Why were American boys forced to swim naked in gym class until the 1970s? We found the answer

I caught up with my uncle recently and he dropped a story that made me question everything. It was so wild, I thought I was pulling my leg. When he insisted it was true, I even wondered if Uncle Toby had a touch of dementia. But no, Uncle Toby is as sharp as ever, and his story was 100 percent true.

So what had left me so terrified? We were talking about schools and sports, and Uncle Toby casually mentioned that when he was in high school in the 1950s, all the boys had to swim naked.

Uh, sorry, what?

Yes, you heard that right. Uncle Toby said that during gym class, the boys and girls were separated. The girls swam in bathing suits, but the boys? They swam completely naked. I said, “Uncle Toby, what kind of crazy school did you go to?” And he swore it was a normal public school, adding that most schools in the US did the same until the 1970s.

I mean, come on, right? You can see why I thought old Uncle Toby was off his rocker. That sounded completely insane. So naturally I had to do some digging. And guess what? Uncle Toby was right. Until the 1970s, American schoolchildren swam in public schools across the country.

Now, the burning question is, “Why?” Let's dive in, shall we?

I stumbled across this fascinating article titled “When Boys Swim Naked in Gym Class” from the Democrat and Chronicle:

“When you got into high school and used the pool for gym, they had these rules and everybody had to follow them,” Reeves recalled of his days at Charlotte High School.

Don't run on deck. No horseplay. Do not dive into the shallow end. Take a shower before swimming. swim naked No gum…

It may be unthinkable for anyone under the age of 50, but nude swimming was the standard for high school boys in Rochester and many American cities and states until at least 1970.

Yes, to a Millennial like me, this concept sounds completely crazy.

But that still didn't answer the burning question: Why were the young boys forced to swim among themselves and, more importantly, around their adult masters? I had to get a glimpse of Uncle Toby. So I asked him, “Why did schools force you to swim naked?” He searched through his dusty memory files and tentatively suggested that it might have been to keep it clean.

“Cleaning?” I shot back. “So why were the girls wearing bathing suits? If it was hygiene, shouldn't everyone have been without a suit? I felt like Jessica B. Fletcher, ready to open a 'Murder She Wrote' mystery. But I could feel Uncle Toby's growing frustration, “Bella, don't ask me to make sense of this nonsense. When the government tells me to wear my seat belt, I do it without question.”

“That's fair, Uncle Toby,” I replied, “but if you're ever asked to wear your seat belt without your clothes on, I hope you'll ask me why.” With that, I ended the call and dove into my research, determined to discover the “why” behind this peculiar practice.

Turns out I wasn't the only one baffled by the nude swimming. Like Uncle Toby, the boys forced to swim naked were also totally confused. The Democrat and Chronicle This piece delved into this strange chapter in the school's history.

“It was the weirdest thing in the world,” recalled Chuck Napieralski, 67, who graduated with Reeves from Charlotte in 1968. “You can imagine standing there in a line with your hands in front of you hiding. Once you got to the pool, you jumped in.”

Well, upon closer inspection, I was beginning to realize that, once again, old Uncle Toby might have been onto something.

It turns out that this rather odd tradition of guys doing the breaststroke in their birthday suits goes all the way back to 1885, when it started in an all-male indoor swimming pool at the Brooklyn YMCA. Most importantly, this decision to introduce nude swimming was prompted by concerns about woolen swimwear and how the fibers collected dirt and bacteria, posing a potential threat to health and the filtration system of the pool After that, the rest is basically “history,” as in Democrat and Chronicle the piece explains:

In 1926, the American Public Health Association published the first guide to swimming pool management. He recommended that men swim naked and that women wear dresses “of the plainest kind.” These guidelines remained in place until 1962. After that, it was a matter of custom. Andrew Saul, a nutritionist and author from Rochester, wrote about naked swimming at Charlotte High School as far back as 1970. “The subsequent dives were particularly eye-opening,” Saul wrote in his 2003 book, Doctor Yourself. Perhaps school administrators thought that nude swimming created cohesion among young men. Maybe he did. Few activities foster solidarity like man-to-man defense in a game of naked water polo.

And if young guys were looking for comfort and support from advice gurus like Ann Landers, they were out of luck. In 1974, a 15-year-old boy wrote to Ann about how uncomfortable he was showering in front of others, and her advice wasn't exactly “comforting.”

“You need to talk to a school counselor and find out why you're so hung up on being seen naked. If you look around, you'll find that the vast majority of boys who are showering aren't self-conscious at all.”

Apparently, Ann loved tough love and other weird stuff. However, given his age and time period, this boy probably shouldn't have been swimming in his birthday suit, but if Ann's response was at all symbolic of the time, it clearly wasn't there was much sympathy or concern for these. children are forced to swim like “Free Willy”. It might make for a pretty weird dinner conversation, but if the topic comes up, find out if anyone in your family has had to swim like a frat boy after a wild barrel.

Needless to say, it was a very strange time in US public schools.

Until next time, be wickedly wonderful.