This would have been earlier than the seventies, but I worked with a guy who can also verify that nude swimming was mandatory for the boys. He went to Denfeld and swam for the school and the Y, if I recall correctly, and I was told that even the swim teams swam naked. Seems odd to me....

strange... I've heard about this taking place in another city/state in the past. I'll have to see if I can dig up the refreance.

ah, found it... looks like it was pretty common. See the discussion here

An old friend of mine told me that they had to do this at Proctor High School in the 70s. He said one half of the pool would be (naked) boys and the other half would be the girls. He said the coaches explanation was that it would keep the boys in the pool instead of running around and misbehaving. Hmmmmm. Maybe I went to a "wild" High School in the 80s, but I know we would have acted exactly the opposite. I mean, really... teenage boys naked around teenage girls! Woo Hoo! My friend said it wasn't really that big of a deal -- but looking back, he admits it was a rather bizarre practice and still doesn't fully understand the reason behind it. He did say, however, that it always worked -- all the kids always behaved themselves. I think it may have something to do with "shrinkage".

My dad, who is seventy-one, talks about swimming naked at a YMCA in Chicago.

yep..it's true..in 8th grade (1978) at proctor I HAD to swim naked. I think the rationale was....er...hey why did they make us do that?? I must have been in the last class because in 9th grade we wore suits and there were girls. the classes were always split by gender.

1975 robbinsdale jr. boys naked, girls not. bummer for me.

Woodland Middle School (nee Junior High) in the late 60's. No suits for boys. They said it was too much trouble to dry them. (We were all naked in a group shower before and after anyway, was the rationale.) In fact if you wanted to wear a pair of trunks you were required to bring a note from home. Some guys did. But of course, they were considered "wimps."

this was likewise the case in the mid-70s in big schools in suburban chicago, according to a man i dated way back when. i never went to a school with a pool, so i never witnessed this atrocity myself. (i'm kidding. on the "atrocity" thing. but yes, it was weird.)

BTW, he said it had something to do with hygiene, and poor kids not being able to afford a suit. that doesn't account for the girls being issued gym class suits, though. perhaps a money-saver, since boys being naked was no biggie? who knows. but methinks it was pretty common for people to swim in the buff all over the place until ... what? what changed, i wonder?

I think in general people are more squicky with child nudity, perceptions of girls being more vunerable to abuse perhaps accounted to them always having to wear suits in school. The concept that boys are also at high risk, especially following the ongoing church sex abuse fiasco, and increased fear of child porn may account for the change.
As always it is the few that ruin it for the majority.

I hear now they all have to wear suits of armor.

This is to Purple: Do you know if it was a common practice to swim nude at the Chicago YMCA?

I don't know about Chicago, but in western NY, we swam naked in gym class until the early '80s. I always attributed the practice to the military backgrounds of the gym teachers. In middle school (grades 6-8), one teacher instituted a disciplinary technique, whereby if someone broke the pool rules (running, spitting on the deck, etc.) he would whistle everyone out of the pool and order us to assume an extended push-up position. We would hold this position for probably three minutes or so in this dripping, cold and utterly exposed state(although it felt a lot longer) while the teacher made us repeat, in unison, "I will remember...NOT to run around the pool (or spit, or whatever the infraction)..." He would typically throw in many other do's and don'ts: eat our vegetables, respect our parents, then wrap up with something thrown in for humorous effect.

We accepted it as just part of the class, and today I laugh about it, but I wouldn't want my sons to have to experience that.

"yep..it's true..in 8th grade (1978) at proctor I HAD to swim naked. I think the rationale was....er...hey why did they make us do that?? I must have been in the last class because in 9th grade we wore suits and there were girls. the classes were always split by gender."

Baci you don't make it clear if your swim classes were as described by Gwanto "...one half of the pool would be (naked) boys and the other half would be the girls." or whether your classes were single gender.

Yes it is true, especially in NYS. I always thought that perhaps it was because so many gym teachers were latent homosexuals. Years later I learned from others that the decision to compel boys to swim nude in schools were always decided at the district level. This means that female teachers and administrators (who, in many districts make up the majority of that type of staff) had to give their approval for that rule.

