The competing fencing clubs along the Texas Coast remained unchanged by the 1949-1950 fencing season. The battles were largely between the Rice fencers, the University of Houston Foil Club, Texas A & M, the Houston Fencing Club and the Buccaneers from Galveston.

Galveston played host first on January 14, holding competitions in open foil for both men and women and men’s sabre at the Ft. Crockett gym. Eighteen men and ten women entered the tournament.

Bill Brown from Texas City captured first place in men’s open foil. Clem D’Albergo came in second. Third place went to Rice’s Frank Leever. Gerald Monks from Texas A&M finished in fourth.

In the women’s open foil competition Galveston’s Naomia Abbott took the top honors, just ahead of Betty Jean Fox from Rice. Corine Lukovich of Galveston finished in third place while Margaret Pack of the Rice Institute was fourth.

In the novice sabre competition the University of Houston’s Jim Stevenson captured first place. Second place went to Galvestonian Everett Abbott, who was also fencing for the University of Houston. Rice Institute fencers Horace Flatt and Leopold A. Ffrench placed third and fourth, respectively.

On February 25 the University of Houston placed host to a team sabre and team epee competition. A Galveston Buccaneers team composed of Jack Baird, Bill Brown and Owen Holzheuser finished first in the team sabre event with second place going to the Rice Institute team. A Texas A&M team composed of John Gottlob, Curtis Wilson and Joseph May captured the gold in the epee team event. The Buccaneers team took second place.

Recalling Gottlob, Arnold Mercado said, "I remember [Gottlob] as an A&M student and one year he was Chairman of the Division and I think, Foxy was secretary. In those days of slow communication it wasn't a good idea to have the two officers living so far apart."

On March 25, the Rice Institute was the scene of one of the Gulf Coast Division’s competitions to qualify to compete in the national championships in New York. From Galveston alone came thirteen fencers: Naomia Abbott, Corrine Lukovich, Margie Metcalf, Emogene Wells, Joan Steel, Dolly Trigg, Owen Holzheuser, Jack Baird, Bill Brown, Jerry Lubin, M. Antonelli, Stanley Babb Jr., Bobby Braslau.

The Lovenberg gym in Galveston was the site of a final qualifying event on April 22. Fencers from Galveston, Corpus Christi, Texas A&M, the University of Houston, the Rice Institute and St. Joseph’s Nursing School in Houston met to see who would represent the Gulf Coast Division in New York.

It was announced in advance that a division meeting to elect officers for the next year would be held at the Fish House following the tournament.

On April 29 teams from Texas A&M, Rice and the Galveston Buccaneers competed in a meet at the Texas A&M campus.

May 5-6 saw the Rice Owls contending with the Aggies for the Southwest Conference championship. If those two schools had been excluded from the Conference championship title in the thirties and forties, everything was about to change. The fencing title in the 1950s would boil down to an ongoing duel between those two schools. Indeed, for the next several decades, these two schools would be the dominant forces in tournaments involving fencers from the Texas coast.

In 1950, with Harold Van Buskirk at the helm, for the first time Rice University captured the top spot.

"In the Gulf Coast division of the AFLA we had end of the season team tournaments. U of H won several of the college division's stuff but it was hard beating Galveston until Jack Baird dropped out of fencing."

On May 13-15, the Lovenberg gym in Galveston was the site of the very first Southwest Sectional Championships. The Section was so new one local paper called it the "Texas Section." The first AFLA section, Pacific Coast, had held its first championships in 1925. In 1934, the Mid-West Section held its championships. In 1939 the All-Eastern Section held sectional championships. The Southwest Section was only the fourth such in the AFLA.

Like the split of the Texas Division into North Texas and Gulf Coast Divisions, it was an indicator of both the explosion of interest in fencing and the power of the dynamic personalities driving fencing in the Lone Star State.

Fred Reed of John Tarleton won the men’s prep foil event. Second place went to E.T. Jennes from Texas A&M. Roddy Hobson, another John Tarleton fencer came in third.

Galveston’s Owen Holzheuser took first place in men’s novice foil. Gerald Monks of Texas A&M was the second place finisher. Third went to Dick Cottingham of Fort Worth.

In the junior foil competition it was Texas A&M’s Gus Mistrot who won. Rice’s Frank Leever came in second. Bobby Meyers of John Tarleton came in third.

First place in men’s prep epee went to another John Tarleton fencer, John Clements. His teammate Fred Reed finished in second place. Third place went to Texas A&M’s M. A. Nikolas.

In the men’s novice epee event, Leopold Ffrench of Rice captured first place. Frank Leever, also from Rice, finished second. Carl Williams from John Tarleton finished in third place.

Hal Lattimore of Fort Worth took first place in men’s junior epee. Rice’s Leopold Ffrench came in second. A&M’s Gerald Monks was third.

John Tarleton’s Fred Reed took another first place prize in the men’s prep sabre event. R. D. Jones from Bryan and Howard Luttrell of Fort Worth were second and third place, respectively.

Houstonian Mary McDaniel captured first place in women’s prep foil. Val Sponberg of Dallas came in second. Third place went to another Houstonian, Ruth Rogers.

In women’s novice foil, Ruth Rogers and Mary McDaniel swapped places, finishing first and third, respectively. Second place went to Dallas’ Marion Olson.

Betty Jean Fox captured first place in the women’s open foil event. Right behind her in second place was Galveston’s Naomia Abbott. Glenn Lattimore of Fort Worth came in third.

In the women’s team foil competition, first place went to St. Joseph’s School of Nursing. Second place went to the John Tarleton team.

Interest in fencing spread north from the Island City. In June of 1950, on the north side of Galveston County, the Dickinson Recreation Council included fencing lessons, taught by G. D. Walters, among their summer offerings.

