More than a million FFA members button up the same blue corduroy jacket, their state stitched across the shoulders and their chapter under it. Almost none of them know it started as one small Ohio town's marching band uniform.

A Band Trip to Kansas City

In 1933, Fredericktown, Ohio, agriculture teacher J.H. "Gus" Lintner ordered blue corduroy jackets from a local store for the members of his FFA chapter's band.

He had FREDERICKTOWN lettered across the back in gold thread. The band wore the jackets to that year's National FFA Convention in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Delegates Vote

Delegates at the convention noticed the jackets right away. The blue and gold looked sharp, and it was easy to spot a member in a crowd.

The idea caught on so fast that convention delegates voted to make the blue corduroy jacket the Official Dress of the entire organization, not just one chapter's band.

From One Chapter to a Movement

The jacket spread fast. FFA sold its millionth jacket in 1964, and by 1976 that number had passed two million.

In 2018, Fredericktown was awarded an Ohio Historical Marker recognizing the town as the birthplace of the jacket. Two members of the original 1933 band, Neil Overly and Linden Scheff, attended the unveiling.

A trombone player in the blue corduroy FFA jacket marches past rows of seated members, also in blue jackets, at the 2017 National FFA Convention in Indianapolis — The jacket began as a band uniform, and the FFA band still marches in it: the 2017 National FFA Convention in Indianapolis. (USDA photo by Preston Keres, public domain)

Still the Uniform Today

FFA is bigger now than it has ever been. The organization counts 1,053,847 members in 9,591 chapters across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Every October, tens of thousands of members travel to the National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. The 2025 convention alone drew more than 73,000 attendees, members, alumni and supporters together.

Nearly a century after Gus Lintner placed that order at a local store, members still zip up the same blue corduroy jacket for ag class, the county fair and the show ring. Every October, they fill Indianapolis wearing it.

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