, but like you and your mates, wearing a vest under one's school shirt, or under any shirt for that matter, was pretty much universal. Equally universal, on the grounds of laziness, lack of showers and economy (why buy an additional dedicated PE top when you are already wearing a perfectly adequate vest) was the practice that you describe, of wearing our ordinary underwear vests for PE, putting our shirts back on over these, by-now damp and sweaty, vests afterwards and living with the hygiene consequences until bedtime, or even beyond! So, when topless PE was introduced at my school when I was about 13, it was welcomed by virtually everyone, pupils and parents alike.
There was, however, one unintended consequence, which somewhat dampened this parental enthusiasm for PE minus vests. Instead of going to school wearing our vests, removing them for PE and putting them back on afterwards, it soon became fashionable to "forget" that final step and to go vest-less for the remainder of the day. From there it was just a short step to not wearing a vest at all on PE days and by half-term I, along with most of my mates, had given up wearing them altogether.

We still had no showers, and no-one thought to suggest that we take towels to school, so instead of putting our shirts back on over damp sweaty vests, we put them back over damp sweaty bodies!

Daniel T, I think a fair few of us experienced that "sinking feeling" I spoke about. The first lesson must have been grim for you, being singled out to take your top off like that. At least with our teacher, it was more general. Half the lads shirtless for indoor lessons in the first year, and then everyone a skin from the second year onwards. There was one lad who used to moan (out of the teacher's earshot!) that he was "always skins" in the first year. But I honestly didn't think he was. It probably just felt that way. Our teacher's choice for who was a shirt and who was a skin seemed pretty random to me.

One thing you're not alone in, though, is being pushed hard in lessons. We were too, believe me. Drenched in sweat indoors, covered in mud out on the rugby pitch in winter. But we just accepted it as being expected, I think.

Interesting that in basketball you all swapped sides halfway through. Can't imagine it was very pleasant to put a top on if you'd been a skin and got all sweaty. (Much better for the lads who had been in vests to be able to get rid of them though, I'd have thought!) We only did shirts v skins for the first year - after that it was everyone shirtless, and teams differentiated by different colour shorts - but if you were told you were a skin, you stayed shirtless for the whole lesson. Never any question of putting a top on.

Sorry you lost your boxing match, by the way!
_____________

Rob, I think it was the complete shift in experience from junior to secondary school that made it so hard at first. Four years at comfortable, friendly junior school.....and then suddenly immersed in this much bigger, much more adult, much more regimented environment. A real sea change. And to then, on the second or third day, encounter this incredibly hard PE teacher and his rules.....well, it just added to the feelings. The shirts v skins thing was a shock for starters (even though I was a shirt that first lesson), and then came our introduction to communal showers. After the lesson he came in the changing room, pointed out the showers (yeah, right, as if we couldn't see them!) and laid down the rules. Everyone was to go in the showers after every lesson. No exceptions ever. We were to go in naked. And nobody was to ever touch the controls. (Basically the hot and cold taps on the wall just as you go in.) He made it quite clear he controlled when the showers went on and off, and the temperature of the water.

And that was it; he told us to get out of our PE kits, put our towels on the rail just outside the showers, and then get in there. Which, of course, we all did. Once we were out and getting back into our school uniforms, he said that going forward we were to put our towels on the rail BEFORE we left the changing room for the lesson. His words were something like "This is to stop any boy thinking he can come in at the end of the lesson, run up to the showers with a towel wrapped round his waist, quickly stick his head in to get his hair wet, and make it look like he'd had a shower." Which, on the face of it, I could kind of understand. But he used to come in the changing room after every lesson, control the water, and stand there just outside the showers as we were all in there. (Blocking everybody's exit until he gave the word, I always thought.) So, anyway, nobody could have done that thing he said even if they'd wanted to!

Hence - probably no surprise here - in the early days I disliked PE showers as much as I disliked being made to do a lesson as a skin. But, just as with the shirtless thing, I grew to accept it, as it was clear that's how things were done with this teacher. Anyone could see he was never going to change his rules.

I must say I think the soft, thin and slightly shiny white nylon Umbro shorts were fantastic.

I’d wear them now if they produced them again. The colours were great too.

Adam,shorts were very different in the 70's and 80's and I remember those very short,shiny shorts that were made from polyester nylon.
I always sat with my knees together so my shorts didn't' gape'.