The third annual Franks Memorial Tournament was held at Galveston’s Pleasure Pier on the weekend of August 5-6. Jack Baird served as chairman of the event. University of Texas fencing Coach Steve Farid, who won the Franks Award the first two times, was expected to return.

The plan this year included events other than sabre. As the Galveston Daily News observed, "Pier Mgr. Jack Mankey said an excellent show is in store for the public and the second eventof the tournament should be interesting to most. It will be an electric [epee] tournament, he said, and the first such type of fencing held in Texas.

"He explained that the [epees], weapons used in fencing, will be wired to register touches to each opponent on a central machine. The mechanism determines the accuracy of the sham battle, thereby eliminating the margin of error encountered in human judging."

The winner of that first Gulf Coast electric epee competition was Clement D’Albergo, which he won in a fence-off with Jack Baird. They had been even in bout victories, both had 4 wins and a single loss. The competition had apparently been quite close, with eight bouts that day ending in scores of 5-4. Once again, there was a 3-way tie for third place between Bill Brown of Texas City, Hal Lattimore of Fort Worth and Owen Holzheuser of Galveston.

If Bill Brown had to be content with sharing third place in electric epee, he had the consolation of first place in sabre, making him the winner of the Franks Trophy.

The Texas Division had only recently divided into two distinct divisions (Gulf Coast and North Texas). On September 13, 1950, the Border Texas Division was approved by the AFLA. Albert Weber was its first chairman.

Some years later Arnold Mercado reflected on fencing in and around Texas during the late 1940s and early 1950s. "If memory serves me correctly the SW section of the US had little fencing outside of North, Central and Gulf Coast Texas.

"At that time I don't remember anything in New Mexico. In El Paso there was Marietta Towry's father. (She married Bill Towry from Dallas). In Arizona, an asthmatic from New York started something in Tucson in the late forties or early fifties. Louisiana had no AFLA fencing in the late forties or early fifties as I recollect. I don't think it was until the sixties that activity developed in Lafayette and New Orleans and eventually they asked to become separate division.

"You had the three divisions in Texas and the early sectionals were between the three divisions."

The first fencing event of the New Year was the open men’s foil and open women’s foil tournament in Houston on January 13. In the men’s competition Galveston’s Jack Baird and Bill Brown took first and second places, respectively. The University of Houston’s Enrique Moncade took third. In the women’s event, Naomia Abbott of Galveston placed second, right behind Betty Jean Fox from the Rice Institute, who took first. Virginia Pritchett from the St. Joseph School for Nursing was third. This competition had also drawn the largest number of women fencers to date at any one tournament in the Gulf Coast Division history.

Harold Van Buskirk’s squad from the Rice Institute once again took the Southwest Conference fencing championship in 1951.

Galveston hosted a 3-event tournament at Menard Park on February 12, under the direction of Harold Van Buskirk.

Twelve women entered the women’s novice foil competition. Houstonian Margaret Pack captured first place. Interestingly, this time there was a 3-way tie for second place, with all three representing St. Joseph’s School of Nursing.: Virginia Pickett; Lois Deshotels; and an old friend, Dr. Johanna Blumel.

The men’s novice foil drew thirteen entrants. Robert Jones of Texas A&M University took first place in this event. Second place went to Rice’s Horace Platt. Joe Mayes, also from A&M was the third place finisher.

In the prep sabre competition, Jack Slattery from the Rice Institute took first place from a field of nine entries. Another Rice fencer, C. K. Campbell finished right behind him in second place. Third place went to Texas A&M’s T. M. Fields.

On a national level, the AFLA was gradually looking beyond the Big Apple. With the sole exception of 1939, when they were held in San Francisco, every AFLA National Championship since 1892 had been held in the New York City area. In 1951, however, the championships once again hit the road, this time being held in Detroit.

Interest in fencing had grown within the conference and the competition more intense. The Rice fencers, the defending champs through the 1951-1952 academic and fencing year, got the bulk of their preparation in local AFLA competitions. Under Coach Harold Van Buskirk, Leopoldo Ffrench captained the Rice fencing squad. In the regional competition, Ffrench had taken first place in sabre while his colleague, Don H. Gaucher, took second place in epee. Other Rice fencers from this era were C. K. Campbell, W. E. Drake and Daniel Weisner.

The Rice squad, coached by Harold Van Buskirk, seemed well prepared for the Conference competition to be held at the MSC on the Texas A&M campus, facing teams from schools that had not previously fielded fencing teams.

Except, of course, for Texas A&M. Sponsor Lt. Col. Frank Vaden had been building up his team, as well. The Aggie roster included Team Captain John "Count" Gottlob of Galveston, Aden Magee, Bill Willmann, Joe Pafford, Bob Jones, Bob Braslau, Ted Fields, Arthur Garner, Eddie Fernandez, Wally Schlather, Gus Wulfman, Bob Ruiz, Jerry Ramsey, Ben Talbert, Carroll Forester, Charley Tea, Bill Huettel, Joe Hester and Henry King.

Their three squads were generally successful in all their meets. Indeed, this proved to be their most successful year to date, besting Texas University, Texas Tech, Tarleton, Rice, and a composite team from Galveston. It was only against the Galveston Buccaneers that the Aggies could not prevail.

The Rice Field House was the site of an open foil tournament March 29-30, 1952. In the women’s open foil competition, the Galveston Buccaneers’ Naomia Abbott won first place. Bill Brown took first place in men’s open foil. Jack Baird settled for second place in the same event.

Texas A&M University was the site of the Southwest Section Championships and annual meeting on May 4-5.

Nevertheless, in 1952, it was Texas A & M University that captured the Southwest Conference fencing championship.

Overall, for the 1951-1952 season, A&M fencers captured Divisional Foil Team, Divisional Sabre Team, Sectional School Foil and Sectional School Sabre Team championships. In their championships, Aden Magee took first in men’s novice foil and novice epee, Joe Pofford captured first in men’s junior foil and "Count" Gottlob won first in junior epee.

