Welcome! Imaginary Shirt is a project where I research visual elements from high schools’ histories and then use them to make new t-shirt concepts. If you’re associated with one of these schools and would like to make any of these imaginary shirts a reality, let me know! I’d love to help you accomplish that. This companion newsletter gives some more details on process and on the schools featured. Enjoy!
Instagram Week in Review
Monday, 30 October 2023—Catholic Bears, Baton Rouge, LA

Catholic High graduate John Fred Gourrier went on to play basketball and baseball at Southeastern Louisiana College, for a time holding the Southeastern Louisiana record for consecutive made free throws when he sank thirty-one in a row. Gourrier hit four home runs for the 1962-63 Southeastern Lousiana baseball team, and in 1999 was inducted into Catholic’s “Grizzly Greats” hall of fame for his athletic achievements alongside NFL running back Warrick Dunn.
But John Fred Gourrier’s athletic prowess is not the thing that he is most famous for. Instead, he is most well known as a member of John Fred and His Playboy Band, and co-writer of their January 1968 number one hit, “Judy in Disguise.”
I have always really liked “Judy in Disguise,” and it knocked one of my very favorite Beatles songs off the top of the charts: “Hello Goodbye.”
See more designs from the Catholic set here.
Tuesday, 31 October 2023—Salem Witches, Salem, MA

It’s interesting to me that—at least as far as their high school mascot goes—the people of Salem have sort of leaned into the witch thing. Although it seems like maybe that wasn’t always the case.
In an October 1892, newspapers across the country published an article by Robert Graves entitled, “The Witch Tragedy—An Anniversary That Will Not Be Celebrated.” Graves visited Salem and detailed a conversation with a driver he had there:
As I stepped off the train here this morning and proceeded to inquire of the aged and most sedate hackman who had me in tow where the witch tragedy took place and something about it, I was informed that I had come to Salem on a notable anniversary. “Just 200 years ago the last of the witch executions took place. Yes, sir. I was looking that up today, having a little dispute with my wife about the dates, and it was Sept. 22, 1692, that the last of those executions took place out on Gallows hill.”
“Is not this anniversary to be celebrated or observed in some manner?”
“Not any. You see, the people of Salem are not a bit proud of that witchcraft business. They haven’t outgrown the old tradition that the hanging of those poor people was a disgrace to the city and to the inhabitants, and such it was, sure enough. When you come to think that hundreds and hundreds of the people who live here and hereabouts are now the descendants of the very men who put the so called witches to death you may imagine it is a sore kind of a subject, mister. Salemites don’t talk much about that witch business if they can help it.”
See more designs from the Salem set here.
Wednesday, 1 November 2023—Boston Latin Wolfpack, Boston, MA

As the oldest existing school in the United States, Boston Latin has an incredible list of alumni and former students, among them five signers of the Declaration of Independence. (Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, and William Hooper, if you are scoring at home.)
On July 7, 1773, one former Boston Latin student, Benjamin Franklin, wrote another former Boston Latin student, Samuel Mather, about a conversation that Franklin had once had with former Boston Latin student Cotton Mather:
But Cotton I remember in the Vigour of his Preaching and Usefulness. And particularly in the Year 1723, now half a Century since, I had reason to remember, as I still do a Piece of Advice he gave me. I had been some time with him in his Study, where he condescended to entertain me, a very Youth, with some pleasant and instructive Conversation. As I was taking my Leave he accompany’d me thro’ a narrow Passage at which I did not enter, and which had a Beam across it lower than my Head. He continued Talking which occasion’d me to keep my Face partly towards him as I retired, when he suddenly cry’d out, Stoop! Stoop! Not immediately understanding what he meant, I hit my Head hard against the Beam. He then added, Let this be a Caution to you not always to hold your Head so high; Stoop, young Man, stoop—as you go through the World—and you’ll miss many hard Thumps. This was a way of hammering Instruction into one’s Head: And it was so far effectual, that I have ever since remember’d it, tho’ I have not always been able to practise it.
I’m not sure if this was intended metaphorically, but there you have it: slouch down a bit so that you don’t hit your head all the time. Come to think of it, this is definitely advice that I could use.
See more designs from the Boston Latin set here.
Thursday, 2 November 2023—Holbrook Bulldogs, Holbrook, MA

