The Eye of the Beholder: The 1971 Spanjian Catalog - Warmups, Parkas, and Coaching Gear
As introduced earlier this week, the 1971 Spanjian catalog is the epitome of ugly commercial art directed toward football.
Today’s story is my ugly Christmas sweater gift to you, and is one you may want to return for something you like better. That’s okay, it’s the thought that counts.
After today’s gift, you still see one more covering:
Other Sports
Warmups and parkas become increasingly more critical as football gear the closer you live to Santa’s territory. They were also more important back in the days of single-platoon football when substitutes warmed up for games and then sat on the bench for sixty minutes.
Coaches have been important since nearly the beginning of football. Back when graduate coaching was popular, the alums returned to the field in football gear to demonstrate techniques, scrimmage, and play games against the varsity. By 1971, those days were long gone, but sweet-looking synthetic coaches’ shorts and shirts were in full bloom, as seen on the following pages.
Although football is this site’s focus, the 1971 Spanjian catalog had some beautiful offerings for other sports, several of which you will see tomorrow. However, since today is Boxing Day and the Spanjian catalog does not cover that sport, here’s a page from the 1918-1919 D&M Fall & Winter catalog showing a few of their pugilistic goods.
As an even more special gift on Boxing Day and to connect with the earlier discussion of coaches wearing their sport’s gear, here’s a picture of the 1935 Yale boxing team, with the young law student Gerald Ford as an assistant coach.
Also, I know Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of boxing, but work with me here. We’re trying to have some fun over the holidays.
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