Talk:Fencing

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I'm storing Jared DeMateis's Fencing Project for Robert McCaughey here. Source

History to 1945

Introduction

Where "big-time" athletics at Columbia (especially football) took a back seat to the development of the core curriculum in the early 1900's, smaller sports have had a more successful history. Far and away the most successful sport in Columbia Athletics history has been the Fencing Team.

The history of Fencing in America, in particular collegiate fencing, is complicated by a lack of intense interest in the sport. It has not gripped the nation like baseball or football, and it received virtually no air-time on American television until the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The American fencing world is very small and close knit, but quickly growing, as fencing is finally slowly being recognized by the masses.

However, the history of Columbia fencing reaches back into the 1870's, and organized collegiate fencing started only a few years following. These teams, of the late 19th and first half of the 20th century are not by any means the glory years of the fencing program; however, a few shining stars and a dedicated coach paved the way for Columbia Fencing to dominate in the later century.

Beginnings

Former research performed by the Columbia Fencing Team attributes the beginning of Fencing at Columbia to the Class of 1873, who fenced as an extracurricular activity, and were completely self-coached. However, a Spectator article from 1999, claims that fencing was offered at Columbia in 1862 in order to prepare students for the rigors of combat. This is interesting considering the negligible number of Columbia students who actually participated in the Civil War. In any event, what was just an activity soon turned into intercollegiate contenders, with an all-College club organized in 1889. Later, in 1896, Columbia and Harvard created the Intercollegiate Fencing Association, and took part in what has been considered the first college fencing competition, along with the Crimson and Annapolis.

In 1898, Columbia hired James Murray, a coach at the prestigious New York Athletic Club (even today a respectable fencing center), who has been credited as laying the foundation that became the dominant Columbia teams. Murray was trained in France, and was widely considered the finest American born coach of his day, where most other fencing coaches in the States were Foreign-born. However, in his long tenure as coach (until 1949) his overall record as head coach is a mediocre 190 wins, 181 losses, and 8 ties, and his teams only won a single IFA (Intercollegiate Fencing Association) title in 1932, regarded as the elite college tournament until Fencing became a NCAA sanctioned sport in 1941. However he produced many great individual fencers: a total of 12 IFA champions, including Norman Armitage. Murray finally retired after 50 years of Columbia Fencing in 1949.

Norman Armitage

Norman Armitage is the most decorated fencer at Columbia in the early 19th Century, and possibly in the history of Columbia Fencing.

Armitage was born on January 1st 1907 in Albany New York to a Jewish Family. He attended Columbia College and was a member of the class of 1929, and fenced during the time of coach James Murray. Armitage took up fencing Saber his first year at the school, but made a quick impact, winning the IFA (Intercollegiate Fencing Association) individual championships in 1928. That year he also competed in the Olympics in Amsterdam for the United States under the name Norman Cohn, however he did not fare well on the international scene, being eliminated in early rounds for both individual and team saber.

Armitage went on to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, Berlin in 1936, London in 1948, Helsinki in 1952, and was a team member but did not compete in 1956 Melbourne. However, Armitage only won one medal in his long Olympic Career, a team bronze in the London games. Interestingly, in 1936 Armitage suffered third degree chemical burns to his fencing hand, and was told he would never fence again, but he made the Olympic team that year and competed as a Jew in the Berlin Games presided over by the Nazi Party. His other Olympic honors include being one of three flag bearers in the 1948 games, and the sole flag bearer in the 1952 and 1956 games.

Nationally Armitage was a dominant force in Saber fencing. He won a total of ten national championships, and seven other outdoor national titles. Unfortunately, there was no found information concerning when, or why he used two last names, Cohn and Armitage. Interestingly, if one goes to the Fencing room in Dodge Fitness Center and looks closely at Armitage's photo on the wall of fame, you can see the name Cohn crossed out. One can only imagine that he used the name Armitage because Cohn is too conspicuously Jewish, especially if competing in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Other Great Fencers

