I discovered these photos on the internet. At first I thought it was a spoof website -- surely men didn't swim naked in the the skittish 1940s and 1950s, where male nudity was forbidden in magazines and in movies, and pants were designed to eliminate bulges.
And some of these photos seem faked. The fonts are off, and there's no way nude photos would appear in high school or college yearbooks.
And the boys in the photos look a little old to be in high school or even college. Maybe they are ordinary nudists, with a swim team caption photoshopped in.
Plus there are ample photos of high school, college, and Olympic swim teams of the 1920s-1950s wearing body hugging suits, with bulges but nothing else.
But I've gotten verification in legitimate magazine articles and personal reminiscences. Men and boys in some schools actually did compete naked during the period.
Giving spectators an eyeful, even with the shrinkage.
The full article on swim team photos is on Boomer Beefcake and Bonding.
At my first year of college all freshmen-at least the men- were required to pass a swimming test.
ReplyDeleteYou had to strip naked then swim across the pool to the satisfaction of the gym coach.
If you failed the test you were required to take swimming lessons.
I recall seeing a fellow student who was so handsome with a trim physique that my cock had involuntary twitches.
(He resembled a guy from high school days with whom I had a discreet strip session at age 14:the sight of his lovely ass had me nearly dropping a load without touching myself )
After getting dressed from the swim had a brief conversation with the guy at the pool and nothing happened beyond that.
What year was that? I had swimming in high school and college, but we all wore suits.
Deleteso tell us about the "discreet strip session"? :)
DeleteRPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, NY — Sept 1969
DeleteThe custom of nude swim meet is documented in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 6, 1928, available at https://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/59857664/ . Look for the article "Swimming suits blamed for poor times in tank".
ReplyDeleteLooked this up and enjoyed reading it. Would like to copy the article and ad to my files, but it does not translate to text. You just have to copy the whole article, somewhat blurred.
DeleteI've seen newspaper articles with team pics from the era and they were nude. Try doing some research on tumblr. You'll be as surprised as me. As far as some looking older that could be due to grainy black and white pics. Cameras weren't so great then either l.
ReplyDeleteIn high school (Houston, Tx) those of us guys who didn't know how to swim were required to learn. So they separated about 30 of us from the rest of the boys. We were taken down to the indoor swimming pool for our first lesson. The coach told us to strip down to our birthday suits. I hadn't expected that and I couldn't help but get super excited. I developed a boner that only went down when we got in the cold water. Only one other guy seemed to notice. He gave me hell for the next several weeks. I wish I had been brave enough to tell him to "suck my dick"!
ReplyDeletei recall my father taking me to the YMCA and the males were swimming nude in the 40s
Deletebigsteel9@gmail.com
I attended a Chicago public high school from 1971 to ’75. The boys swam nude. I didn’t swim, so I got to sit along the sidelines and observe … and hand out the paper towels after each class. One kid, named Ken, amazed me. Short and lean (but decently muscular) in stature, he sported a horse cock. Never got my hands around it, but I sure enjoyed the view.
ReplyDeleteSeparately, the girls wore big, very non-revealing swimsuits.
I was in high school in Rock Island, about 3 hours west of Chicago, at almost the same time, 1975 to 1978. But boys swam in swimsuits.
Deletewhat were the paper-towels for?
Delete1970s would be a bit late; the American Public Health Association stopped recommending nudity in 1962; I think even inertia was being overcome by that point.
DeleteBy the way, girls never swam naked.
I can tell you, country boys still swam naked in ponds at least through the rest of the 20th century. Again, all male, or with enough girls present to prove nothing happened. And thus let me introduce you to a mainstay of heterosexuality: The double standard. In 99.9% of cases, it works out for guys. The remaining 0.1% are sex crimes.
If a girl wants to swim with one boy, it's assumed they're a couple and about to sleep together if they haven't already.
If a one girl swims with a lot of boys, it's assumed she slept with all of them. HUGE scandal.
By the way, it's still assumed one or two boys with two or more girls, something happened, but it's no big scandal.
