What are varsity letters?

varsity letters

A varsity letter is an esteemed symbol, mostly made of a moss-stitched and felt chenille, and it can be affixed on a varsity jacket. Typically, varsity letters are awarded to high school and college students, considered to be elite performers or outstanding athletes. 

Normally, you have to be a part of the school or college team or perform well in academics to earn a varsity letter. In the past few years, varsity letters were common with students participating in major games like baseball, basketball, and football. 

However, this has changed with time. Today, varsity letters, such as letterman jackets by Varsity Base have become associated with almost every other sport. That’s why you can easily find them in other sports like track events, volleyball, weightlifting, cheerleading, dancing, school choir, and many other disciplines. Besides, it’s also possible to customize your varsity letter today, just to symbolize anything that you want. 

Today, varsity letters are the perfect symbol for your school, college, university, team, company, or even your own initials. Interestingly, you can use a varsity letter to spell certain words like Boss, Golf, or VIP. 

The history of varsity letters

Harvard University first introduced varsity letters in 1865. These letters, which were symbolized by the letter “H”, were embroidered to the jerseys of their baseball team. If a player managed to play major games during one season and performed well, they were allowed to keep their varsity letter. However, if the player didn’t perform well, they would return their jersey after the season is complete. Now, this is where the tradition of earning a varsity letter started. 

Today, receiving a varsity letter is a big honor. It symbolizes achievement, commitment, hard work, athletic ability, and good sportsmanship. Besides showing physical ability, most high schools and colleges require students to have good academic performance to get this coveted award. 

In the United States, most high schools and colleges host banquets and dinners, which are attended by parents, teachers, coaches, and athletes to acknowledge the achievement of the students, and present them their respective varsity letters. 

Framing your varsity letter

This allows you to protect your varsity letter, while still displaying your most prestigious achievement. Putting it on your varsity jacket doesn’t give you such options. The last thing anyone wants is their varsity letter to get dirty, damaged, faded, or deface over time, and yet they worked so hard to earn it. 

That’s the reason why you should always aim to protect your varsity letter. The best way to do it is to frame it with UV-protective glass, which helps in keeping it in a good condition. Besides, you can hang your varsity letter next to the other certificates you earned while in high school or college. This creates a beautiful display of your achievements that you earned while in high school or college. 

The best varsity letter frames are handcrafted and come in a deep shadow box molding. Thus, these frames have sufficient depth to accommodate patches, pins, as well as other small jewelry. Besides, these frames come with easy-to-open backs, which means you can add new letters as whenever you receive them each season.