John McDougall
John McDougall took up fencing while attending Stanford University in the mid-1950s. He decided early on that he would dedicate his life to the sport and focused on becoming a fencing master. He opened his first fencing club, the San Francisco School of Fencing, and hired Jack Nottingham and Charles Selberg as instructors for fencing.
He also hired a judo instructor, a trampoline instructor and others to make his place a variety pack of activity. When Selberg moved home to Fargo and after a falling out with Nottingham, John hired Julius Palffy-Alpar to relocate from Canada to San Francisco.
READ MORE...Within a year, Alpar took the head coach position at UC Berkeley, and John closed the business and assisted Hans Halberstadt for the last few years of Hans’ life. Hans had for years ran a fencing equipment supply company and he taught John that business.
John opened American Fencers Supply, a long-running fencing equipment manufacturer and supplier. Upon the death of Halberstadt, John hired first Selberg, and then Michael D’Asaro to take over teaching duties at the Halberstadt club. His second club was the Freedom Fencers Club in Freedom, CA, which he set up in an old hay and feed barn on the main road between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. He ran it for only a short time, eventually turning over the keys to Len Carnighan.
Moving to Ashland, OR, John opened up yet another club and taught for many years prior to finally retiring to his beloved hobby of raising pigeons. His teaching was influenced by some of the great coaches to work in California. Besides Hans, he also trained with the great Italian maestro Aldo Nadi, and the Hungarian champion George Piller.
Articles
More Time with Jerry Biagini!
There is nothing in the world quite like Jerry Biagini’s greeting to me when I visited him about two weeks ago. Me: “Mr. Biagini, how are you?” Jerry: “I’m 90 years old and cranky!”
The Salle in the Woods
In the woods of Southern Oregon off a dirt road and across a valley from the winding I-5 was a fencing salle d’armes built by Charlie Selberg in an old barn. It was stuffed to the rafters with fencing memorabilia dating back decades.
Cartoons by Selberg
Charles Selberg, or Charlie as he was more commonly known, in 1966 established the fencing program at UC Santa Cruz, home of the Banana Slugs. More, Charlie Selberg was an artist.
My Forever Summer
You don’t forget your first team, or your first teammates. The fortuitous circumstances surrounding my introduction to fencing couldn’t be more memorable; a time filled with remarkable personalities.
Party Like Hans Halberstadt
Of the 13 million Germans mobilized for the First World War, over half were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Hans Halberstadt and other survivors jumped into the Roaring Twenties with gusto.
Say Goodbye, Say Hello
I drove from my Bay Area home last week to attend the memorial service for much-loved fencing master Delmar Calvert.
The Little Woman With The Big Briefcase
Tommy Angell was the type of person who overcame obstacles. It doesn’t seem to matter how challenging things may have been; she simply took them on and beat them. Not just took them on; she seems to have sought them out and demolished them.
Alpar Comes to San Francisco
Some months ago, I paid a visit to UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library to look at a collection of scrapbooks donated to the library upon the passing of long-time Cal fencing master Julius Palffy-Alpar. Harold Hayes of the Pacific Fencing Club had told me of their existence and agreed to meet me there to get a look at the books.
My Idea of Treasure
My treasure hunting has been refined to a sharper focus that has proven no less fortunate to me than those who find spectacular Saxon hoards in Middlesex with a $60 metal detector.
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