If it's a more balanced mix of boys and girls, no sex happened. Girls have their swimsuits (or a bikini top and shorts), guys have nothing.
All-male is interesting. When just boys swim together, it more than once led to the boys talking about girls and then jerking off together, but we wouldn't go bragging about it.
I entered High School, Third Form as we called 9th grade at The Albany Academy, our private school, in 1974. A sports team was mandatory all three session in Freshman year. In Winter Term, I choose Swim Team. I hated basketball and wouldn't be caught dead in a wrestling leotard. Thankfully, our Swim Team started wearing suites just that year. Before that....always nude.
ReplyDeleteThe pool was awesome....down in the cellars, a small stand for viewers, and a pool surrounded with old subway type tiles.My best buddy forgot a suit one time and the coach made him go nude. I never forgot my suit after that. It was embarrassing enough sitting next to him on the bench.The pool looked like it was from the 1930s. The locker room too. Sexy, early 20th century jock.
Still, I always thought about the wrestling team. Did I pick wrong? All those muscle bullies.
My dad's Private Club, The Fort Orange Club had a nude swimming policy as well. Up until women were forced upon us.Early 90s? Around there. Then suits became a must. Damn equal rights BS. The frails should have stuck to the all wiminz clubs.
True. Up until the 1970s most YMCAs and health clubs were all male, and nude swimming was the custom, sometimes even required for sanitary reasons. It was great to stop by the club on a hot afternoon, toss off your clothes, shower, and hop in the cool pool with no silly suit. The femmes have ruined most of the once good health clubs. Nowadays the clubs look like singles bars, with potted plants, pastel colors, etc. "Equality" is nonsense, like unisex. Males are males and females are females, and that's nature's law. Even when females are allowed in a club they don't use it half as much as men, and the clubs have to spend a fortune on separate female facilities.
DeletePerhaps the dumbest thing I saw was a woman talking about men's locker room protocol, and she said you shouldn't get naked. Leaving aside that I'm changing, and the shower room, and the obvious question of how many men's locker rooms she's been in, it's fine, just don't dangle your cock in front of my face or start jerking off.
DeleteI''m pretty sure the first two photos are porn stars. The fellow sitting, up top, may be Jamie Wingo.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a boy scount, one of these least favorite things I ever had to do in my life, we were given swimming lessons at an old indoor swimming pool close to the Univ.of Utah. Someone would drive us (my mom more than once) and there were usually 5-10 guys, ages 12-13 taking lessons and of course we had to swim naked. The instructors didn't and thank god it didn't last last each time. I don't remember why they told us to go naked but I was glad when we were done.
ReplyDeletenothing wrong with male nudity
ReplyDeleteAt YMCA in Winnipeg in the late 1950s we were not allowed to wear swim suits
ReplyDeletethe 'boysswimnude' tumblr appears to have gone in the great tumblr purge of adult content (as would any nudes you had there).
ReplyDeleteI don't remember where the article was now, but I don't think it was tumblr.
Deletenot sure which article you mean? but somewhere in your blogs you mentioned that particular tumblr (or a com,mentor did). that was how i found it. xD
Delete(also, @ some point, you were thinking of moving your "random cute guy pics from various geograpgic locations" -posts to tumblr)
I'm from UT and when I was in boy scouts (hated every minute), about 1962, we took swimming lessons at a gym on the U of U Campus. I remember almost nothing about it except that we had to do it nude. I remember seeing others guys but it wasn't a big deal when I was about 12. I would have liked to have done that when I got to be 15 but.... the best part of the lessons was that my mom drove us to the classes more than once and when we were done, she stopped and bought us milkshakes at least twice, maybe more. It made me very popular.
ReplyDeleteAnd your mom (other moms) stayed and watched the class??