Over the years I have come across stories of female substitute teachers conducting the swim classes despite the boys' nudity or stories of girls sneaking into the pool to get a good look at the merchandise. Therefore, the story of one half of the pool for naked boys and the other half for girls fully covered sounds credible to me.

Recently I read where a mother used Title IX to compel a district to allow boys to use swim trunks. When other districts learned of her legal success, this ended the nearly nationwide policy of forcing boys to swim nude.

It is TRUE! I am from the Duluth Central High School Class of 1971 and we ALWAYS swam in the nude. That was the last year of the "old Central" and the boys had their own pool across 2nd Street from the main school building. I think the building "Barnes-Ames" was the former boys YMCA, so nude swimming had gone on there for a long time. The building is still there, but the pool has been closed for many years. We swam in the nude at the old men's YMCA and Washington Junior High too. Not to sound like a perv, but I really liked it. I have never felt comfortable in suit since I was 18.

Found this discussion while trying to find out if there was anywhere else getting it as wrong as the posh private school in England where my friends and I suffered this custom. I can assure nostalgics like edgeways that Tricky Ricky has called the motives exactly right. I am now 47 years old; the damage is still with me. I told my parents at the time that I wanted nothing to do with this practice, and that any teacher who thought it appropriate to force unwilling teenagers to strip naked had no business anywhere near children. My parents ignored my opinion; assumed "boys being naked is no biggie". they now know they failed me. I think that mother who used your Chapter IX deserves a medal.

Yep. Lincoln Jr. Mid-Seventies. Thought it was weird as hell then, still do. Never did hear anything close to a rational reason.

I went to Duluth Woodland in the mid-1970s and the boys always, without exception, swam in the nude. Swim suits were actually forbidden. Also, for those of you who find this odd, you have to understand that we didn't. No one cared, and no one gave it a second thought. There wasn't nearly as much paranoia about our own bodies back then as people seem to have today, and swimming naked was just a part of school. In fact, we found it a little strange that the gym teachers (Mr. Anick, and Mr. Bailey, as I recall) did NOT swim or teach naked along with the rest of us. It is true that, initially, the first day of seventh grade, we post-sixth graders were a little shy at the sudden public nudity, but that dissipated within a couple of days, and nudity became very much the accepted norm. We didn't have co-ed classes with the girls (who wore suits). The only fear that anyone had throughout our three years of naked swimming was the chance of a fire drill, when you had to get out of the pool FAST, grab a towel, and file out of the building. This did happen once in awhile, but never to me. At the end of ninth grade, a poll was taken throughout the Duluth public school system of all the boys in grades 7-9 to see if the requirement of nude swimming should be changed or left in place. When the result were in, the majority of boys in ALL Duluth's junior high schools had voted that they PEFERRED nude swimming. Naked swimming was not thought of as gay, or sexual, or obscene or weird. It was pretty much just a simple and enjoyable experience. The school board, however, voted to require suits though exactly why was never explained. It is my belief that nude swimming was quite beneficial to us, and I think the practice ought to be resurrected.

We swam nude in Minnesota in the sixties. The instructor was also nude. The only wierd part was doing naked jumping jacks before swimming. Visualize 25 naked guys doing that with our penises boucing up and down. Occasionally girls wearing suits would "accidentally" come early for the next class and two girls actually hid in our locker room to watch us take showers. No one seemed to mind as we all looked pretty much the same. I didn't like diving off the low board. Ouch!

Our (boys only) swim class was nude throughout junior and senior high school. Suits weren't even allowed. It's interesting that Mel had a teacher that was also nude. I guess that makes sense, but our teacher generally wore a speedo. I can ony remember a few times when he was naked in the pool with us. Occasionally we had student teachers, and they were naked along with the class. I don't believe girls ever got into our locker room or in the pool area when we were there, but the boys swim team practiced in the nude, and sometimes girls would come in then. They were usually more upset about that than we were.

