The ultimate Letterman jacket doesn’t have a letter. It doesn’t come from a high school or college with a colorful felt vest in school colors, white leather sleeves, and stretch cuffs or collars.
Instead, the ultimate Letterman jacket comes in soft black leather, fashioned like either a WWII bomber jacket or biker style, with five relief circles connected on the back.
Olympic circles.
Jack Elder wore the first one I saw. He was a 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympian in the luge. He came to an Oregon Sports News meeting to talk with writers about the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.
I had him pegged as another writer until I saw the jacket.
Mr. Elder had the look of a dynamic Al Davis, onetime owner of the Oakland Raiders during their ‘Just Win, Baby’ days. He looked like a winner in his Olympic Letterman coat.
I was intrigued by the superhero look.
Black leather makes everyone look tough. Add the Olympic rings in relief on the back and there’s no question of toughness. Jack’s was the first Olympic letterman jacket I’d see.
The next one belonged to Clem Eischen, a 1,500 meter runner in the 1948 London Olympics and former Washington State Cougar. Mr. Eischen and his wife sat at a table with Jack and Mrs. Elder, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Grelle, my wife and I, and a woman named Lori Erickson.
We were inside the Multnomah Athletic Club attending the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The great Jim Grelle, a University of Oregon 1,500 meter runner in the 1960 Rome Olympics, didn’t wear his Olympic Letterman jacket, but he’d look tough in one, too.
You need to be tough if you run a 3:55.4 mile in 1965. Or 2015.
It’s fitting that former Olympians suit up in black leather Letterman jackets when you consider the hardships they competed under in their day. Advanced shoe design? Ergonomic tracks with bounce? Run dry track uniforms? Not yet.
Nutritionally designed food? Calculated rest times? Proper hydration? Just scratching the surface in the 60’s. Yet Jim Grelle still ran under four minutes.
It feels like Mr. Grelle was Prefontaine before ‘Pre,’ before Nike.
After the Olympians at the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame table, the only one left was Lori Erickson, Curator. She was there as a sports fan, a representative of the Oregon Historical Society.
The Hall of Fame stored it’s sports collection with OHS during their search for a new building, the sort of partnership both sides enjoy. Jack Elder is still looking for an ideal HOF space.
Lori listened patiently while I explained the human side of archiving sports history. The three Olympians at the table sat as proof. The entire evening wove in and out of the sort of fabric that makes a stronger society.
The ultimate sports jacket was the strongest on display.
Sports, history, and heroes all joined for an evening together. The ladies sat quietly, knowing that none of it is possible without them.
Just like real life.
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