Psychs and Dressing up for Gameday: A Storied Tradition

There are a lot of ways to spell “psych”: sike, psyche, psych, to name a few. But this kind of psych is not a synonym for “just kidding” or the theory of one’s unconscious mind and thoughts. It is the best kind of psych--a sports psych! Psychs are the clothes and outfit themes that teams, often in highschool, pick to wear each game day to let people know about their game and raise team spirit and excitement for it. They can be seen practically every day at Needham High, with nearly every team having the same roster of psychs that they rotate throughout the season-- it is pretty much always a guarantee that someone in your class will be wearing something wacky on any given day.

Psychs don’t stop after high school, either. For professional athletes, NBA players can often be seen dressing up and doing “fit checks” as they walk into the stadium for the first time before game day. This is also commonly seen in the NHL, MLB, and more. This is in part because the paparazzi are there snapping pictures of the players, but nice outfits also give them the confidence they need to perform well as they get into the match. Players like to show off their personal style, new pieces of clothing they just purchased, wear trending items, and more, turning this tradition into nearly a necessity before each game. This happens at the college level as well--often, well-funded schools with a notable social media presence will post videos or pictures of their players walking into home matches, dressed to the nines before playing in front of a crowd of their peers. It isn’t exclusive to just athletes, either. Especially at big football schools, sororities, fraternities, and everyone in between go all out for game day, wearing not only the team colors but dresses, skirts, and their fanciest attire to impress at the stadium. This is a notably big idea in the South, where schools like the University of Alabama traditionally have people putting on their Sunday best for football games and posting their outfits on social media like Instagram and TikTok--it is practically expected each game day.

This trend has deep historical roots in American culture as well, dating all the way back to the Civil War, when women and children would dress up in their finest garments to see their husbands and adult sons off to war, presumably to leave a lasting impression in case they didn’t come back and to show respect for the act of war, as serious as it is. Schools have adopted this tradition for games because they are metaphorically sending their troops off to battle against another university, and hoping to come out on top while looking sharp.

This can occasionally be problematic, as especially among college-age students, there is pressure to look good and the expectation to compare your outfit to that of friends and entirely unknown people on Instagram. At the professional level, it can also create a bit of anxiety surrounding looking good for one’s fans so that they stay interested, and people continue talking about certain athletes and teams---outfits and showmanship play a major role in garnering much-needed publicity and support for teams throughout their seasons. For high-schoolers, psychs can be awkward in that sometimes not everyone will participate, leaving people who did do the psych feeling embarrassed, since they are the only ones audaciously dressed and people may not realize it is a psych. This also backfires for the team chemistry, as the purpose of psychs is to bring people together by having a shared experience of dressing ridiculously at school. Teams will use face paint on top of seemingly normal outfits when the theme is blackout, whiteout, camo, or anything else, to make sure everyone in school knows they are dressed this way for a psych, and not by personal choice or lack of fashion sense. It can also be tricky when people don’t have the right clothes for a psych, as they are met with the dilemma of needing to go buy something to wear, which can be costly, or borrow something, which can be stressful and leave them with an incomplete or uncomfortable outfit, leaving them left out of the game day tradition. Sometimes psychs can also leave teams focusing on the game all day rather than their studies, which can frustrate teachers, especially when props or particularly outrageous aspects of the psych themes can distract classes. There are also sometimes horror stories of teams using excessive eye black and not being able to rub it off before the game, or teams taking a psych too far and doing something that quickly devolves into being problematic or inflammatory towards the other team.

However, the benefits of psychs far outweigh the negatives. It brings the team together and gets them fired up for game day, as every person who asks about their psych or notices it is a reminder of the fact that they have a game later, the game plan for that, and the fact that they likely want to win. Psychs make teammates easier to notice in the halls, creating environments in which they spot each other from a mile away and are often entertained by the outfits of others, connecting people off the court. For sports with teams at the varsity, JV, and freshman levels, it can also bring the program together and help connect people who don’t know each other as well, since it is hard to miss others wearing outfits as ridiculous as yours in the hallway. It also helps let other people know about the game and gather a crowd for it, as the natural response to psychs is to ask who they’re playing, when the game is, where it is--which can get people to come if they are available at that time. Psychs help fire other people up for the game too, and make sure they turn out in support of the team, which helps with school spirit and creates a positive atmosphere in which the sports programs support each other, and it is reciprocated throughout their seasons. Regardless of how people feel about psychs, the tradition of dressing up for gameday is historic and seen wherever there are sporting events, helping drum up excitement for the sport and the team in a way that can’t be beat. Keep an eye out at the end of this fall season and start of winter sports for teams doing particularly funny or goofy psychs--I guarantee you’ll see a few!