An article in a 1952 issue of American Fencing credited Van Buskirk for his major role in developing the Southwest Section. The same magazine indicated the Gulf Coast Division had 58 members.

The Rice fencing squad, again coached by Harold Van Buskirk, for the 1952-53 academic and fencing year included fencers Alon Charles Reed, Hyman Applebaum, W. E. Drake, Horace Flatt and Clark Oliphant.

The 1952-1953 season went pretty well for Texas A&M, under co-captains Truett Fields and Robert W. "Bob" Jones. On the weekend of December 6-7, they defeated Texas Tech for the team title at the Open Invitational Tournament held at the Dallas Downtown YMCA. In the same tournament Galveston’s Naomia Abbott took first place in women’s foil. Another Galveston fencer, Jack Baird, captured the top spot in men’s foil, with second place falling to a Dallasite and former Aggie fencer, Alvin Goodstein, who had coached Baird in college. Baird also grabbed second place in epee.

A novice tournament was held at Menard Park in Galveston on January 10. About fifty fencers showed up for the event.

The women’s novice foil ended in a tie, which was fenced off between Galveston’s Carol Warwick and Florence Schwartz of Houston. Schwartz won. Galvestonian Mary Angerson finished third.

In the men’s novice foil competition former Galveston resident Bob Braslau, now fencing for Texas A&M University, captured top honors. Arnold "Sonny" Mercado of the University of Houston took second place. Third place went to Allen Black of the Jewish Community Center.

The first place award in the novice epee event went to Jimmy Pigg of Texas A&M University. Fellow Aggie Robert Braslau was second. Sonny Mercado took third.

Another Texas A&M fencer, Arthur Garner took first place in the novice sabre competition. Once again Bob Braslau took home a second place award. Third place went to Bill Drake from the Rice Institute.

The 1953 Southwest Section Competition was held May 2 in Lubbock, Texas. Jack Baird of the Galveston Buccaneers was elected Chairman of the Southwest Section for the 1953-1954 fencing season and the next championships would be held in Galveston.

Also in May of 1953, Robert Braslau received the David U. Van Buskirk Trophy, given annuallly to the person who best promoted fencing at Texas A&M.

For the 1953-54 academic and fencing year, Van Buskirk built up the quality of the Rice fencing team. Alon Charles Reed, Dan Weisner and Hy Applebaum were back and matched with newcomers Fred Sklar, Erwin Groner and Edwin Kashy.

In 1953, fencing was dropped from the Southwest Conference, due to an insufficient number of schools participating. Even as fencing at Rice and Texas A&M was on the upswing, it declined elsewhere around the state.

Fred Sklar recalled, "When the old SW Conference dropped fencing… Hy (who was a sophomore at the time) and Danny Weiser (who was a senior and a remnant from the last conference team), with Mr. Van's encouragement wanted to recreate a team since the conference was willing to reinstate it if there were 3 teams (A&M and T.U. already had them). Hy knew me from the Rice Hillel club (for Jewish students) and, since I was tall and athletic looking asked me if I wanted to join the team as you had to have a minimum of 3 fencers for a team...and learn the sport under Mr. Van's coaching and maybe earn a varsity letter. I jumped in and started going to our weekly classes. Then my best friend, Erwin Groner heard about it from me and he joined, soon to be followed by his friend Edwin Kashey and finally Charles Reed. The four of us had all known each other at San Jacinto H. S. in Houston and thus was born the nucleus of the Rice conference teams for the next 3 years. Incidentally, all 6 of us as it turned out were Jewish and we had to tell Mr. Van when we could not practice during the Jewish High Holidays."

"What was neat was how Kashey was very good at foil, Reed at sabre (with me a close second) and myself at epee. Groner…hung in there for all 3 years and finally lettered in our senior year whereas the other 3 of us lettered each year."

This same year Jon Conlon joined the Houston Fencing Club. "I started at the Houston Fencing Club in 1953, age 12 or so, because while playing at [Cherryhurst] Park I watched the fencers and Mr. [Ardien] Rodner encouraged me. We met on Tuesday or Thursday, weekly, from seven to ten. At first I was the only child there. Mr. Rodner gave me an old foil and later a raggy jacket that Mrs Rodner taylored for me. She was a real "mother" to the members. Most of the adults were kind to me. I had, however, a secret weapon. I am left-handed. Mr. Rodner told the fencers to spar with me because when they went to a meet and met a left hander for the first time they would be dead without some experience."

To Conlon, "Mr. Rodner was probably the greatest fencer in the Southwest, certainly Texas. He learned with cold steel, bare breasted from his father in Louisiana. He worked as a clerk for a railroad, perhaps Southern Pacific."

French fencing maitre Raymond Prin had established Salle Prin at 1904 Bissonnet, offering a regimen of two lessons per week, every week for a rate of $15.00 per month.

Arnold Mercado recalled, "Then came the French Master, Raymond Prin who taught an excellent foil and epee although his sabre was not Hungarian. Between my junior high school French and his pidgin Spanish, (He had taught in Costa Rica), and mime, he was excellent in teaching by demonstration, and in explaining the body mechanics of fencing. After that there were others I absorbed from, mostly in New York."

"Van always said that he'd always help fencing. He was instrumental in bringing Raymond Prin to Houston but Van didn't know, (neither did I at that time) how to market him and a fencing club. I'm sure that Van lost a bundle in that deal. In addition, I turned over my teaching PE fencing classes to Prin, but that still wasn't enough to keep him."

"Van Buskirk brought him and set him up in a house on Westheimer, (or West Gray) in which Prin and his wife lived upstairs and he gave lessons downstairs. His wife once fed me with the greatest potato pie I've ever eaten: better than the Spanish version."

