Spirit Blankets
Anyone who has ever played high school sports, active or in the past, knows what a varsity jacket is. Varsity letters are awarded to athletes who make the varsity squad. But what’s a spirit blanket and what does it have to do with varsity jackets?
Before the varsity jacket was invented, varsity letters were sewn onto blankets!
The history of the varsity jacket dates back to the late 1800’s at Harvard University. Back then, the baseball team started showing up at games with a large “H” sewn on their uniform. These were early varsity letters.
However, the athletes could only display that athletic achievement while on the field. There was not “off field” display of athletic achievements back in those times.
The parents and grandparents of the players started sewing varsity letters onto sweaters that the players could wear when they weren’t on the field. This was in the 1890’s and was the beginning of the letterman sweater.
If you fast forward into the 1950’s the letterman sweater still held onto it’s popularity, and had started to branch out into a different design that we all know today as the varsity jacket. Both the varsity sweater and the varsity jacket remain prominent icons of high school athletics to this day. But what happened to the spirit blanket?
Well, varsity blankets remain alive and well with specialty companies in various parts of the United States. While remaining the less popular cousin of today’s varsity jackets and varsity sweaters, varsity blankets still hold a position in memorabilia for high school athletics.
Varsity letter blankets began to resurface in mid 2015 and have continued to gain notoriety since then.