In my book Why’d They Wear That? there’s a section about the history of athletic wear for both men and women. It was frustrating to narrow down the images to feature, as we only had two pages to devote to the subject (one for each gender), and I yearned for two dozen. But the beauty of a blog is I can post as many amazing images as I want, images I would love to have included in the book. So I’ll just post them here, in no particular order—just people being sporty, from back in the day.

1912 Olympic freestyle gold medal team

1917

Foot race, 1900

1900

1905

Picture credits: top, basketball: Library of Congress LC-USZC4-9676, boxers: LOC 95505173, golfer: LOC 2002709746, swimmers: LOC LC-USZ62-74630, football: LOC 3b38565r, skiers: Minnesota Historical Society MR2.9 SP9.1 1917 r47, footrace: Minnesota Historical Society  ID Number: GV3.41 r19, batting: Minnesota Historical Society  ID Number: GV3.11 r35, baseball player: LOC 18577r, swimmers: Minnesota Historical Society  ID Number: GV3.62 r160, skaters: LOC LOC2004676513