Mercado also recalled Prin meeting Shafik Farid. "When the French Master Raymond Prin was brought to Houston by Van Buskirk, Prin was delighted to work with Shafik and I learned a great deal about teaching watching Prin with him. Since Shafik spoke fluid French his lessons were better assimilated by him than perhaps mine, with only Junior High School French and Prin's Spanish that he probably learned in Costa Rica, to which he returned."

As for Farid, "Eventually the Humble Oil Company, predecessor of Exxon started various sports activities and Shafik was asked to coach a fencing club. There he met his wife and in one year had turned out a very promising woman, Lois Desjardines, who, I think, won the Divisional.

"I got to the point in my teaching where Shafik let me drill him, and warm him up. I don't have the nerve to call them lessons. He often warned me that I needed to give him more distance and he was correct. His lunge seemed to cover ten feet compared to the shorter lunges of others. We fenced together often and all our bouts seemed to come down to 5-4 in his favor. He had a great analytical mind and usually picked up any pattern in my attacks or defenses.

"Had Shafik come to New York, undoubtedly he would have been a qualifier for our Olympic team. I was told once that had he stayed in Egypt he certainly would have been on their next two teams."

Some Texas A&M fencers trekked north to Big D for the Dallas Invitational on December 5-6. Among those competing in the men’s foil event were Bob Braslau, Ashley Sutherland and Bill Swann.

A tournament was held at he Rice Institute Gym on December 12^th. The competitions were in men’s open foil, women’s open foil and men’s open epee. The epee competition was scored electrically.

This was the opening tournament of the 1953-1954 fencing season and was a "prize" competition, as opposed to a qualifying competition. The first few tournaments of each season were usually so designated. The results of prize tournaments were not used to determine fencers’ ratings or eligibility to advance to other competitions.

The first tournament of 1954 was held at the Menard Park Youth Center in Galveston on January 9^th. There were competitions in men’s novice foil, women’s novice foil and men’s open sabre. Galveston was the home of a formidable collection of fencing talent at this time: Dr. Johanna Blumel, Jack Baird and William T. "Bill" Brown among them.

On February 6, 1954, the Aggies played host to a men’s novice epee and men’s novice sabre tournament.

One week later, on February 13^th, a tournament was held at the University of Houston Gym. Competitions were held in women’s foil, men’s foil, men’s epee and men’s sabre. All four events were for "prep," or beginning, fencers. This was also the last of the four "prize" competitions for the season, competitions which were not used to determine fencers’ classifications or eligibility to move on to other events. The remaining events of the season would all be qualifying competitions.

The first qualifying tournament of the season was held at the Rice Institute Gym on February 20^th. The competitions were in men’s junior foil, women’s junior foil and men’s junior epee.

March 6^th moved the competitions to Galveston. The Menard Park Youth Center was the site of women’s prep foil and men’s junior sabre competitions.

College Station held the next event. Texas A & M was host to a tournament on March 13^th. Competitions were held in foil, epee and sabre. All three events were men’s prep competitions. Rice’s young Fred Sklar took first place in the sabre event.

Rice hosted the next event on March 20^th, an all-novice level event in men’s foil, women’s foil, men’s epee and men’s sabre. One the same weekend, but further to the north, one-time Aggie fencer Alvin Goodstein was faring well in the North Texas Division’s final preliminary tournament before the divisional championships. This weekend Goodstein too second place in men’s intermediate sabre and in men’s open epee.

The next week’s competitions moved to the University of Houston. In addition to competitions in men’s and women’s open foil events and men’s and women’s team foil events, the March 27^th event saw the annual business meeting of the Gulf Coast Division afterwards.

The next event was further down the coast, in Corpus Christi. The April 3^rd invitational meet featured men’s and women’s open foil competitions.

The University of Houston again played host on April 10, 1954. This saw the competitions in men’s open sabre and men’s team sabre. On the same weekend, in Dallas, former Texas A&M fencer Alvin Goodstein took first place in open epee in the North Texas Division’s championship.

The fencing season wrapped up on Galveston Island. On April 24, 1954, the Menard Youth Center saw competitions in men’s open epee and men’s team epee. Both of these events were scored electrically.

May of 1954 saw the Sectional Championships also held in Galveston.

By the spring of 1954, Arnold Mercado could be proud of the improvements he had made in the University of Houston Foil Club. While not local champions, the club had given many of their opponents a tough run for their money. Even in defeat, they frequently lost by a single point. One of their strongest fencers was Bruce Moore. Mercado later recalled, "Bruce Moore was one of my students: the only fencer to get a UH letter and he fenced in the NCAA's. He was a sabre fencer."

By the same spring of 1954, the Rice Owls fencing team, led by Charles Reed, Hy Applebaum, and Dan Weisner had acquitted themselves exceptionally well in competitions with the University of Texas, the University of Houston, Texas A & M, the Houston Fencing Club and the Galveston Fencing Club. Applebaum, a southpaw, particularly made generally good showings in all three weapons.

It was not enough, however. In 1954, Texas A & M University was back and captured the Southwest Conference fencing championship. In foil, A & M, with 42 points, took the lead. Texas University came in second with 34 points. Rice University placed a close third with a team consisting of Hy Applebaum, Fred Sklar, Dan Weiser and Charles Reed collecting 32 points. Applebaum, himself, took second place in individual foil behind Parker from Texas University. Applebaum, Reed Weiser and Sklar would each receive their varsity letters for their efforts.

In epee, Rice as a team placed second with a mere one-point advantage over A & M. The competition was all the closer when it was noted that Aggie fencers James F. Pigg, Jr., and Jerry Ramsey had come in 1^st and 2^nd, respectively.

In the sabre fight Rice edged out A & M and Texas 13-12-11. New Rice fencer Fred Sklar made an excellent showing, coming in second behind Texas A & M’s Arthur Garner.

Still, some had a less than flattering opinion of the Texas A & M fencers of this era. One-time University of Houston fencing coach Arnold Mercado remembered, "Texas A&M was also involved in team fencing as well as the University of Texas. The Aggies had a terrible reputation for lack of sportsmanship and once, they challenged Van Buskirk's fairness as a referee at the beginning of a team meet or tournament and Van walked out."

