Letter Jackets
 

This thread is inspired by AGDee's post in the new random thread.

My oldest son started sixth grade this year. This is the first sixth grade class at the school (it was previously just seventh and eighth grades). He made the Cross Country team, one of only a handful of sixth graders to do so.

I want to get him a letter jacket. When I was in junior high (1979-1982 - back before the wheel was invented), all the kids had letter jackets, not just the athletes, so I thought this would be a good idea for my son.

I spoke with the principal and she said it had never been done at the middle school before, but they were a lot smaller before with just the seventh and eighth graders there. She said it might be "neat" to start a new tradition. I asked the coach and he said he had not seen it at the school, but really didn't say yes or no to the idea.

What do you guys think? Should I get him one for Christmas? It would be simple, just a dark green jacket with a chenille "S" on the front (his name embroidered on the letter), the XC symbol on the sleeve and the school's name (done in tackle twill" on the back - just like my old jacket.

I still have both my junior high and high school jacket, and both my sons think they are cool. While also think it would be neat to start something at this school, if my son is the only one with such a jacket, I don't want him to face any flack from other kids, as we know kids at that age can be cruel.

Thoughts?

I think it's a great idea! We never had letter jackets until high school butI see no harm in having letter jackets for middle school. One thing that may keep it from catching on amongst the general school population is the cost...letter jackets are pricey these days. Even at my kids high school there are not as many kids who wear them as there used to be.

I would hesitate on doing it, for the reasons you mentioned. Kids can be cruel, and I think that if your sons are the only ones walking in with letter jackets, it could open them up to some not so nice comments.

It's a nice idea, but if they don't have letterman jackets at the school, I think your sons could face some flack.

I agree with this, if the school starts to do it for everyone, like your experience was, that's one thing. But if a 6th grader comes in wearing a letter jacket that other kids may only be used to seeing on their brothers or sisters who are juniors or seniors in high school, I can imagine it getting a poor reception. Particularly from some 8th graders who may have been on the track team for longer and don't have any kind of letter jacket to show for it.

Wow...I didn't realize that letter jackets caused so much anxiety! Before this thread, I had almost forgotten about letter jackets!

We had them in middle school and high school; usually people bought them during their first year so they could get the maximum amount of wear out of them. I didn't have one because I wasn't in band or any sports, so I'm not sure how expensive they were.

Let me clarify something - in junior high, no one was given a letter jacket by the school, not even the athletes. Parents bought the jackets, the chenille stuff and tackle twill lettering themselves. In high school, parents bought the letter jackets and paid for the lettering, but the chenille letters and emblems were provided by the school (if you lettered in a sport or were a cheerleader - non-lettering athletes paid for everything themselves).

That's kind of similar how it was in my high school. Students got the letter as an award after their first varsity season, and pins (for each sport) for each successive letter. You had to buy the actual jackets at a local awards shop, and someone (either parent or student) would have to sew the letter onto the jacket.

At my son's highschool, you bought the jacket, the school gave you a letter, and if you lettered in more than one sport they gave you the little embroidered sport thing (like a small football, or crossed lacrosse sticks) that you have sewn onto the big letter. Then all added things like your number, your name, any awards (all district, etc.) any team awards (district champs, regionals, etc.) you bought and had sewn on. All told, throughout the 3 years, that darn letter jacket cost hundreds of dollars. The jacket is around $200 with real leather sleeves, and then each additional chenille patch runs around $20.

My son proudly wore it in highschool, but it is now shoved into the back of his closet, never to see the light of day again. His kids will probably get a kick out of it in the FAR distant future :)

How about taking your idea to your school's PTA. PTO or booster club? They might be interested in selling jackets as a fundraiser. That way, all the kids who want one would have a chance to purchase one, and your kid wouldn't be the stand out.

It could be a sweatshirt or something less expensive than a traditional high school letter jacket. As srmom said..those things are incredibly expensive! Somewhere around $500 in my neighborhood. I was surprised that our high school doesn't award JV letters. At least when you could get one with a JV letter, the kid could wear it throughout HS. At this school only the seniors have them...so it's a pricey high school fashion statement IMO.

At my middle school, the football players had...not exactly letter jackets, but similar....and the coaches forbade them from letting girls wear them.
It was a pretty big deal.

At my US school, team letters were awarded under specific criteria and jealously garded against unauthorized use. Sweaters (with sleeve rings for multiple awards in the same sport) were for lettermen. Jackets were reserved for state championship team members and were provided by the school). No one would dare wear a school letter that had not been earned and awarded by the rector. Academic letters were so hard to earn that they were highly respected as well. Sweaters only, no jackets for academics. Sports letters were block capitols. Academic letters were Old English Script.

At my UK school one could win colours which could take the form of a cap or a tie in sporting colours. During normal school days one wore the usual school uniform but could wear coloured rings woven into the top of one's socks to show your team/organization affiliation.

I agree with the comments that wear of a school jacket with a team letter might not go down too well. Your school's letter is something you should earn. It really should not be a fashion statement but a reward of recognition for participation, skill, and effort.

My school gave us letters, but no one bought the jackets!

It was big before my high school merged with a nearby town - after everything changed, though, no one bought them.

I have about 800000 letters though - they just gave us a knew one each time we lettered (which I never really understood).

I have never heard of anyone wearing a letterman's jacket w/o "earning" the letter first. It's not like the class ring where just anyone can buy one. The schools I am familiar with (being military my kids went to 3 different HS's in 3 different states) guarded their "letters" and only gave them out at an award ceremony. You couldn't just buy them off the street. The academic letters were given to the top 5% of the students in each year group. I see this as similar to non-greeks wearing greek letter t-shirts on campus.

