Objects of Substance- The Grammar Gym Bag

The Grammar Gym Bag: the ultimate accessory?

The 1958 School Swimming bag

The transporting of sporting clothing has always been a priority for Grammar girls with sport and drill lessons an integral part of their education from 1875. What can you do with dripping wet swimming togs, smelly black sandshoes, and equally challenging socks? These are challenges for the modern Grammar girl but she has more options and improved design solutions on her side – considerably more than her earlier sisters.

1949 Grammar girl with the trusty brown Globite port.

Originally, girls coped by carrying their Physical Education gear in their brown Globite port with their black sandshoes in a named, drawstring bag. With regular swimming lessons and extra sporting accessories, the necessity for a sports-specific bag became apparent.

2021 - Ann Pressland’s 1958 sandshoes and drawstring bag.[Yes, she still has them.]

In the Sports Club meeting on 5 th November 1958, Shirley Melzer, old girl and the then Physical Education teacher, announced that there would be a specially designed school swimming bag available for purchase. The minutes state:

…The school would make a profit out of the sale and this profit would go to the swimming pool fund. Sports Club Minutes Book p 154

The bag replicated the design of the 1950s’ trendy airline vinyl travel bag with its streamlined shape, shoulder strap, corporate logo, convenient zip closure, and nametag pocket. This swimming bag proved popular – at the 14 th April 1959 Sports Club meeting a profit of approximately 100 pounds was reported – and these funds, as previously determined, were given towards the construction of the swimming pool, the first on-site pool which was completed in 1960. This bag continued to grow in popularity with all Grammar girls. The water-resistant vinyl, compact size, and bright royal blue colour made it a perfect accessory for all sporting events and a functional option for active excursions. However, by early the 1980s, it had outlived its usefulness and become too small to be functional.

1967 Barbara Palethorpe QGSSSA Athletics captain, Lang Park. The hill strewn with gym bags.

1964 Zoology excursion – gym bags accompany students This sports bag was the forerunner to the drawstring, nylon, cylindrical swimming bag and even larger versions. Grammar girls have always embraced the School bag in every format and these vinyl

versions hold a place in the heart of, not only those athletically minded Grammar girls from the 1960s and ‘70s, but also every girl who needed to transport the togs, the towel, the gym tunic, the sandshoes every week of her Grammar life. Perhaps a not so nostalgic memory is those times when one opened the gym bag on a Sunday evening only to have forgotten the wet swimming togs and towel from the previous week!

Pauline Harvey-Short (1971) Manager, School History and Culture

1967 BGGS Lifesaving Team with the ubiquitous swimming bag.

1967 – Gym bags, sandshoes bags and sandshoes – VIA’s Changing room.

The 2021 sports bag options