Figure 1.--This is the Otamumu Primary School junior rugby team in 1965. The boys wear striped rugby shirts. Interestingly this style shirt in the mid-1960s was becoming a popular casual style for boys. Apparently they played barefoot.
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Figure 1.--This is the Otamumu Primary School junior rugby team in 1965. The boys wear striped rugby shirts. Interestingly this style shirt in the mid-1960s was becoming a popular casual style for boys. Apparently they played barefoot. |
We are not sure yet where Otamumu is in New Zealand, perhaps South Island. New Zealand schools place considerable emphasis on outdoor activities and sports. The leading sport of course is rugby. Even primary schools like the Otamumu Primary School had rugby teams. Here the boys wear standard stripped uniforms. Interestingly this style shirt in the mid-1960s was becoming a popular casual style for boys. The boys seemed to have played barefoot. This is the junior team. The school also had a senior team. A reader writes, "You write, "Apparently they played barefoot". Actually they "certainly" played barefoot. Also today most New Zealand junior rugby teams play barefoot. Usually bare feet are mandatory." Here we are not sure. When we visited New Zealand in the 1980s and 90s we did see boys playing Rugby in barefeet, but primarily after lunch or during PE. Of course if some of the boys are barefoot the others need to be barefoot, although some boys may wear smeakers. Secondary school teams had proper boots. We noticed the same at the prep schools. We are less sure about primary schools like the on here or what the common practive was in the 1960s.
