Charles Selberg
Fencing Master at UC Santa Cruz, member of a team that won gold at the World Master’s Championships
Preserving Fencing History
The passion for fencing history you’ll find reflected here on the West Coast Fencing Archive can be traced to the legacy of Charles Selberg.
An exceptional teacher and storyteller, Charlie brought fencing history to life for his students through his vivid tales of great fencers and famous bouts.
His estate, filled with posters, photos, scrapbooks and other fencing memorabilia, became the initial collection for the Archive. Since then, we have incorporated sixty more collections and counting.
The Latest Story
Picture Day!
It was graduation week for my schooled-by-Zoom High School Senior son this week, so I thought I’d put together an album of the best of the magazine covers featuring fencing from the Archive collection.
Other Tales from the Archive
What’s the Rumpus?
There’s been a bit of hiatus around here. Perhaps you’re one who noticed. I’m sure someone must have. The overriding catchall reason for the long layoff since our last story is all about how much effort it takes to make a feature documentary. “What?” I hear you...
Flea Market, Budapest Style
While visiting Budapest this past summer to record interviews with a number of people for our forthcoming documentary on fencing great George Piller, we made one very interesting trip to a popular flea market in the southeast of the city, the Ecseri Flea Market.
Fencing Times Reports on the 1981 World & National Championships
Between my own collection and some donations to The Archive over the last couple of years, I think I have every edition of the Fencing Times that were published beginning, I believe, in 1980.
Unforgettable: Jan Romary
Janice Lee York Romary was the US National Foil Champion ten times in a span of 18 years from the first win to the last. She represented the United States at the Olympic Games a then-record six times.
Melbourne, 1956
The 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia comes up frequently around here. It was, after all, the tournament from which many Hungarian athletes made the difficult decision to not return to their country. The challenging notion of having to make such a fateful...
TFC MF, June 1984
I confess that it has been hard to sit down and find the wherewithal to come up with a story in the past weeks. Since the death of my first coach, Len Carnighan, it’s been frankly a challenge.
The Last Captain
FEATURE LENGTH FENCING DOCUMENTARY
For fifty years, the Hungarian National Sabre team had two constants: they took home gold in every tournament they entered and they had George Piller.
This is the story of Jekelfalussy (Piller) Gyorgy, the 1932 Olympic Sabre champion who defected to the United States during the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
By Doug Nichols and Greg Lynch
Meet the Fencers
Meet the Fencing Masters
Relic Spotlight
A trio of medals from the Nor Cal Division’s 1952/1953 season won by Fran Carter.
Film Library
Check out our video library
Vintage Posters
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Books
By the West Coast Fencing Archive
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STORY
Have something to share or add? Our goal is to capture the stories we know are out there. Plus photos, videos, home movies, posters—you name it. All this material helps preserve the stories of West Coast fencing.
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