National Swimming Pool Day 2025

National Swimming Pool Day

July 11 is National Swimming Pool Day.

Up until the 1960s, males swam naked in many swimming pools such as YMCA pools and college pools.  As long as no females were present, men and boys had no problem swimming naked with each other.

Above is a photo of a YMCA pool in Columbus, Ohio in the 1930s.

A YMCA swimming lesson.  I got this from Bob's Naked Guys.  Thanks, Bob!

This is the Encina Gym at Stanford University in 1930 with naked students working out in the pool.

This photo of naked boys in a swimming pool was published in the Oct. 16, 1950 issue of LIFE magazine.  Taken by LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, it accompanied an article about New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago).  LIFE did not publish frontal male nudity, but they occasionally published rear male nudity.

However, there are quite a few fakes out there.  This appealing photo shows a diver at the National Collegiate Swimming Championships held at Ohio State University in 1953.

Only problem: that photo is a fake.  Yes, the event happened in 1953, but the swimmers were not naked.  Above is the real photo, taken by LIFE photographer Joe Scherschel.

We end with Ron Barnes in Bob Mizer's pool in a 1977 AMG photo.  (I don't know why he's on a surfboard.)  I got the photo from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!  And happy National Swimming Pool Day!

Photographers - Part 71

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Calendars - Part 71

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Protests - Part 71

Qatar World Cup Protest

On Nov. 19, 2022 in Essen, Germany, a group of football (soccer) players gathered to play naked.  One of them is above.  What was the occasion, and why did he have the letter B painted on his back?

Many German football fans were upset by the decision to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, because of Qatar's abysmal treatment of migrant workers, women, and homosexuals.  Fans called for a boycott of the World Cup, and that's what this soccer match was about (above).  And it was naked to gain publicity.

The opposing team wore shirts spelling out "Fuck You FIFA."  FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is the international governing body for football (soccer) that had made the decision for Qatar to host the World Cup.

Here's some game action by "A" ...

and "T" ...

and "O" ...

and a frontal view of "Y".  The teams were co-ed, but mostly male.

Some team spirit after the game.

And then they gathered in a pub.

The next day the World Cup began.  It was not boycotted.  Argentina emerged as the winner.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 50

Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of nine more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.  For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive.  Two of these men may still be alive, so their names are redacted.

This is Yale freshman Frederick J. Coulter on Oct. 13, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

This is Yale freshman R. C. on Oct. 13, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.

This is Yale freshman Philip B. Cowles on Oct. 16, 1953.

The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman Marvin Rountree Cox on Oct. 14, 1953.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

This is Yale freshman Robert Crafts, Jr. on Oct. 13, 1953.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman D. E. on Oct. 16, 1947.

Photos taken before 1952 show only a side view.

This is Yale freshman Harold Forster Van Dine Jr. in 1947.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

This is Yale freshman Burton Richard Wakefield on Oct. 15, 1947.

Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman Robert Jay Engleman on Jan. 31, 1951.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

*          *          *

Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses and relatives of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Ads - Part 69

 FitMit AOK

This was a 2016 German commercial for a mobile app that lets you collect points for activity and apply those points to fitness gear, charity or cash.

Bodybuilders - Part 22

 Melvin Wells

Melvin Wells (1919-1994) was born in Alabama, but his family moved to Buffalo, NY when he was 8.  He served in the Army Air Force in World War II.  After the war, he got into bodybuilding.  Not having proper equipment or coaches, he was self-trained.  He started entering competitions and began to be noticed, earning the nickname "the Buffalo Hercules."  Above, he made the cover of Strength & Health in January 1949.  Strength & Health columnist Charles A. Smith said Wells had the biggest biceps he had ever seen (they measured 18.5 inches).

He won the Mr. New York State competition in 1949, which automatically qualified him for the 1949 Mr. America contest, in which he won Most Muscular and 2nd place overall.  In 1950 he again competed for Mr. America, and again he won Most Muscular and 2nd place overall (above).  First place went to John Farbotnik, and Wells was bitter, because he thought he was clearly superior, but he was denied the win because Farbotnik was white and Wells was black.  Many agreed with him.  There was not a black Mr. America winner until 1970.

In 1955, Melvin Wells posed nude for Lon of NY.  The remaining photos are from that session.

Posing by a column.

This photo was not attributed to Lon of NY, but it looks like the column from the previous photo, so presumably from the same session.

I don't know what happened to the color in this photo ...

and this one.

Finally, this photo was only dated "mid-1950s", but was presumably from that same 1955 photo session.

Melvin's interest in bodybuilding competitions waned after his 1950 Mr. America loss, and he stopped competing after 1951.  However, he was not forgotten.  He was inducted into the Mr. America Hall of Fame in 1985.  He died in 1994 at age 74.