Jon

I grew up always swimming naked at school, at the Y, and on the swim team. This wasn't a choice, so we didn't consider it right or wrong. Adults made choices for us all the time. When to go to school, what kind of shoes to wear to church, how to behave at the grocery store. We were accustomed to rules already being in place, and we adapted to them, as kids do everywhere. So nudity in gym class and at the YMCA was an accepted part of a pre-existing system. And as an accepted part of this system, we considered it normal, not sexual. It helped that the gym teachers were also nude. Generally, before class got underway, the teacher would be wrapped in a towel, but once class started, he would hang it over a chair and get in the pool nude with the rest of us. No one thought anything about this. It was completely accepted that swimming was done nude, so we would have thought it strange if he hadn't swum nude as well. I don't know when things changed, or why. That happened after I graduated from high school. Nudity among boys in environments such as these - public or private - was never something to be feared or ashamed of. I should add that, because it was pre-accepted, we didn't have to go through any sort of adaption or acceptance phases. We were free to enjoy it, without guilt or embarrassment. I feel bad for kids today who are so ashamed of themselves that something as pleasant and innocent as this is necessarily avoided. We've lost a lot.

It's surely true. We (boys only) swam nude all thru high school from 1971-1975, in Northern NJ, Bergen County .. The girls surely always wore swimsuits (I have sisters) The instructors (paid coaching staff males) and assistants, who were local college guys all swam nude also. As for women? NEVER in four years... All the doors to the pool and boys locker rooms were locked before the swim time started, even though I know lots of girls would have loved to catch a glimse of 60 boys and 4 grown men bareass. Thinking back, It was a lot of fun, but I prefer my sons wear their swimsuits ....

Rick,

You say "Thinking back, It was a lot of fun," but then you say "but I prefer my sons wear their swimsuits."

Why?

swim naked is best i had to do it in the boy scouts when i was 11 only problem i had with it was i was embarressed when i saw older boys that had pubic hair or other boys who still had foreskin and i wanted both but i wasnt old enough for pubes and my unloving parents and a butcher doctor and country who supports the mutilating act of circumcision took best part of my penis away leaving me with a embarressed to be seen nude head sticking out like im horney shy boy who stayed under water hiding the little mutilated thing till it shrivvled up to a head on some marbles

That last comment was just a little weird - and not very believeable. We swam naked in junior and senior high. Never thought too much about it, since it had always been that way, and no girls were around. Why not? It seemed pretty sensible, and once you're used to it, it feels pretty good. Our swim team practice naked too (I joined in 8th grade) and I don't remember anyone being uncomfortable or shy about it. Maybe that's because swim team was a choice, so we knew what we were getting into. If I were to go back and have a choice today, I would still swim nude, both in class and on the swim team. What's the big deal?

Thomas

Sure we swam naked in high school and college and we never gave it a thought. I graduated from high school in 1971. I had showered with about 60 other boys after PE class, swam naked both at the High School pool, at camp, and at the YMCA and often chose to swim naked if a bunch of us guys went to a lake or river to swim. Our instructors always wore gym shorts or swim trunks and it never occurred to us to question that they should do so while we were naked. I wasn’t aware that we were REQUIRED to swim naked. It was just something that guys did. Girls did not. I suppose we just went along with the system at school and the "Y" but it was clearly our choice to swim naked when we were on our own

I was on the swim team both in high school and in college. We always practiced naked and never gave it a thought. In college we heard rumors that some other teams were competing naked and asked the coach to let us do so. He kept putting us off by saying he would consider it if the other team actually showed up naked. Finally, we were the visiting team at a club in California and they were nude. The coach told us to forget it but we did our warm-up laps naked as usual, and then two of the guys swam their events naked along with the other team. The spectators didn't show any reaction at all. I think we were a little disappointed.

I remember being worried when I was 14 or so that I might get an erection in the pool but when it actually happened in college as a result of a discussion some of us were having in the shallow end of the pool, the hilarity, pointing, and jokes from my peers were all in good fun and not humiliating.

I worked for several summers at a boy’s camp where most but not all of the boys swam naked until the early 70's. It was common to loll around on the beach naked too and was often a source of hilarity when the discussion turned sexual which would cause one or more of us to crawl away in a prone position. When the order came down to wear swim trunks, most of us resisted. It felt like a swipe at our manhood. Wearing swim trunks in an all male environment was wimpy! It was something that separated us from the girls!