DeleteThe blog that discussed the "muscular Christianity" campaign and the YMCA policies was
ReplyDeletehttp://www.frank-answers.com/frank-answers-about-swimming-naked-in-the-ymca/
I visited a friend at Miami U, in Ohio a lot in the late 1960'sand early 70's. Access to the mens swin area was restricted unless you had a special pass from a coach. All men swimming were nude and plenty of delicious sights were had. It wasn't sexual at the pool but meetings occurred and things happened back at the dorm rooms later. One coach was quite fond and hosted a few of his special athletes to private parties at his home- where nudity was often abundant. Fond memories. Nude exercise swimmingceased in 1972 after parental complaints to the University. The coach disappeared--lol
ReplyDeleteI was in high school from 1966-1970 (yeah, I'm old) but we swam naked all through those years.
ReplyDeleteThis issue is fascinating. I am trying to pin down in my thinking when all this compulsory stripping of boys started and when it stopped and where it took place in terms of geography -- like which states or provinces and countries, etc. It is very interesting how cultures forget!!!
ReplyDeleteJust to say: I think nudity SHOULD be healthy. My interest here has to do with reflecting on my own hang-ups when young. The Hollywood YMCA swimming classes around 1950 required boys to nude but did not warn my family. I was traumatized and dropped the class and did not learn to swim for several years, and felt shame that I did not fit in. My parents were ex-Catholics, but kept the guilt feelings about sex and the body and passed them on to me and I thought that was normal and judged other people. Now my head knows better but I still carry a lot of that baggage. I am trying to better understand how particular social forces can create feelings and attitudes that can make people feel miserable about themselves and influence relationships with others.
PS: it was not just the nudity at the YMCA swim classes that freaked me out, but that was the most horrible part of it. The instructors acted like they had power over my naked body and that was a huge, huge factor. Also, when they let me out so that I could take a leak, there were two adult guys having anal sex in the showers and who just laughed at me that I was shocked. So that multiplied everything. This was Hollywood! I was not shocked at that age by adult people having any kind of sex (If it had been my own parents I would have been shocked). But it was another matter to feel forced to be naked by adults, and the business in the showers made the whole atmosphere all the more sexual. I came away as a kid feeling that the swim instructors had a subconscious agenda of sexual power. Maybe they did, maybe they did not. But my point is that these things can stay with you a lifetime, like it or not. So nothing wrong with nudity but the context is something that I am trying to understand. And if there was nothing wrong with all this FORCING boys to get naked then why did culture so quickly forget it?
Went to a NYC public high school from 62-64 and swimming was a required activity of the gym period. They combined three gym classes in the pool (75 boys) and we all swam naked. Imagine, all those pubescent boys together - there were always a few hard-ons to observe!
ReplyDeleteI was on a swim team back in the late 60's at the local YMCA and me were all naked except at swim meets. We practiced naked and had our swim recreation naked. I always had a hard-on to start but in the showers almost every guy had a hard-on. There were even some of the guys who would grab each others penis and attempt to masturbate him.
DeleteActually, male nude swimming lasted in some places until the early 1970s, ending around 1971.
ReplyDeleteCan you say where? And know any details?
DeleteI was a very shy boy in High School. I did not like the community showers we took. When it came to swimming and found out we swam NUDE I went crazy. Then to top it off I was parted with the most athletic boy there and his 7 in cock. I had trouble keep my 5 inch cock under control. Until the day when we was getting out of the pool his cock was hard. Nothing was every said but for three years 69, 70 and 71 that was the facts of life.
ReplyDeleteThe third picture down that alleges to be Andrew Napoleoni, Todd Mitchell, Bob LaFayette, and Brad Johnston is actually a still from The Body Shoppe's "Screwed" amateur porn video, circa late '90s. I own it and immediately recognized them. The video is in color, so this was doctored to make it appear old-timey.
ReplyDeleteI suspected that that one was not authentic. The models look too old to be in high school, and their hair styles and physiques are wrong for the 1950s.