"Some people, like the Aggies, didn't like his directing. I didn't at first then years later I realized that as a director refereeing your students you are going to see the moves you've taught. That doesn't mean you're favoring your students but if they do a one-two-three like you've taught them you're going to see it clearly."

"This reminds me of another Aggie story. In those days the first category for fencers was called ‘Prep.’ This meant someone in his first year of learning to fence. We had our Prep tournament and two Aggies show up claiming they are preps. As soon as they started fencing it was obvious they had been fencing for at least, if not more, than a couple of years. Needless to say they swept the medals. I think their interpretation of Prep was that it was for those who had never fenced in competition before. (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt although they didn't say that)."

"By the way there were some Aggie fencers I really liked. Don Roth is the only name that comes to mind."

On the topic of coaches, there is, in a 1954 Board of Governors report of the AFLA, a request from Harold Van Buskirk for assistance for a professional coach for the Gulf Coast Division. Perhaps this was a reference to Maitre Prin. There is also a note that Van Buskirk mentioned that the Gulf Coast Division’s membership fluctuated as a result of the comings and goings of college student fencers.

In 1954, AFLA awarded the Connecticut Trophy to the Gulf Coast and Southern California Divisions. The award is based on five criteria: total active and collegiate members; number of competitors; number of competitions; percentage increase in membership; and, standing at headquarters (most efficient and regular reports).

With the beginning of the 1954-55 academic fencing season at Rice, Coach Harold Van Buskirk saw the return of Hy Applebaum, Ed Kashy, Fred Sklar, Charles Reed and Erwin Groner to the team. They were joined by incoming freshmen Peter Young, David Steiner, David Dillehay and William Rogers. Applebaum would continue as the team’s mainstay, but was unable to compete regularly due to the requirements of his architectural studies.

With the opening of the 1954-1955 fencing season, several local fencers wandered to Austin for some early "prize" competitions. On December 5^th, at the Austin Athletic Club, competitions were held in men’s novice epee, men’s novice sabre, men’s open foil and women’s open foil. In the last two competitions the "No Foul" rule was used. Sabre had become Rice fencer Fred Sklar’s favorite weapon and he revealed this in capturing first place in the sabre event.

On December 11^th, the Houston YMCA was the site for a tournament of open epee and open sabre competitions. Rice’s Fred Sklar captured first place in the sabre event, with Charles Reed taking second place and Bill Lamb coming in third. Reed fared better in the epee event, taking first place, followed by Louis Cargill and Ed Gause of Texas City.

Of Ed Gause, Robert Shelby noted years later, "Ed Gause was an engineer with Union Carbide in Texas City. He learned fencing from Jack Baird with the Galveston Buccaneers."

Two decades before, the father of Galveston-born fencer John Fuhrhop died in an automobile accident while visiting his son in Arkansas. It had been almost a decade and a half since Galveston fencer Steve van der Wal perished in an auto accident. It had been just over a decade since Worthington Franks was shot down over Romania.

The New Year of 1955 had barely arrived when disaster once again struck down a prominent Galveston fencer. William T. "Bill" Brown was driving his 1954 Cadillac in an early morning fog near Texas City on Tuesday, January 4. At about 2:40 A. M. he collided with a moving freight train. The collision threw Brown clear even as it completely demolished the Cadillac, dragging it along the tracks before releasing it. The vehicle ended up under a tank car. Brown’s nose, ribs and a small finger were broken. His arm suffered a compound fracture, as did three other fingers. There were numerous cuts to his face and body.

Arnold Mercado held the context to the terrible accident. "Unfortunately, I know the inside story about Bill Brown's accident. He was leaving a tryst in Houston."

The 36-year-old lumber company executive was in surgery within two hours and spent a full day in the operating room. He was eventually released from the hospital. He recovered, after a fashion, but his fencing days were numbered.

For others, these were the glory days. Fred Sklar, Charles Reed, Erwin Groner and Ed Kashy became the core Rice fencers participating at most events in the spring of 1955. They and their school began the New Year by hosting a prize tournament in men’s and women’s novice level foil.

It was around this time that a young boy in junior high school, Lonnie Frankel, discovered fencing. "I had a home room teacher who had fenced. One day she brought her equipment to school and talked about fencing. I told my dad aboput it and I found out he used to fence."

There was also a young couple renting an apartment nearby, Jack and Betty Day. They also fenced. Lonnie Frankel later recalled Jack Day as a sabre fencer. They told him of a group that met once a week at the University of Houston. They took lessons from Shafik "Steve" Farid. Frankel began taking lessons from Farid, often getting a ride from Betty Day.

Texas A & M hosted the next prize competition on February 12^th. This was for men’s prep epee and sabre.

The final prize competition of the year was in the University of Houston gym on February 19^th. This consisted of men’s and women’s prep foil events.

On February 26 Rice hosted the season’s first qualifying tournament, a men’s and women’s junior foil competition.

Texas A & M held a junior epee and sabre meet on March 5, 1955. Competitors included fencers from the University of Texas, the University of Houston, Rice University and the U. S. Air Force. Rice’s Charles Reed captured first place in sabre and fourth place in epee. His colleague Fred Sklar took fourth place in sabre.

March 12 saw a prep epee and sabre competition at the Houston YWCA.

The University of Houston hosted a novice epee and sabre event on March 26.

On April 2, 1955 there was a men’s novice foil competition in "A" Hall at the University of Texas, in Austin.

There were a men’s and women’s open and team foil competition at the University of Houston gym on the weekend of April 16 and 17. This was also the time for the annual business meeting of the Division.

