Gallery • 5 Photos

Class of 72, to the right is the sweatermens and to the left is the lettermens.

Letterman jackets, as you may know, have been in a decrease of popularity at Lincoln. You can sometimes see Lincoln alumni wearing the jackets to sporting events, as the Letterman is a staple of every high school’s sprit-wear, or at least it used to be. The jackets can put a dent in your pocket, costing around $180-500. It depends on what you want sewn on.

You may not have seen or heard of “sweatermans” before. These are lettered sweaters that were the original Lettermans. They were used as a status symbol of academic and athletic accomplishments.

Let’s understand what all the different symbols on the sweaters meant. The year of graduation is optional on the right upper sleeve. To the bottom left was the “L”, which you would embroider a pin or image of your sport on. If you did not choose t0 include a specific sport on the jacket, you could have a lion head on the bottom left instead, near the “L”.  The upper sleeve on the right side had stripes, which represented each of the years of high school. The embroidering of stars represented that the wearer was either on varsity, or captain of a sport. If you had great successes in your sport or academics, this would warrant having extra pins or medals attached. These pins or metals would be placed on either sleeve or the upper right chest.

Lettermans and sweatermans have all but disappeared from Lincoln’s campus. Should we as a school bring back these historical jackets to recognize our current athletes for all their great accomplishments?