Deletein 1962 when I was 8 years old, I was sent to the YMCA summer program in order to "cure" me of effeminacy - swimming naked was required - as a shy child I was upset at first, but surprised myself with how easily I adjusted to the nudity in about 5 minutes - everybody was naked, including the teenaged boys and the adult men of all ages - I had never before seen naked men, so I was keenly interested - the variety in age, size and shape (of genitals & physiques) and color (racial integration had only just begun that year) was fascinating - since I was just a little boy, I was about eye level with the crotches of the grown men - I liked it
ReplyDeleteI attended Parochial school through high school from mid fifties through seventies. Although public competitions had swimsuits Intramural outings of boy teams were nude,as were all pushed and training swims. My older brother and I were wrestlers (he went on to be the NY State champ. Because we spent part of every year in Miami and had one of the first home pools in our city we were recruited for the swimming, diving and water polo teams. I was aware of my sexuality from San early age but still a virgin when the most beautiful boy I have ever seen suddenly appeared. An exchange student from Iceland; tall blond with a flawless fabulously muscular build. Even in the later steroid age I never met anyone as handsome and perfectly built until I had a relationship with a gay pork star named Rommel Hunt.When he joined the wrestling team I found myself alone with him after school. It was the custom for boys of all weights to pair off and wrestleeach other. Losers left to shower off and leave for home. I found myself with just him and I alone. We wrestled nude in practices and despite him being a foot taller, heavier and far stronger after an exhausting,sweaty struggle I found myself mounting him and submitting him with a frankly illegal falsehood I borrowed from my private judo lessons. He was a bully who often picked fights just to manhandle and cow the other athletes and this was the first time he had ever been beaten. To my surprise his macho attitude crumbled and while still groggy and weak let me take him anally multiple times, including in the showers afterwards. It was my first and still best deck experience of my life.
ReplyDeleteActually, nude swimming lasted in some cities until the early '70s.
ReplyDeleteA well-researched list of when nude swimming ended can be found at https://tnsprofessorsig.org/nude%20swimming%20in%20school.html A number of schools continued the practice until the mid-1980s
ReplyDeleteI graduated from Charlotte junior-senior High School Rochester New York in 1976. Grades 7 through 12 all boys swam naked in gym class.
ReplyDeleteDuring swim meets between schools boys wore Speedos.
There can be no doubt that boys regularly, if not universally, swam naked in gym class and (under certain circumstances) in competitions. At my high school in the early 60s we wore suits, but at the school on the other side of the township, they didn't. (Ours was newer, and the pool wasn't as sheltered from passers-by.) Likewise, at an older YMCA nearby, the older practice still prevailed, though only at posted "men-only" hours. At my college, in addition to the Olympic-size pool for competitions and general use, there was a "men's pool" where suits were optional -- until around 1975.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I think most photos purporting to document this have been faked one way or another. (It was simply out of the question to show a penis in everyday publications at that time.) Most of the photos at the top of this page look like models (porn or art) in a group shot with a false caption attached. Some may be photoshopped, the suits removed: I think this is true of the top photo, which is from a "series" about a supposed high school yearbook showing frontal nudity (as if!) -- others from this series have been exposed as fakes, alongside the original suited photos, though not this one as far as I've seen yet. I must admit that the photoshopping has been done with great care, more than in most such cases. There's no problem believing that shot with the old-style wool full-body is real. And a very few other shots may be unfaked, but in my experience they turn out not to be American school teams: they may be from German health clubs, or might be early-70s beach lifeguards goofing around.
I attended a summer camp when I was under the age of 10, YMCA run. I swear there was a bewildering Fri afternoon when the traditional naked swim happened. I had no idea it was coming. It was an all guys camp, but women on staff in the administration building, and they came to watch. Older guys post-puberty not embarrassed--goofy poses mid-air from the high dive. I was kind of mortified...young, unprepared, the women. Each summer I had and continued to swim in a summer league, appropriately covered.
ReplyDeleteWe never swam nude in school or camp, but that was in the 80's. Now, a few of us started to head down to the creek in the summer to cool off. This one kid had already gotten yelled at for coming home wet, and I knew I'd have gotten in big trouble for swimming without permission. So the other guys talked us into skinny dipping - no incriminating wet underwear. And it didn't take long before all 4 (sometimes 5) of us were skinny dipping whenever we went down there.
ReplyDelete