The weekend of April 23 and 24 saw Texas A & M host open and team epee and sabre competitions. Rice took a commanding lead by defeating A & M by a score of 5-3 in both the team epee and team sabre events. The Rice sabre team (Hy Applebaum, Charles Reed and Fred Sklar) then proceeded to defeat Austin 5-2 for the Division crown.

The Rice epee team (Applebaum, Sklar and Irwin Kashy) made it to second place, losing the title to a composite team made up of the University of Houston’s Arnold Mercado, Galveston’s Jack Baird and J. L. "Bob" Brisco. Baird, at this time, was the Gulf Coast Division President. Kashy, Sklar, Reed and Applebaum all received their varsity letters for fencing at Rice.

The State Championships were held in El Paso on May 1^st.

Texas A & M held on to the Southwest Conference fencing championship one more time in 1955. The competition was held on May 6 and 7 on their home turf in College Station. Rice’s Ed Kashy, however, took home the men’s foil championship from the tournament.

Right afterwards, the Southwest Sectional Championships were held May 7-8, in Fort Bliss, Texas. Bruce Birch won the top spots in junior foil, intermediate foil and open sabre. Waneen Wyrick won first place in both the junior women’s foil and open women's foil, after 3-way ties in each. Arnold Mercado won both the open epee and junior sabre. Jim Parker won the open foil competition after a fence-off. Ironically, he lost the first place spot for intermediate foil in a fence-off.

In 1955, the AFLA once again awarded the Connecticut Trophy to the Gulf Coast Division. This time, however, they did not have to share the honor with another division.

The 1955-1956 fencing season opened with Arnold Mercado as the Chairman of the Gulf Coast Division. Mabel Morse was the Division Secretary and William T. Brown was an additional director.

The fall of 1955 saw the return of Charles Reed, Erwin Groner, Ed Kashy, Fred Sklar, Dave Dillehay, and Bill Rogers to Van Buskirk and the Rice fencing squad. Fred Sklar was now captain of the team. Jim Strange, Mike Simons, Dick Betts and James Stras were the incoming freshmen.

The 1955-1956 fencing season began on September 25, with the W. A. Franks Memorial Tournament, an invitational, at the Fort Crockett Gym in Galveston. The two events fenced were men’s open saber and women’s open foil. Amazingly, less than a year after his accident, Texas City’s Bill Brown won the Franks Trophy for 1955, but it was a last hurrah. The first Chairman of the Gulf Coast Division was beginning to walk off into obscurity.

Arnold Mercado recalled, "The strongest fencing club in the state in the early fifties was the Galveston Fencing Club until Bill Brown was smashed up in an automobile accident and never fenced again."

Referring to Brown’s accident, Mercado later added, "When Bill Brown was badly hurt in a car accident driving one night from Houston to Galveston it took him a good while to get restored. I think he fenced in one more tournament then disappeared from fencing."

Fred Sklar also remembered the Franks Memorial Sabre Tournament. "As best I can remember it was the first meet of the season and it was held in Galveston which had some active fencers as well as some in Texas City."

Another invitational tournament was fought on October 1, 1955 at Root Square Park in Houston. Competitions were held in both men’s and women’s open foil.

An invitational event was also held on October 29, 1955 at the YMCA in Corpus Christi. As with the Root Square Park invitational, this event held competitions in men’s and women’s open foil.

Outside the Gulf Coast Division was the Dallas Invitational on November 12-13. At least one Gulf Coast fencer, John Curry of Houston, probably found the trip worthwhile. He captured third place in the open foil event.

The next invitational tournament was held on November 19^th, in the De Ware Field House Gym in College Station. Competitions were held in men’s open foil, epee and sabre. This event also included a trophy for the winner of the most bouts in all three weapons.

The University of Houston hosted a weekend of prize competitions December 3-4. The bill consisted of men’s and women’s open foil events, men’s open sabre and a men’s open epee competition that employed electrical scoring. Competitors came from Rice, the University of Houston, the University of Texas, Texas A & M, the Galveston Fencing Club and the Houston Fencing Club.

In the electric epee event, with a field of seven, the Rice Institute’s Fred Sklar took first place. He also captured first place in the sabre event, with his classmate Charles Reed taking second place. In the women’s foil event, former Rice student and Van Buskirk protégé Betty Jean Fox, now Betty Jean Kolenda, captured first place from a field of seven.

The Rice Institute hosted its own prize competition on December 10, with men’s and women’s novice foil events.

The AFLA Board of Governors, meeting in New York City on December 7^th, approved changes to the by-laws of both the Gulf Coast Division and the Southwest Section.

The young Lonnie Frankel began drifting away from fencing, however. While he enjoyed it well enough, it proved awkward for him. Part of the problem was that, as a youngster, he had to catch a ride there and back with young adults like Jack and Betty Day. The other issue also revolved around his age. He was about 13 or 14 years old. This group of fencers at UH would regularly meet after fencing at the Spanish Village and share a pitcher of beer. He was just too young.

Post-holiday competitions began with a prize competition in novice epee and sabre at the University of Houston gym on January 7, 1956. Rice completely captured the top spots in the sabre event with first, second and third places going to Fred Sklar, Don Steiner and Ed Kashy, respectively.

A week later, on January 14^th, a prize competition in women’s and men’s prep foil was held at Root Square Park in Houston.

College Station was the scene of the final prize event, on February 4th. Texas A & M hosted a prep epee and prep sabre tournament.

The spring of 1956 saw the Rice fencers picking up the pace. In dual meets with the University of Houston, on February 7^th and March 7^th, they won both times. In the February contest, at the Autry gym, 27 bouts were fought in foil, epee and sabre. Rice took the top spots in foil (5-4) and sabre (5-4), but the U of H won the epee event (5-4). By the scoring system, this left Rice with the final lead of 14-13. Attending for Rice had been Fred Sklar, Charles Reed, Erwin Groner, Ed Kashy, Dave Dillehay and Don Steiner.

