Carl Borack

Carl Borack is the last great American 3-weapon fencer. As a high school student and without aid from the AFLA, Carl attended the 1965 Junior World Championships in Rotterdam. The experience was so impactful to his fencing, he went to the following year’s event as well. Carl won the first ever Under-19 National title in epee and was 2nd Alternate for the 1968 Olympic epee team. The 1969 US National Foil champion, he was selected to the 1972 Olympic foil team. At the US Nationals of 1971 Carl cemented his place as a true 3-weapon fencer when he made the finals in all three weapons, finishing 8th in sabre, 5th in both epee and foil. He followed his competitive career by supporting American athletes as Team Captain and other leadership roles for four decades.

Articles

Short Stories

Short Stories

A number of things have come my way recently through various paths.  Taken individually, they add to the collection in nice ways, but don’t necessarily give me the grist to crank out a full story around them.

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Martini & Rossi International Programs

Martini & Rossi International Programs

Ebay can be tricky to navigate.  Not in a general sense.  However, sometimes real gems can be found that are hidden between the lines when sellers don’t have a clue about what they’re selling.

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Women’s Foil, circa 1971

Women’s Foil, circa 1971

The 1971 US National Championships were held on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, commonly known as Cal.  The locals did pretty well, too!

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Achievements of a Goal-Oriented Individual

Achievements of a Goal-Oriented Individual

Carl Borack was something of an enigma to me when I first encountered him in 1979.  By that time, he had traveled the world, won the US Nationals (foil), been on an Olympic team and produced his first feature film in Hollywood.

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Never Enough Aldo Nadi

Never Enough Aldo Nadi

I can’t seem to get more than two or three entries along on this site before Aldo Nadi’s name pops up.  Keeps happening.

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Let’s Review!

Let’s Review!

I like statistics. Not the kind you learn about in school really. More the kind that come about when you ask yourself questions like, “When will I get THAT done?” and “How many Aldo Nadi stories did I write last year?”

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‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the Season

Giorgio Santelli’s 1949 holiday card The first year of the West Coast Fencing Archive’s website is drawing to a close, so I thought I’d share some holiday cheer and a few thanks and thoughts. First, many thanks to my partner-in-history, Mark Headley, who also heads up...

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An Afternoon with Delmar Calvert

An Afternoon with Delmar Calvert

I spent a priceless afternoon in the company of Delmar Calvert in February of 2014 at his apartment in the lakeside town of Oswego, Oregon, but I was fortunate to get there and back.

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