At Oxford High School, not many students walk around wearing a letterman jacket. In fact, I have only seen about 15 students out of the over 1,200 students at OHS ever wear them. That lack of popularity made me curious, and last weekend, I asked my grandmother (who is a spry 81 years old), “When you were in school, did a lot of people wear letterman jackets?” Her response was that they were pretty much the ultimate symbol of athletic recognition and excellence. Wearing a letterman jacket in her time meant you were elite for the sport you competed in. But now, these
jackets do not symbolize much at all, a mere token that hangs in the back of high school athletes’ closets. What happened to make letterman jackets so unpopular?

Letterman jackets trace their history back to the Harvard baseball team of 1865. They were flannel pullovers that looked nothing like the leather jackets we have today, but by the 1930’s these jackets looked almost exactly like their modern form. From the Ivy Leagues, letterman jackets proliferated across American college campuses, followed by high schools around the nation. When the jackets became common in American high schools, students loved the idea of them and tried hard to earn the right to wear one. Back in the day, lettermans encapsulated a big achievement – whether you were a star player for football or a state champion tennis player, letterman jackets represented bragging rights.

But now, schools have loosened the requirements to become a lettered athlete. As a cross country runner at OHS, all that is required to letter is to be a part of the team for two years and go to three meets a year, which anyone can do. There is no bar of competitive excellence. What used to be reserved for the few is now attainable by the many. That universal accessibility might seem like a good thing since it celebrates every student’s involvement, but it is not. Granting the privilege of a letterman jacket to students who merely show up dilutes the jacket’s significance. Why wear a letterman jacket to mark an achievement everyone else has completed too?

The traditional symbol of highschool accomplishment in sports is evolving backward. The only way to stop its slide into obscurity is to change the requirements. Around 40% of every sports team should not be able to letter in their activity. Some student athletes might not take that well, but the current situation is that everyone gets a letterman jacket and no one is any happier for it. In order to bring back the elite status of owning a letterman jacket, changes must be made to make it harder to obtain.

Not only changing standards, but an evolution in fashion and style has also shaped the decline of interest in the letter-
man jacket. Reimagining the design could revive it. Currently, Oxford High School’s letterman jackets are bulky and old-fashioned. High school students today have different style preferences compared to previous generations. Something that fits into modern fashion, blending the classic letterman jacket design with athleisure would be a better fit for to-
day’s student athletes.

Then again, perhaps the letterman is meant to die out. Not all trends are meant to be forever. The jacket is in many ways a relic, and its decline in popularity could be permanent. People nowadays do not want to show their achievements off so obviously. People now prefer subtle flexes, and walking around wearing a big jacket that says, “Look, I do this sport,” is not understated.

Whether or not the necessary changes are made depends on the direction OHS wishes to go. Should letterman jackets stay as participation trophies or should they represent excellence? Do we need to break from the past and redesign the jacket, or should we keep it in line with tradition? And most importantly – do we even need the letterman at all?