The more serious qualifying events came next. The first, on February 11^th, was hosted by Rice and featured competitions in junior sabre and junior epee. Again, the epee competition employed an electrical scoring system. Rice’s Fred Sklar captured first place in the sabre event. Another Rice fencer, Don Steiner, took second place, while John Curry of the Houston Fencers Club placed third. In fact, in the junior sabre event, five of the top six slots went to fencers from Rice. Sklar also took 2^nd place in the electric epee event.

February 18^th the University of Texas hosted a qualifying tournament in women’s and men’s junior foil.

The third qualifying tournament of the season was a women’s and men’s prep foil competition at Rice on February 25^th.

March 3^rd saw the men’s prep epee and sabre qualifying competition held in College Station by Texas A & M.

The next weekend, March 10-11, the University of Houston hosted a qualifying tournament. Competitions were held in women’s intermediate foil, men’s intermediate foil, men’s intermediate sabre and men’s intermediate epee. Once more, electric scoring was employed in the epee event.

On March 17^th, local fencers gathered for another invitational meet at Root Square Park in Houston. On the ticket were competitions in women’s open foil and men’s open sabre. Also on the bill was a one-touch epee competition that used electric scoring.

A week later, on March 24^th, the Rice Institute hosted a novice epee and novice sabre qualifying event. Van Buskirk and his top fencers, however, were not there.

In what was undoubtedly the highlight for the fencing steamroller that Van Buskirk had built, the coach and his lead three fencers attended the NCAA championships at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis March 22-24. Van Buskirk was in the company of such notable fencing coaches as Hugo Castello, James Castello, Andre Deladrier, Stan Sieja, and Lajos Csiszar. The Rice team placed a respectable 18^th out of a field of 39, which included fencers from Harvard, Princeton, Navy, NYU, Cornell, Columbia, Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Texas Tech, Rutgers, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa.

April 7^th saw the scene shift to Austin. The qualifying competition in men’s and women’s novice foil was held at "A" Hall at the University of Texas.

The weekend of April 14-15 the venue returned to Houston. The U of H gym was the scene of the qualifying competitions in women’s and men’s open foil and in women’s and men’s team foil.

The final qualifying tournament of the season was held at Texas A & M. Competitions were held in open epee (electric), open sabre, team epee (electric) and team sabre. The annual business meeting of the Gulf Coast Division followed this.

April also saw what would turn out to be the final year for fencing in the Southwest Conference. Defending SWC men’s foil champ Ed Kashy led Charles Reed and Fred Sklar in Rice’s foil team. Rice’s epee team consisted of Kashy, Sklar and Erwin Groner. On their sabre team was Reed, the ubiquitous Fred Sklar and Dave Dillehay. In team foil, Rice lost to the University of Texas. Rice won the team epee and team sabre events.

In the individual events Rice remained strong. Charles Reed placed second in foil and first in sabre. Fred Sklar took second place in sabre and first place in epee. David Dillehay was second in epee. Indeed, his only loss was to teammate Sklar.

Rice University took the Southwest Conference title with a total of 42 points. Texas A & M scored a total of 27 points to land in second place. The University of Texas placed third with 21 points total. The UT Longhorns did, with Jim Anderson’s eight wins, capture the top individual honors.

There is an interesting coda to the etude of Southwest Conference fencing. As Fred Sklar recalled in 2006, "Rice won in 1956 at the conference championship held at U. of Texas and which Mr. Van Buskirk coached and I was the captain of. The trophy along with one that Rice won in 1951 used to sit in the trophy display case at Rice's Autrey Gym where the basketball games are played. A few years ago I was at the gym's ticket office to buy football tickets when I noticed the trophies were no longer in the display case. I inquired at the nearby athletic office and one of the athletic department personnel came out of his nearby office and said he had them in his office, preparatory to putting them in some out of sight storage area to make room in the trophy case for more big time sport trophies. I told him I had an attachment to the 1956 trophy and to my surprise, he offered it to me which I promptly accepted and it now sits on a bookshelf in my house. The inscriptions reads ‘Southwest Conference Champions, 1956, Rice University.’

"We soundly beat U. of Texas and A & M that year, winning first and second individual SW Conference medals in Epee and Sabre and the team championship in both weapons as well as second place individual foil and team foil. This was a tribute to Mr. Van's coaching skills as 5 out of the 6 members of our team had no experience in fencing until we started with Mr. Van at Rice."

The sectional championships were held in Abilene, Texas.

In the course of various Gulf Coast AFLA competitions, Charles Reed won first place in two sabre meets. Fred Sklar took first in three epee and two sabre competitions. At one novice competition, Rice fencers captured the top three places. By the end of the year Fred Sklar and Charles Reed received their third letter in fencing. Ed Kashy received his second. David Dillehay, Erwin Groner and Don Steiner each received their first and only letter in fencing. The heyday of collegiate fencing on the Texas Gulf Coast was ending.

Arnold Mercado, then coaching the rival University of Houston fencers, recalled, "The last collegiate team at Rice in '56 was the best ever."

He also recalled a scare they all had. "Groner had the scariest accident I ever witnesses. In those days masks could get pretty grungy, weak wire and rust. His opponent's epee went through the mask and came out the back. I was a side judge and all of us froze as Groner went down to his knees. Slowly he pulled of his mask. The epee had hit the bone on the side of his right eye and the triple point d’arret scraped temples over his ear. A little more to the left and it would have gone through his eye and into the brain. Fortunately, only a Band-Aid took care of it."

The spring of 1956 was the last time Charles Reed would fence for Rice, but it did not mark the end of his fencing. "I had absolutely no training before Rice. With the fencing at Rice, however, I went on to fence for the University of Paris (ultimately to the French student national championships in Rennes in 1959). Then, when I moved to San Francisco, I fenced with the Panonia Athletic Club for awhile. They were the sabre team from Hungary that defected during the 1956 Olympics. Talk about talent, man they had it."

