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
Historical Documents in the Digital Age
Fear. It’s a motivator for me. Not the average, everyday kind of fear, nor an amorphous fear of zombies or clowns. Rather, the fear of loss. A very specific kind of loss.
The John McDougall Collection
I know I’ve written about John McDougall in the past, but can you say too much about John? I’m thinking that you really can’t. Let’s run through the highlights. Started fencing at Stanford in the mid-1950’s. Trained with Aldo Nadi and George Piller. Hired Julius...
Tales from the Archives: FDH
The language in the following cautionary tale is NSFW. It is also not suitable for youngsters. But it is an exemplary tale of why you should not draw the ire of your coach or maestro. The effect of such misjudgment can reverberate for a long time to come. Sit back and...
Fencing and the Summer of Love
The short version, the one I like best, is that he was qualified to be a member of the 1968 Olympic sabre team, with one condition. The condition, as allegedly put forward by the AFLA’s selection committee, was that he cut his hair.
Count Marco and the Photo Shoot
There was one group of photos, classes, individual fencer, etc., that I couldn’t place or identify after collecting them as part of the Selberg estate, so I sent some to John for help.
Photo Gallery
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