As late as the 1970s in some U.S. schools, young men swam completely unclothed in their swim classes and competitions. This seems unimaginable today, but this exhilarating historical practice was simply understood as the way things were done at the time.
When some teams began to transition to today's unfortunate bathing suit regime, they practiced nude, but many introduced suits for swimming meets, right around the time as more women began attending these competitions. That is, except for the towel boy, who remained naked (and unconcealed by the water) for practices and meets. Towel boys (or "coach's assistants") got to spend much of the time hidden away in the locker rooms and offices--cleaning, helping coach record lap times, and so on, but were summoned poolside nude from their foot soles to their crown. It didn't matter who else was watching.
Competitions were busy affairs, with dozens of fully clothed friends and family--including females--would come to cheer on the toned athletes in their speedos.
Smirking coaches would always find excuses to get the poor towel lads poolside during meets--despite their intense protests--for recording lap times, mopping, or worse--getting up on the ladder to change the scoreboards.
Despite the more conservative values of the time, the crowd got a secret thrill and satisfaction (though it was never discussed, of course) from watching the bashful naked young men having to parade around, dicks swinging and shuffling awkwardly from those few minutes of incomparable embarrassment, bare to the crowd (which usually included many people the lads knew and recognized). The lads usually tried to act natural, but most were unsuccessful in hiding their dread at being ogled naked by dozens (or hundreds) of both strangers and people they knew.
It was not uncommon for the towel boys, formerly cocky 18-20 year old high school seniors or college freshmen, to be assigned to the position as a punishment--sometimes as a last chance for delinquents to avoid expulsion!
4 comments:
For those younger people reading this page who don't believe what is written here, allow me to tell you that it is true that male students in many schools swam naked. I am in my seventies and today we live in an entirely different world compared to those days at least forty years ago. Society as a whole thought of male nudity in some respects much differently compared to the common opinions of today. While a man could not legally be naked in a public area, for certain situations such as high school and college swimming competitions, male nudity was considered acceptable. For many centuries, males swam naked. Males swimming naked was so common that when one of my cousins told me that at his school they wore swimming trunks, I remember thinking how odd this seemed. I did not own a swim suit until I was in my late twenties.
Finding out that my cousin wore a swim suit made me curious to find out how many other schools required their male students to wear swim suits. To find out about schools requiring swim suits I wrote to other male relatives some of whom were in college and others in high school. In the letters I wrote I asked if they wore swim suits or swam naked at their schools. I also enlisted the help of a few friends who wrote to their male relatives or others they knew. In all, we received fifty-four replies. Of those replies, ten replied that their school did not have a pool. Twenty-four wrote back saying they swam naked during their gym class. Of that twenty-four, six wrote they were on a swim team and they swam naked during their practices but wore suits during competitions. Eighteen wrote they were on a swim team and they swam naked during practices as well as during competitions. After reading these responses a friend of mine wrote back to those who had answered they swam naked during competitions asking them if the competitions were attended by the general public and if there were females present during the competitions. Of the eighteen, four wrote the general public did not attend their meets. Of those four, three wrote that parents and siblings were allowed to attend and the other one wrote that their fathers and male siblings of the student swimmers were allowed to attend but not their mothers or sisters. Of the remaining fourteen, twelve wrote that both genders could attend the meets and two wrote only men were allowed to attend. One of my friend's cousins wrote that he liked when the female students who attended the meets saw him naked. This was not a question we asked.
All of the remaining twenty wrote the general public, both genders could attend their meets. One volunteered that children had to be accompanied by an adult at his school. Of the fifty four, only five were in college. All five allowed attendance by the general public and both genders.
By the way, it may seem as though I have a great memory being able to remember all of this detail so many years later. Actually, I still have the letters sent to me many years ago and this is the reason I am able to accurately write this information.
In those times many people thought of our nudity as our swimming uniform. I found this opinion when I overheard a female friend of my mother explain to her adolescent daughter why seeing the males naked during the competition was "perfectly alright".
In those times, there was a strong double standard about male nudity versus female nudity. Females were always kept covered and it was alright for females to see males naked if they so chose, but not alright for males to see females naked. Also a male could not remove his clothing in the presence of a female unless he had the permission of the female to do so. In families including my own, male nudity on a daily basis was common and so that permission was rightfully assumed.
In addition to being a physician, a friend of mine is an expert on the subjects of World War 1, World War 2, The Roman Empire, The US Military and The Russian Military. I asked him to help me find proof that males swam naked years ago and proof that opinions about male nudity were much different compared to the way our society regards that subject today. Below are images he sent to me in response:
This picture was photographed during the early 1940s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/7763/27553777202_14b0601916_o.jpg
A swimming competition at a Chicago area school in the late 1950s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/1608/26620464871_2e2bfc2f43_b.jpg
Men working outside naked during the early 1950s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/1613/23775962214_87161f24b1_o.jpg
Men working in a coal mine, early 1950s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/1720/24296400612_5752c6586e_b.jpg
Picture from Life Magazine at beginning of World War 2 - Military Induction physical:
https://live.staticflickr.com/3682/9165401094_65db4d59c8_b.jpg
A public swimming facility in Wisconsin middle 1950s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/5103/5811500078_12903345bc_o.jpg
Picture from Life Magazine showing male students of a Chicago suburb school in the school pool during the early 1950s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/2692/5809215085_b60c643501_o.jpg
Swimming was not the only sport sometimes done naked by male athletes:
https://live.staticflickr.com/6088/6142239774_36c6f8544d_o.jpg
Picture from a swim meet at a high school in Indianapolis, Indiana early 1960s:
https://live.staticflickr.com/1591/26696008196_764ff386d7_b.jpg
I posted the last message with the links and in that message the last link is incorrect. I misunderstood my friend when he told me about the picture. The situation shown is not a swimming competition but merely a practice session at the school and obviously someone decided to take a picture. My friend said the reason was possibly because they wanted to post the picture on a website for profit.
I attended high school in upstate NY, I can confirm that we swam nude. It was 1977-79 when we all swam nude. I remember several occasions the female nurse walking into the pool area while we were running around nude. Also, I found out later, the girls would peek through a crack in the doorway separating the pool area from the rest of the gymnasium and spy on us. One of the girls in my neighborhood said, "we saw all your willies flopping around"
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