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
Image Upgrades by Happenstance
I love running across old photos of fencers. It doesn’t matter who’s in them or what condition they’re in for me to be fascinated with the discovery and the challenge of putting names to faces.
Other Tales from the Archive
The Fencing Center Poster Restoration Project: The Befores
One of the ongoing projects at the West Coast Fencing Archive is the restoration of fencing posters. This was started through the great work of John McDougall, who took it upon himself to restore a number of posters that were in his hands or with Charlie Selberg.
George Piller comes to San Francisco
Gyorgy Jekelfalussy Piller has gone down in history as one of the most successful competitors and coaches. If his name is unfamiliar, let me give you a brief run-down. He competed for Hungary in the 1928 Olympics on the Foil Team and reached the semi-finals,...
Behind the Mask, 1948
I return to the pages of The Fencer today, to reprint (actually, re-type) an article written by Pierre Paret for the February, 1948 issue. A portrait of Hans Halberstadt.
San Jose State Unknown Tournament in B & W
Here below, I’ve culled the best of the black & white negatives that were shot by Charles Selberg. And, fortune of fortunes, the negative pack was taped into a scrapbook that had many of these prints mounted inside.
San Jose State University: Unknown Tournament
I’ve got two sets of pictures from the same event, courtesy of the Charles and Julie Selberg collection of fencing memorabilia. One set is black & white film, the other color slides. Today, in photo essay form, I present the best of the color slides. I can...
The Sometime Unfortunate
Back in January I posted a story about the match between Generoso Pavese and Louis Tronchet in San Francisco that took place in 1899. (http://westcoastfencingarchive.com/2015/01/08/tronchet-vs-pavese/) This time I’d like to focus on the San Francisco career of Louis...
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 small medal from the Colonel Laurance Brownlee collection.
Film Library
Check out our video library
Vintage Posters
View our collection
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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