Today's Tidbit... Play Like A 1961 Champion Catalog
A little over a year ago I reviewed the Champion Athletic catalog from 1955, noting that the Champion C logo premiered the following year. Today we get to look at the 1961 catalog, where the Champion C is nowhere to be found. Manufacturer logos generally did not appear on clothing at the time. They showed up on helmet foreheads, footballs, and some shoes, but the only place they were found on clothing was the tag. Of course, the times have changed.
Unlike the 1955 catalog which used black and red ink only, the 1961 version has multi-color printing, so Michigan gear no longer appears in red, as it did in 1955.
The range of colors available to uniforms buyers is evident on the pages displaying the football jerseys. Not only could you buy a jersey in any color under the sun, but neck and shoulder trim in a second color could be had for free.
You also had your choice of jersey number styles, ranging from the standard block to the "spotter number" style (see #17, 38, 55, 44, 22, and 19).
While Champion's jerseys were great and their line of T-shirts was world class, nothing compared to Champion's heavy cotton sweatshirts, one of which I still wear when the gales of September come early.
More interesting than Champion's 1961 football gear were the gym suits. I haven't hung around in high school boys locker rooms much of late, but there was a time that gym class often involved school-specific gear.
I have spent even less time hanging around high school girls locker rooms lately, but they had gym suits back in 1961 that I suspect have not been seen for a few decades.
Another interesting set of products were those positioned for fundraising and team awards. Champion claims to have invented the collegiate sportswear market in the 1930s, but people wearing clothing with school or team logos did not become common until the 1970s and 1980s, so Champion was clearly ahead of the game, offering a range of products, all in natural fabrics.
The last items of note are Champion's award jackets. Letter jackets came on the athletic scene in the 1930s, mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. How many schools issued jackets with school logos rather than letters is unknown. Perhaps most athletes in 1961 still wore their letters on sweaters, so the award jackets were an additional way to strut about town or campus.
Hopefully, some of you enjoyed the stroll down memory lane. If you belong to a younger demographic, then the outfits seen in movies set in the early 1960s may make more sense now than they did in the past.
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Such great graphics and illustrations to make the product lines very appealing.
I made the mistake of tossing a late-'60s stapled b/w catalogue from an outfit that would make your customized fan jersey to order, college or pro ..