What was your P.E. kit in school?

[Foebane72]

I remember my first year P.E. lessons in school, in 1984. It was like something out of the dark ages.

1. P.E. kit consisted of nothing but black shorts - no shirts or trainers.

2. The gym itself was cold, dark and the floor very dusty and dirty.

3. The changing room wasn't connected to the gym, so we all had to file downstairs from the room into a corridor to get into the gym. Really embarrassing, to be frank.

In fact, I'm only aware of one other school that had such a minimalist P.E. kit, based on a newspaper photograph.

Was P.E. like this for anyone else?

 

[MWP1985]

It was certainly better than that for me though it still wasn't great. My secondary school was split over two sites. The Lower school where I spent 3 years had an enormous 'games shed' which was essentially a concrete playground with a roof (no walls) over it. We had to play 5-a-side football and hockey on it, usually wearing a reversable navy blue rugby shirt and shorts. Needless to say, it was always absolutely freezing and playing football with a load of competitive kids on hard concrete is always a recipe for disaster. We had all sorts of injuries - mostly cuts and bruises but there was also the occasional fracture or broken bone. Since then, the 'games shed' has had walls and heating installed! The kids these days don't know what they're missing! I think they still do the cross country run though.

At the upper school things got a lot better. Instead of a shed, we played short tennis and basketball in a slightly-heated hall though, when in there, we had to wear a wafer thin pastel blue shirt and even thinner shorts. Fine in the summer, atrocious in the winter. However, by the final year, we had been promoted to the gym and, in the end, our teacher stopped caring and let us go swimming at the local sports centre every week during the lesson.

The funny thing is that I hated going out in the cold at school but since my current job involves doing that a lot, and for much longer periods of time, it no longer bothers me at all.

 

[Bilbob]

pants and vest usually, when I forgot my kit...

 

[smelly]

1. P.E. kit consisted of nothing but black shorts - no shirts or trainers.

Definitely a shirt for me !!!!!!! and blue pleated gym skirt.

Did a lot of gymnastics in and out of school so leotards for that.

 

[loz]

I went to a grammar school many years ago and had to do everything formally.

That meant full set of whites for cricket, full rugby outfit, and so on.

You were not allowed to play the sport unless you had the right attire. And this wasn't just when turning out to represent the school in a match, it was just to play it in PE. Every kid was expected to buy all the outfits, regardless of whether you were any good at the sport.

If you didn't have the right kit on, you were sent off to run round the pitch all afternoon.

 

[Iccz]

Black Shorts - Strictly no stripes on them - Adidas was not allowed.

School PE Top - Reversable Red long sleeve rugby top - reverse had a white stripe across the middle.

Plain white tshirt could also be worn in summer / when indoors - again no stripes.

If you forgot your kit or had inappropriate kit you had to wear the "spare" kits they had - often dirty/smelly/wrong size.

 

[y2k]

We could wear whatever we wanted in school, I always wore a football kit , though if you did forget to bring a kit and had no sicknote you would have to get an old smelly kit from the lost and found basket .

 

[daveaka]

Underpants in the infants school , rugby shirt and shorts in Junior and comprehensive which was a bit daft really because we never played rugby..

 

[PoochJD]

Hi,

One answer describes my PE kit, in two, erudite words: "Bloody embarrasing"!

From what I can recall:

Primary School Kit
- light blue t-shirt, with school logo across the entire front of it
- Dark blue shorts
- Black plimsolls

High School Kit
- Footwear dependant on what activity, but usually footie boots or trainers for outdoor activities, or plimsolls indoor ones.
- Bright deep-yellow sports shirt (we had to wear the same coloured shirt as our School House, and there were 4 houses in total, one each of yellow, red, blue or green).
- White acrylic shorts.
- White long-leg sport socks

I have never worn any of the above since! Nor have I worn tracksuits or trainers to this day, either! PE put me off playing sport (but not exercise!) for life!A

And, Iccz, I too remember the dreaded "spare kit" (read "remnants of unwanted sports attire in states of disrepair") pile! Still gives me the chills, now, even thinking about it!


Pooch

 

[Duncan G]

This thread is a perverts delight, what colour underwear did you wear for P.E

 

[smallclanger]

This thread is a perverts delight, what colour underwear did you wear for P.E

We're not perverst here. This is a serious discussion.

Smelly, do you still have your P.E. kit?

 

[Iccz]

Slightly off topic... afterwards we were encouraged to have showers... communal.
Needless to say nobody ever showered.


In primary school it was shorts / tee and plimsolls.

In 2ndary school my previous post + trainers - boots for football were optional.

I usually had astroturfs as they seemed to perform well whatever we did and were comfortable enough.

Cross country wasn't the best in them though and we were never told what we were doing the following week as they were useless...
So you could never plan running shoes for cross country as they just threw it on you randomly.

 

[smelly]

We're not perverst here. This is a serious discussion.

Smelly, do you still have your P.E. kit?

Why would you like to borrow it to wear smallclanger?

