Tomas Orley
Tom Orley was a Hungarian-born sabre fencer and Gold medal winner of the 1954 Junior World Championship. A freedom fighter in the Hungarian revolution, he escaped Hungary and came to the US in 1956 and attended Stanford University.
He won both Individual and Team Sabre titles in the US and was selected for the US Sabre team that competed in Tokyo at the 1964 Olympic Games. He retired from competition after the Olympics.
Articles
Mystery To Me
The mystery to me today is fencing master John Mckee from Southern California who trained hundreds and hundreds of fencers over decades. For all the people he taught and all the times he was in the paper, it’s his nature and character that I can’t get a handle on.
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.
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.
Daniel Magay, Part 1
Daniel Magay was a member of the Olympic Gold medal winning Hungarian sabre team at the 1956 Melbourne games. Along with many other Hungarian athletes who wished to escape re-occupation of Hungary by the Soviet Union, which happened while the Olympics were underway, he chose to come to the United States on a plane chartered by Sports Illustrated magazine.
The Fairmont Exhibition, 1958
The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco is perched at the top of swanky Nob Hill. One of the premiere hotels in the city, it opened in 1907 after an extensive refurbishing of the damage done by the 1906 earthquake to the about-to-open Beaux-Arts building. Famed...
Tomas Orley
Tomas Orley was one of the leaders of the student protests that sparked the Hungarian revolution of 1956 that eventually saw Soviet tanks storm into the country and forcibly return the control of the country to communist hands.
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