I suppose it may have been traumatic for some guys but for most of us it was no big deal. It was just the way it was. I can't say that we were not aware of our nakedness, particularly during that one swim meet. We were very aware and proud of it. Nudity wasn’t confined to swimming either. It was common at the “Y” for guys to go into the gym and shoot baskets naked while waiting for the pool door to be unlocked. While in college I lived in a fraternity where we all showered together, walked to and from the bathrooms naked and occasionally even drank beer while naked in the showers. I remember one time too when we had all been playing in the surf at the ocean and after coming out a spontaneous soccer game started up. There we were 20 or more of us all running around playing soccer naked. It was a bonding experience. It was not sexual but it was decidedly macho. It was very typical male adolescent horsing around

I have two sons, now 17 and 19. Both grew up after boys swimming naked was unusual and they didn’t even shower at school except after team sports. Both are comfortable in the locker room of our athletic club and in the sauna however. I showed this discussion to them and both allowed as how they have been skiinny dipping occasionally and would like to have lived at a time when it was the norm instead of the exception.

The 70's caused the "gay"

Funny. This subject has come up before, leaving my younger friends aghast. They always cringe and say, "you all had to swim NAKED?! WHY?" Yes, it was the norm but unlike Stefan, Thomas and Rick, I hated it. But I was a geeky kid and it was just another uncomfortable layer in that weird, psycho matrix called gym class. I've never heard nor understood the rationale for it and I resent it still. Without getting too graphic, let's just say there are lots of developmental differences between boys at that age (specifically, jr. high school) and I find it hard to believe no one else noticed. God knows I did.

I'm fine and comfortable with skinny-dipping, saunas and the locker room -- as I think my friends from that era are -- so apparently no great trauma was wrought. One thing still bugs me after all these years: why the hell did the girls get suits?

Dearborn Michigan school had nude swimming as well. From grade 7-12 boys were nude. Girls would occassionally sneak a peak when they could.

Gwanto. on | July 17, 2006 07:46 AM | said.
> An old friend of mine told me that they had to do this at Proctor High School in the 70s. He said one half of the pool would be (naked) boys and the other half would be the girls.

Is there any where we can verify this Gwanto?

Have any other have heard of similar situations - I've read in several post in various news groups over the years -- which would seem to indicate it was a rare but not uncommon practice. Though usually the practice of having the boys swim naked at one end of the pool with the girls in swim suits at the other ended when the boys reached puberty.

I've even read [I've lost the reference] where a mid-west YWCA allowed [read encourage or dissuaded] pre-pubecent boys from wearing swimming costumes, whilst they were compulsorary for girls, women and men.

Mark,

What you heard about midwestern YMCAs isn't entirely accurate. Men AND boys of all ages were actually forbidden from wearing suits of any kind. All swimming for males was enforced nude, just as it was in the schools. Girls, on the other hand, had to wear suits - nudity for them was not allowed. Can't explain it, but I can vouch for it because I participated in it. We also swam on all swim teams, at all ages, naked.

Thom

Yes, this is true. The YMCA would not allow boys and men (of ANY age) to wear a swim suit in the pool. Nudity was mandatory. However, what isn't known, isn't missed. And while it's true that the pool had an observation window, so anyone could watch (staff, moms, prospective members of the general public), we expected - and were expected - to be publicly naked, so it was never a big deal. Our swim team was nude as well, as I believe it was for all YMCAs at the time. Not sure about the rest of the country, but we competed against other Y swim teams with everyone on both teams naked, whether there were spectators or not.

Phil

Just a word of warning on this post: There seems to be a pervert in our midst who is obsessed with naked boys. Thom, Thomas, Geoff, Jon, and Phil are all the same person, using the e-mail handle, "thomascedarcreek." He's been commenting on this post since it was written nearly 2 years ago, carrying on conversations with himself, apparently. A web search of his handle reveals porn stories that he's written on the topic. I just thought I would let everyone know to be careful, and to call out this possible pedophile. I know your e-mail address and your IP. Please stay away from this website.

I went to an Indianapolis
catholic high school in the
60s. We did swim nude once a week for gym. Shy kids were allowed to wear breif speedo tank suits, but few ever did. It was an all boys school, but some of us
wanted girls to come in and swim nude with us. The coach was a decent person, so we did not feel oppressed by the tradition.