I've never seen it done at the middle school level. I agree with KsigKid, if it hasn't been done at your son's school, its probably best not to do it. Middle school kids can be CRUEL and if other kids don't have it, your son might not even wear it.

At my high school, some organizations/sports just gave you the letter, while others gave you both. If you were top 5 in the class, you got the academic letter jacket. My best friend and I were football managers, so when the football team got their letterman jackets, we got ours as well.

I used it in high school, and now its collecting dust in the back of my closet.

Ditto here, as well, unless you go this route:
You would also get some degree of uniformity.

That's interesting. For a number of years, my high school gave out letterman sweaters to athletes who had attained a certain number of varsity letters (I think 6 or 8 was the cut-off). When I started in athletics, though, they had changed it, so that someone with that many letters was given a watch. I only got two letters, so I was a long way off from that, haha.

Still, though, there was an unofficial rule that you only got a jacket if you had more than one letter.

In Junior High School, they sold school pullover jackets. We had a championship football team so their jackets said that on the back, but the regular school jackets just had the school logo or something.

Cheaper than a letterman's jacket but VERY nice to have. Everyone didn't get them, but anyone could.

In high school, I lettered in a sport but the damn "boosters" only gave out jackets to the class of 95 with a sprinkling of junior 96ers. When it became apparent that I wouldn't get a jacket, I went to the local store and got my own damn jacket.

I actually still have my own letter because the people told me it was a little too big for my style of jacket.

One or two of the coaches looked at me sideways when they first saw it, but they knew the boosters sucked and if I had the money, I should be able to wear my own letter on my own jacket.

I like the notion of academic letters which was previously mentioned. I may bring it up to my school's current principal.

It has been awhile since I was in middle school, or even had contact with boys that age, but isn't there a growth spurt that occurs around that time?

In other words, if you bought it this year for Christmas, would your son even be able to wear it in 7th or 8th grade?

I agree 100% with the posters who stated that kids can be cruel and that it might rub some of the older members of the cross country team the wrong way.

The best suggestion was to go to the PTA, but instead of expensive letter jackets (that again could be outgrown) how about the pullover mentioned above? It could say "SchoolName" Cross-Country. They could sell them for all sports/cheerleading etc., with only those truly on the team eligible to buy them. This would be a great fundraiser and also a nice reward for those kids making the team. And... if a growth spurt happens they are much cheaper to replace every year!

I went to a college prep magnet school in Baton Rouge. We had athletic and academic letters, too. The academic letters were highly prized. You had to earn two letters to get a jacket. Students paid for everything, but you could only buy them if you qualified. Ours were navy blue with blue nawgahide sleeves. We had our names on the back and our class year on the sleeve. An SM (for Scotlandville Magnet) was on the front and each of our letters were sewn onto the SM. I had four or so letters, but all I remember are my journalism, science and Mock Trial letters.

At my daughter's school, only the kids who have earned a varsity letter get the jackets and some of them don't even get them since they are so expensive. The jacket itself (with leather sleeves) was about $200. Add on her name, shorten the sleeves (she's short), the school name and Marching Band on the back, school emblem on the one sleeve, chevron on the other, very cool staff with music notes on the back under the school name... plus tax was $340.00! She got her varsity letter for marching band in 8th grade because she was in the high school competitive marching band. I'm glad she got it early and I got her the coat NOW so she can wear it for the full four years. If my camera battery ever finishes charging, I'm going to post a pic of the design on the back because we really like it :)

ETA: Honestly, I think we're giving younger kids more and more and I just see this as a special thing for high schoolers. If it's tradition in your area to get them for middle school, fine, but I wouldn't push the issue, honestly. Besides, our 6th grade sports are "all play", no try outs or anything, so I would see giving a letter for that would be sort of like giving a trophy to every kid.

I think the pullover style jacket would be a good thing for middle school. My cheerleading squad got jackets when I was in middle school and I wore it as much as possible in 7/8th grade, but as soon as I moved onto high school that went into the closet.

In HS, I loved my varsity jacket, as it is starting to get cold now, it reminded me of the days when everyone would start wearing them. At my school only those who received the V letter were able to get the jacket. You had to bring the letter and the certificate from the school stating you lettered in the specific sport to the store. They were a big deal and in my school only athletes wore jackets, no one in marching band or academics wore jackets. I wish it wasn't so horrible to wear them after hs, because that was one warm jacket! I miss wearing it!

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...Picture121.jpg

This is the emblem embroidered on the back of her jacket, with her school name above it and Marching Band below it.

In high school, our daughter was a 3 sport, all 4 year varsity letter earner so we bought her jacket for Christmas of freshman year. It was the kind with the hood that unzipped so the high school's name could be embroidered on it. I sewed on all the applique but the store did the embroidery. It was expensive but no worse than buying a decent coat...and she did wear it all 4 years. Our school system here does not have middle school athletic competition although there are plenty of kids who run around in travel team paraphenalia during school.

When I was in jhs, our school competed against other junior high schools in our school system. We did earn varsity letters based on specific criteria. However, we had them sewn on nylon windbreakers. The nice wool jackets were for the high school kids.

I wouldn't do this for junior high - you're going to be shelling out enough money for it in high school. My poor parents probably shelled out $500 or so for that silly jacket - I think it was $250 or so to buy (and this was 11 years ago when I was a frosh!) and then they had to pay extra to get your name. My school doled out a crapload of letters and patches - class year for being on a freshman team, little letter for being on a junior varsity team, then the big letter for varsity. There were also letters for band, math team, physics team, general academics, forensics...I think I "earned" 6 letters and a lot of people layered theirs but I just wore the athletic ones and then pins for everything else. One of my high school boyfriends was an All-American athlete and his poor mom had it way worse because she was sewing on medals after every meet and patches for conference champion, state champion, etc. Now it lives in my mom and dad's coat closet!