George Piller
This Archive has produced a feature length documentary on the amazing life of this great man and I hope you will make an effort to watch our film. In short, George Piller was an unmatched fencer and coach. Winner of multiple World Championships and the 1932 Olympics, Aldo Nadi, usually reticent to praise others, called Piller one of the two best sabre fencers of the first half of the 20th Century. A military man, Piller was appointed to the Hungarian Royal Guard for his Olympic victory and also began a long career as Hungarian Team Captain and coach for the fencing teams fielded by Hungary at international competitions.
READ MORE...Near the end of World War Two, he was captured with his unit by Soviet troops and was fortunate to be recognized and pulled from a train that would have taken him to exile in Siberia. Unpopular with the Hungarian communist government due to his connection to the Royal Guard, Piller left the military and began a full time coaching career, leading international teams to victory after victory.
Offered an opportunity to defect to the US during the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Piller and half of his Gold Medal winning sabre team took the offer. Piller settled in San Francisco and, with the aid of the local Hungarian community, opened the Pannonia Athletic Club. The club produced numerous National Champions from the start, but sadly Piller was only to enjoy life in California a few short years, succumbing to throat cancer in 1960.
Articles
LA’s Greatest Hits, 1936
When I have the opportunity to visit someone who has fencing memorabilia that I can scan for my collection, I often don’t get a chance to thoroughly take in the significance of everything I’m working with.
Road Trip!
My first introduction to Ferenc Marki was at the 1978 Junior College Championships for Northern California. Maestro Marki called us all together at the start of the Men’s Team Foil to explain the format and strip assignments. He spoke for a good 15 minutes and I didn’t understand a single word that he said.
The Halberstadt Scrapbooks, Book One
As many times as I’ve mentioned the Halberstadt Scrapbooks on this website over the years, I was shocked to realize that I have not, until now, written a defining story about what they are and (to me, at least) their significance.
Daniel Magay, Part 2
As a member of the Hall of Fame committee for USA Fencing, I get a chance to participate in the annual ritual of determining, in the fairest way possible, who is to be considered for inclusion into that prestigious body. But in the long run, just like every member of USA Fencing, I only get one vote.
Nadi v Piller, 1931
It came, with only a minimum of delay, all the way from Italy. As I wrote in my last outing, I was awaiting the arrival of an Ebay purchase. This Ebay purchase:
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.
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...
A Correction and an Announcement
I got a very nice phone call from Gerard Biagini this week. He is not digitally connected via the world wide web, but his daughter was kind enough to show him last week’s story that I wrote about my visit. Jerry called to thank me for posting the story.
Hall of Famer: Erich Funke d’Egnuff
Regular readers will be familiar with the many tales told herein of Charles Selberg, himself a graduate of SF State (BA ’57, MA ’60). Selberg had his fencing beginnings at SF State under the tutelage of Erich Funke.
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