  • Graeme Hammond CC' 1879
    • Hammond was another great all-around fencer. He was the national foil champion in 1891, national Epee champion in 1889, 1891, and 1893, national Saber Champion in 1893 and 1894 and finally an olympian in 1912.
  • Frederick Clark CC' 1903
    • Intercollegiate Fencing Association Foil Champion 1902 and 1903
  • Steddiford Pitt CC' 1911
    • The Columbia Fencing Wall of Fame claims he graduated in 1911, but also claims he was the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Foil Champion in 1914, in any case he was an Olympian in 1920.
  • Louis Mouquin EN' 1915
    • Intercollegiate Fencing Association Foil Champion in 1915.
  • Millard Bloomer CC' 1920
    • Intercollegiate Fencing Association Foil Champion 1919, Olympian 1924
  • Harold Bloomer CC' 1924
    • Intercollegiate Fencing Association Foil Champion 1924, Olympian 1924.
  • Haakon Gulbranson CC' 1930
    • Again, dates could be confused, Intercollegiate Fencing Association Saber Champion in 1931.
  • Hugh Alessandroni CC' 1929
    • National Foil Champion 1934 and 1936, Olympian 1932 and 1936.
  • Forest Lombaer CC' 1935
    • Again another possible date mix-up, Intercollegiate Fencing Association Saber Champion 1942.
  • Robert Driscoll CC' 1933
    • Epee Olympian 1952
  • Alfred Skrobish CC' 1930
    • Epee Olympian 1952.

Works Consulted

1945 to Present: A Dynasty

Introduction

Since the inception of Fencing as an NCAA sanctioned sport in 1941, no team has won more National titles than Columbia: 13. Since the inception of the Men's Ivy League Fencing Championships in the 1955-1956 season, Columbia men have been victorious 31 times (out of 49 seasons), and since the creation of the Women's Ivy League Championships in the 1981-1982 season, Columbia women have won 6 times. Perhaps these numbers can give the reader some idea of the history surrounding the sport at our school.

This presentation will attempt to display Columbia's large place in American Fencing. As it is hard to imagine college basketball without UNC or Duke, it is hard for those in the collegiate fencing community to forget about Columbia. I invite you to learn a bit about Columbia's only sports dynasty.

Quick History of American Fencing

Fencing is not a typical American sport. There is no professional fencing league. Most American Olympians are college students, or recently out of college persuing an alternate career. Fencing in other countries is very different. The althletes are professionals, paid to compete in their sport. In many eastern european countries these fencers are even celebrities. Interestingly, fencing in The United States has a distinctly European flavor. Most of the greatest fencing coaches in the United States yesterday and today are foreign born. Because so many of the country's best coaches were immigrants, before the 1980's most of the country's greatest fencers were concentrated where the coaches resided: New York, and to a lesser extent California. Since the 1980's, due to a large influx of talent from the old Eastern Bloc countries, the talent pool has dramatically spread through the country, although New York and California still dominate. The two oldest and most important Fencing clubs in New York are the New York Athletic Club, and The New York Fencer's Club, both founded in the late 19th century. New York's centrality to the American Fencing community is a result of the dominance of and competition between these two clubs. For example, the 2004 American Olympic team consisted of 17 members, 11 of which compete for one of these two. Furthermore, these clubs easily illustrate the reliance of American fencing on outside influence, for out of approximately a dozen coaches between the two, there is only one American born/trained.

It can be argued that Columbia's success in fencing is directly linked to its ability to attract fencers who wish to train in New York. Even in 2004, an astonishing 4 Columbians were on the Olympic Fencing roster, more than any other school. Another statistic that helps demonstrate the draw of New York Fencing, is that NYU has the second most NCAA titles (12) behind Columbia.

In the past 20 years or so, collegiate fencing has seen a greater amount of foreign-born and trained fencers being recruited to compete for their teams. However, since the Ivy-league does not allow athletic scholarships, Columbia has not been able to attract many of these athletes, many who already possess olympic quality ability and training, and only want an American education. Because of this, the big name sport schools like Penn State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State have been able to build very strong, successful programs. However, Columbia remains every year the top non-scholarship program, and frequently beats out many of the scholarship schools. Another statistic of interest is the number of Ivy-leaguers on the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team. Again, out of 17 people on the 2004 team, 8 were former or current ivy-league students. In the future, as in the past Columbia will be able to compete with these schools for top fencers, because of its prime location in NYC, and its quality educational opportunity.