 

[smallclanger]

Why would you like to borrow it to wear smallclanger?

Shhh! Don't give away my thursday night activities...

 

[loz]

Slightly off topic... afterwards we were encouraged to have showers... communal.
Needless to say nobody ever showered.

We had no choice. You had to to shower (communally).
In fact I remember you had to bring a note from your parents to excuse you from the shower.
If you dared bring one in, the PE teacher would be belittle you in front of everyone. "what's the matter smith junior? not man enough to get in the showers then? something to hide eh?"

Ah, those were the days.
All different now I guess.

Mind you it made men out of us. Even the girls..

 

[ste v p]

Black Shorts - Strictly no stripes on them - Adidas was not allowed.

School PE Top - Reversable Red long sleeve rugby top - reverse had a white stripe across the middle.

Plain white tshirt could also be worn in summer / when indoors - again no stripes.

If you forgot your kit or had inappropriate kit you had to wear the "spare" kits they had - often dirty/smelly/wrong size.

Slightly off topic... afterwards we were encouraged to have showers... communal.
Needless to say nobody ever showered.


In primary school it was shorts / tee and plimsolls.

In 2ndary school my previous post + trainers - boots for football were optional.

I usually had astroturfs as they seemed to perform well whatever we did and were comfortable enough.

Cross country wasn't the best in them though and we were never told what we were doing the following week as they were useless...
So you could never plan running shoes for cross country as they just threw it on you randomly.

Sounds like a carbon copy of my school (except colour). The reversible blue rugby shirt with a white hoop on the reverse, black shorts and black football socks.

Nobody ever showered unless it had been really muddy and you would go in wearing full kit and just wash your legs/other muddy bits. I don't think I sweated as much in those days!

We usually knew what we'd be doing as sports would be split into blocks so we might have 4 weeks for football, 4 weeks for hockey etc. Unless of course the ground was frozen then it would cross country on the roads around school. That was lovely, running a couple of miles when its -2 C and your whole chest tightens up, and you get ridiculously sticky phlegm that stays attached when you spit it out! Hasn't put me off too much as I still play winter sport.

 

[Steven]

I hated having to buy rugby tops in secondary school - never worn for anything else other than the halve a term of rugby during the once weekly PE lesson

 

[Kwman]

Pants and vests at primary school.

In Secondary school

Had rugby kit for rugby, cricket whites for cricket, and white shorts and vests with house colours on them for all other sports like cross country running, etc.

Swimming was black trunks or in the buff if you forgot, which thankfully i never did

 

[CFC1]

 

[DOBLY]

At secondary school, our PE kit was the usual regulation colour T-shirt, shorts and trainers (or footie boots) - nothing out of the ordinary.
One term we were in the (basketball court) sized, wooden floor gym to play, er, basketball, where it was always 'shirts vs. skins' - luckily this seemed to coincide with the warmer weather, but not with the times when classes were mixed.
We had a sports hall (football-pitch sized asbestos shed) which had no heating and an asphalted concrete floor - cue Kevin Keegan in Superstars skin injuries, broken bones and frozen extremities.
The thing I remember most is that when we had swimming (which can only be about 8 times in total) we had to change at the regular changing rooms then traipse about 500m to the pool building - which had changing rooms in it - never got a satisfactory answer as to why we couldn't use these changing rooms - passing about half the classrooms on the way, and it was always a cold, frosty, misty morning when we were scheduled for swimming.

Ahh, the good old days, don't you just love 'em ??

 

[penno116]

I lived for PE at school, come wind rain or shine every break & lunch was out on the playground playing footy with a sponge ball the size of a tennis ball, apparently it was dangereous to play with a full size ball, it didn't matter about the bruised shins this gave us all!!

Anyway PE kit was gold rugby shirt, black shorts and gold socks, we looked like wolves!

You wouldn't get away with rugby in 2feet of snow and the teacher showering in the communal showers these days!!

 

[Foebane72]

I should point out that despite the fact that for P.E., the kit was just the shorts, the shorts also made up part of the GAMES uniform for outdoor sports, as well as long socks and studded boots, and a big rugged rugby shirt (I think it doubled for football as well).

In fact, there's a photo in my parents' collection of me in full sports kit at age 11-12, and I look like a rugby player!

 

[Ned Senior]

I wanna see what 'smelly' wore too! pfnar pfnar

 

[ste v p]

I lived for PE at school, come wind rain or shine every break & lunch was out on the playground playing footy with a sponge ball the size of a tennis ball, apparently it was dangereous to play with a full size ball, it didn't matter about the bruised shins this gave us all!!

Ha, I still have the lumps and dents on my shins for years of playground football. I was probably a little competetive in those days (what's changed) and loved a kick around with anything resembling a ball (tennis ball or bigger). Did anyone else find that if you could play football it helped you become "accepted" in school? It always seemed as though the non-footballers were looked upon differently.

 

[nogg]

Does anyone remember those crisp nylon shorts that people used to wear?