Recreation<The Real McCoy's NYLON COACH JACKET / BIRDIES FOREST

An authentic reproduction of an iconic Coach Jacket, a relaxed fit first seen on American Sports touchlines in the mid-century, popular for its versatility and appeal across seasons and climates, though most accustomed to Spring.

This Coach Jacket is branded for the Coach of the Cleveland Birdies, the Little League Baseball Team named for Cleveland Indians’ legend “Birdie” Tebbett, who played for and managed Cleveland following his service with the USAAF and a long stint at BUCO’s home team, the Detroit Tigers.

Despite holding a deferment from the draft, Birdie voluntarily joined military service with the Army Air Corps in August 1942, following a parade of professional ballplayers into the armed forces – and was assigned to Waco Army Flying School when Waco Army Air Field welcomed its first basic training pilots.

Tebbetts lost three years of his baseball career to military service but was able to hone his skills as player-manager for the Waco Army Flying School’s Baseball Team.

After graduating, Birdie was sent to Tinian and Saipan, the sights of some of the Pacific Theatres' most intense battles as they held strategic military importance due to their close proximity to Japan. In order to build up the morale of the troops, a series of baseball games, featuring Major League and minor league players, were played on those islands. The Seabees cut ball fields into the sides of hills and bleachers were created out of bomb crates to accommodate the games, where Tebbetts managed the 58th Wingmen, based at West Field, Tinian.