Fencers

The Columbia Fencing "Wall-of-fame" officially holds 82 fencers from 1945 to the present. The criteria for being on the wall is being All-Amerian at least one year. However, in order to bring you all 82 people, and their information would have taken me half the year, instead I chose those Columbian Fencers who have made an Olympic team. Therefore, the people on this page are truly the cream of the crop, but there are also many more great Lion fencers who deserve to be recognized. So I encourage all to mosey down to the Fencing room in the Dodge Fitness Center to find their pictures.

  • James Margolis CC' 58--Epee

Olympian 1960
NCAA individual Champion 1957
All-American 1957
IFA Champion 1957

  • Joel Glucksman CC'1970--Sabre

Olympian 1984

  • Thomas Losonczy CC' 75--Sabre

Olympian 1976
National Champion 1976, 1977
All American 1970-1972
NCAA Champion 1970-1972
IFA Champion 1970-1972
Father of Magda Losonczy CC'08--Foil

  • Stephen Trevor CC'86--Epee

Olympian 1984, 1988
All-American 1985-86

  • Caitlin Bilodeaux CC' 87--Foil

Olympian 1988, 1992
National Champion 1986, 87,89, 92
All-American 1984-87
NCAA Individual Champion 1985, 86

  • Robert Cottingham CC'88--Sabre

Olympian 1988,1992
National Champion 1990
All-American 1985-1988
IFA Champion 1987, 1988
NCAA Individual Champion 1988

  • John Normile EN' 89-- Epee

Olympian 1992
National Champion 1988, 1991
All-American 1986-1989
IFA Champion 1989
NCAA Individual Champion 1988, 1989

  • Ann Marsh CC' 94--Foil

Olympian 1992, 1996, 2000
National Champion 1994, 1995
All-American 1991-1993

  • Dan Kellner CC'98--Foil

Olympian 2004
All-American 1995-1998
My brother's roomate at Columbia

  • Jed Dupree CC'01--Foil

Olympian 2004
National Champion 2001, 2002
NCAA Individual Champion 2001
All-American 1998-2001

  • Erinn Smart BC' 01--Foil

Olympian 2000, 2004
National Champion 1998, 2002
All-American 1999, 2001

  • Emily Jacobson CC'08--Sabre

Olympian 2004

Coaches

  • Georgio Santelli
    • Head Coach for only the 1948-1949 season. Columbia's record was a subpar 2-10. However, Santelli is revered as one of the greatest fencing coaches in the history of United States Fencing. He trained many National and International Champions.
  • Servando Jose Velarde
    • Head Coach from 1949-1952. Record of 27-11. Is largely credited for beginning the revolution of Columbia Fencing. Won 2 NCAA championships, and began the active recruitment of high school fencers to the program. Famously refused to let Columbia compete in a tournament hosted by the New York Athletic Club because they would not allow a non-white fencer to compete for Columbia. Made a mandate that Columbia would not fence in any tournament restricted by race.
  • Irv Dekoff (1952-1967)
    • Record of 141-25 (.843), 8 NCAA titles, won 11 out of 12 Ivy league championships during his tenure.
  • Louis Bankuti (1967-1979)
    • Record of 76-49 (.608), 2 NCAA team championships and 5 Ivy league titles.
  • George Kolombatovich (1979-Present)
    • 5 NCAA Championships, 15 Mens Ivy league titles, 6 Women's Ivy League titles. First American member of the FIE arbitage committe, the governing body of international fencing. Also choreographs fight scenes for several opera companies.
  • Dr. Aladar Kogler (1983-Present)
    • Same number of championships as George. Is one of the greatest fencing coaches of all time, International or American. Has been an U.S. Olympic coach 3 times, and the Czechloslovakian Olympic team coach 3 times. Has produced 16 U.S. National Champions, 12 NCAA Individual champions, as well as a few World Champions during his time in Czechloslovakia and Hungary. Has also published 10 books on Yoga, and mental preparation for athletes.

Works Cited

Some of the information provided in this presentation is provided from my own personal knowledge of Fencing. I have been fencing for my entire life, collegiately, nationally, and internationally. I captain the Columbia fencing team presently, but have been involved with the team for years through my brother David, who also fenced during his time at the college.

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