The February 29, 1936 Boston Globe reported on the town of Holbrook, Massachusetts’s sixty-fourth birthday:
There are a plenty of individual Leap Year Day babies, but, perhaps the only entire town in the world which is a “Leap Year Day Baby” is this town, which is observing its 64th birthday today.
Holbrook was originally part of Braintree and was embraced in Randolph when that town was incorporated in 1793. It was called “East Randolph” until its incorporation as a separate town, Feb. 29, 1872. It was named in honor of Elisha N. Holbrook, a wealthy shoe manufacturer.
Among the early settlers was Capt. Elihu Adams, a younger brother of President John Adams. Jesse Reed, who lived with the Adams family for years, invented a machine for cutting nails and he also planted an elm tree which grew to be 22 1/2 feet in circumference and became one of the town’s landmarks.
See more designs from the Holbrook set here.
Friday, 3 November 2023—Boston English Eagles, Boston, MA

The first football game between English and Latin is said to have taken place on Thanksgiving Day of 1887. Before that, the gauntlet was thrown down in the October 25, 1887 Boston Globe:
A foot-ball eleven has been formed at the English High School which would like to arrange games with High and Latin school teams. Address C.H. Cole, Jr., English High School.
But English’s football team weren’t the only ones looking for some action in the “Sporting Miscellany” column of the Globe that day. Below their challenge was this one:
Charles McKenzie wants to make a match with any tug-of-war team in New England, on cleats, with belt, for from $50 to $100 a side, four men in a team, weight not to exceed 1150 pounds.
I hope Mr. McKenzie found his tug-of-war match.
See more designs from the Boston English set here.
Saturday, 4 November 2023—Frederick Cadets, Frederick, MD

Among Frederick’s graduates is Lefty Kreh, saltwater fly fishing legend. Kreh’s most famous invention is a fly lure called “Lefty’s Deceiver.” In 1991, Lefty’s Deceiver was even featured on a postage stamp:

But Lefty’s Deceiver is not what I want to be writing about. The Wikipedia article for Lefty Kreh claims that Kreh’s father Whitey, “died in a basketball accident when (Lefty) was eight.” A Garden & Gun profile of Kreh specifies that Whitey Kreh, “was accidentally kicked in the chest during a basketball game and died,” but that just gives me more questions. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for any amount of time, you likely know that newspapers will report some really strange and minor-seeming things. Surely a man dying after being kicked during a basketball game would warrant some coverage! But alas, if it existed, I have been unable to find it. If you ever run across details of Whitey Kreh’s mysterious basketball death, please let me know.
See more designs from the Frederick set here.
Sunday, 5 November 2023—Brewer Witches, Brewer, ME

The August 19, 1900 New York Times reported on some happening news from Brewer, Maine:
Miss Dione Polliot, a pretty seventeen-year-old French girl, living in South Brewer, this afternoon astonished the village by accomplishing a feat of daring that had not even been attempted by any of the men or boys around the mills there. A chimney 173 feet high has recently been erected by the Eastern Manufacturing Company, and when the masons took down the staging the only means left of reaching the top was a slim iron ladder, up which the village boys have not yet dared to climb more than half way, although a reward of $5 has awaited the first who would ascend to the top.
Miss Polliot is not only the prettiest girl in South Brewer, but also the pluckiest, and she made fun of the mill boys for their timidity. “Pooh!” said she. “I could climb up there myself.”
The mill Superintendent heard her boast and offered $10 to the first woman who would accomplish the feat. “I’ll take you up on that,” said Miss Dione, and when most of the men who had left the mill yard she came down in a bicycle skirt and mounted the ladder.
Her mother was informed of what the girl was doing and ran wildly to the mill yard, shrieking to Dione to come down and that she would be killed, but Dione was then half way to the top, her long hair flying in the wind, and the men and boys cheering her on. The mother knelt down in the yard and prayed loudly to the saints to preserve her daughter from harm, and the crowd maintained a respectful silence.
Miss Dione kept climbing briskly up the little iron ladder, never once looking down, and presently, with a little spring, she grasped the top rung and landed fairly on the big stone that surmounts the tall chimney. The crowd cheered, and then, arranging her draperies, Dione came slowly down. When she reached the ground she was clasped hysterically by her anxious mother, and the Superintendent handed over the ten-dollar bill, saying that Dione was the best girl in Brewer, and that she deserved the best man there for a husband.
“Don’t want any husband,” chirruped Dione. “I just want to get me a new white flannel waist.”
See more designs from the Brewer set here.
See you next week! Tell your friends!