Lettermen traditionally are athletes at the high school or college level who have reached a set level of participation on a varsity athletic team. A cloth initial of the school is given to the athlete to put on a letter jacket or sweater. The sweater or jacket itself may also be given as a first award. The Harvard baseball team was the first team to use letters as an award in 1865. Should a player not play in an important game, he had to give the jersey with the letter "H" on it back at the end of the season. However, if he played in all the important games, he was allowed to keep the jersey. By 1930, wool sweaters with leather sleeves had begun to appear on the Harvard campus and the beginning of the letterman jacket tradition with it.
Letter jackets are usually made of leather and wool. The letter is usually placed on the left breast of the jacket. When students earn other letters, they may be placed on the right breast of the jacket or under the embroidered student's name on the back of the jacket. Some schools may embroider the name of the student on the breast of the jacket. For example Waterford Union High School in Waterford, Wisconsin places a student's major letter on the left breast of the jacket, her secondary letter on the right breast of the jacket, and an academic letter on the back under the student's name.
Letter jackets were first awarded to athletes, but letters are now awarded in many different types of competition, including band and academics. To qualify for an academic letter, students have to make certain grades over the length of their first few years in high school, for example. Girls as well as boys are awarded letter jackets for their performance in sports and other competitive activities.
Jackets are highly customized, despite uniform colors and letters. Jackets may also have the school's mascot, the year of students' graduation, their names sewn on the back, and patches from competitions and activities in which they participated sewn on the sleeves.