by Doug Nichols | Jul 13, 2020 | Angell, Tommy, Blog Post, Brownlee, Laurance, Coaches, Coaches A - E, Coaches F - J, Coaches K - O, Coaches U - Z, De Jong, Duris, Fencers, Fencers A - E, Fencers F - J, Halberstadt, Hans, Huddleson, Demi, Mori, Torao, Vince, Joseph |
When I struggle with ideas for writing about fencing history for this site, I have a couple of favorite fallback topics. If you’ve been reading for awhile, you can probably guess most of them. Aldo Nadi, Helene Mayer, Hans Halberstadt. All three of those...
by Doug Nichols | Jul 6, 2020 | Blog Post, Coaches, Coaches A - E, Coaches F - J, Coaches K - O, Coaches U - Z, De Jong, Duris, Duff, John, Faulkner, Ralph, Fencers, Fencers K - O, Lane, Arthur, Mayer, Helene, Uyttenhove, Henri |
I’m not sure of the original source for the story, but it goes like this. In the early days of the AFLA, precursor to today’s USA Fencing, the East Coast was in charge. They had more fencers, more coaches, more clubs, and darn it, they started the...
by Doug Nichols | Jun 29, 2020 | Blog Post, Coaches, Coaches F - J, Coaches K - O, Coaches P - T, Fencers, Fencers K - O, Halberstadt, Hans, Mayer, Helene, McDougall, John, Piller, George |
The above picture has been assumed to be Hans Halberstadt for a very long time. I thought so myself, even after scanning it (thanks Kathy Krusen!) at high resolution and having every opportunity to review it with a critical eye. If you’ve ever been inside the...
by Doug Nichols | Jun 22, 2020 | Blog Post, Bradford, Vinnie, Coaches, D'Asaro, Michael, Fencers, Fencers A - E, Fencers F - J, Fencers P - T, Johnson, Stacey, Northern California, San Jose State University, Schifrin, Peter, Schools/Clubs |
My first impression of Peter Schifrin was formed by my reaction to seeing his sculpture work used in a poster for a fencing tournament. It was a photo of his sculpt of his teammates, Vinnie Bradford and Stacey Johnson, and I was fascinated by it. Both were...
by Doug Nichols | Jun 1, 2020 | Blog Post, Fencers, Fencers K - O, Mayer, Helene |
One of my favorite subjects to write about is the famous foilist and Olympic champion, Helene Mayer. There are numerous photographs of her in the Archive collection and since she was based in California for many of her competitive years, her story fits my focus. ...
by Doug Nichols | May 25, 2020 | Blog Post, Coaches, Coaches F - J, Craus, Polly, Faulkner, Ralph, Fencers, Fencers A - E, Fencers P - T, Schools/Clubs, Shurtz, Skip, Southern California |
Back in December, I took a trip through Southern California to do some research, have conversations, scan a scrapbook and collect some fencing memorabilia. It was an extremely successful tour. (Read about it here!) One of my stops was at Gryphon Fencing in...
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