This is not to say that Rice University had a lock on fencing in Houston during the mid-1950s. The University of Houston still had a fair number of students actively fencing during the same period. One of them was a young man named Larry Hovis. When not fencing or skin diving, he was pursuing a career as a singer. This path of performance would take him from being an early member of the New Christy Minstrels to a career as a writer and comic actor, appearing on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In to playing the role of "Carter" on the 1960s WWII sitcom, Hogan’s Heroes.

The Gulf Coast Division was, of course, one of dozens of local administrative branches of the AFLA. Created in 1891, the AFLA had, almost from the start, created divisions to manage local fencing in areas outside the Big Apple. These were developed from place to place as interest in fencing developed. There were also non-divisional fencers, those from area that did not yet have an organized AFLA division, d those in metropolitan New York. In 1956 the Metropolitan Division was finally created.

With the summer of 1956, Jack Baird added teaching fencing at the Texas City Recreation Hall to his list of fencing commitments. The Galveston powerhouse of fencers was winding down. Baird first began fencing as a Texas A&M student in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Since the end of the war he had been one of the driving forces in competitions, as fencer and organizer. Now he concentrated on giving lessons and on seeing to the affairs of the division and section. Bill Brown never recovered from the accident and drifted away from fencing. Clem D’Albergo, who organized the first incarnation of Galveston fencing, was effectively retired.

Additionally the Abbotts, Everett and Naomia, had moved to Florida. Capt. Everett W. Abbott Jr., was still an active duty officer. In Florida he was commander of the 17^th Air Police Squadron. Naomia, not only found time to continue he fencing, but in 1956 won the title of All-Florida Women’s Fencing Champion.

Another event in 1956 involved the Modern Pentathlon. For decades the center for training in this military-dominated sport was Fort Sam Houston, in central Texas. In 1956, civilians were invited for the first time to enter into Olympic trials at the center.

The fall fencing season kicked off September 29-30, 1956 with the W. A. Franks Memorial Tournament in Texas City. Jack Baird directed the meet. As before, the competitions were in women’s open foil and men’s open sabre.

With the beginning of the fall, Arnold Mercado had new students to introduce to fencing. One of them was a young Robert Shelby. "I began fencing under Arnold (Sonny) Mercado in the fall of 1956 when I entered the University of Houston. I won the Prep (beginners) foil meet that year at Texas City. Two competitors I remember most at that meet were Ed Gause and Roger Melton as they became my friends and we fenced together many times over the years.

"Sonny Mercado gave me innumerable lessons over the years and never received a cent from me. I hope he was repaid when I finally beat him every chance I got. And I did get the chance once or twice."

He also noted, "Ed and his wife Lou (who fenced some also) later taught at the old Texas City Recreation Building and this is where I had my first AFLA competition (1956-57 season, prep foil meet: Ed was third, Roger Melton was second, I took first). Ed and Lou were godparents to my son. Ed did fence saber (at nearly every tournament) but had an erratic style that caused him to lose points with visual judging."

Shelby added, "Both Ed and Lou were from New Orleans. When they left this area they went to (I think) Georgia where Ed got his doctorate and taught out there. I'm sorry to say I lost touch with them through the years. They were great friends and good people!"

Of Roger Melton, Shelby wrote, "Roger Melton lived in League City and fenced with Jack [Baird] and Ed [Gause] and like Jack was an Aggie. He was an engineer at either Carbide or one of the other
chemical plants in that area as was most of the guys from down there. Roger won the saber and epee prep tourneys in 56-57 as I did not start those two weapons until the next year and couldn't give him a run for his money for the best new fencer that Sonny awarded in those days. Roger didn't keep fencing on a regular basis but later married Pat Cougar."

Concerning the formidable Jack Baird, Shelby later wrote, "Jack Baird hadn't retired from fencing when I started but certainly had slowed a bit. If you ever fenced Jack you wished he had slowed even more. I fenced him at least three or four years before he finally wound down completely. He had the strongest arm you can imagine!"

Robert alsomet Jack and Betty Day, the couple who used to give Lonnie Frankel a lift to UH fencing practices. "Jack Day was (more or less) fencing at/with UH fencing in 1956 when I arrived. At that time Jack was married to Betty (more or less). Jack also worked at NASA on flight -living conditions. Betty ran a blood-testing lab and gave me and my then prospective bride our blood tests as a wedding present. Both these nice folks are dead. In later years Jack Day lived over near me in Bellaire. We were friendly right up to his death."

Of course, there was more to life than fencing. "During that period we usually celebrated the end of a major local tournament with a libatious party. If the fencing meet was held in Texas City or Galveston, the party was held on Galveston’s West Beach, which in those days was a pretty lonely stretch, with no houses anywhere around. A large driftwood fire would be built on the sand, and partying would be done until the sun came up. If the fencing meet had started on Saturday and wrapped around to Sunday, and after enough fencers could be propped up to give the appearance of fencing, then the judging—no matter how bad—was forgiven as most everyone was in the same boat."

"My roommate during some of this was also a fencer, James Monroe from the Waco area, who was attending U. of H. after a hitch in the army. We had ample opportunity to practice our skills. There was fencing at U. of H. once or twice a week, visiting the Rice fencers one night a week and fencing at a local park recreation building where an old gentleman taught fencing to the local kids. This is where I met Ken Hogan who was then about 16 years old. He lived down the street from me in the Montrose area in Houston, so we practiced together a lot at the old Cherryhurst Park."

With the fall of 1956, Dave Dillehay, Bill Rogers, Jim Strange and Mike Simons returned to Rice’s fencing team. Dillehay became the junior captain. Moomaw, Landfield and Wimot were the new fencers on the team.

This brought them at crossed blades with a UT fencer, Michael Fooks. He would be both their rival and teammate over the ensuing years. Michael Fooks was one of those people for whom fencing had been on their minds almost from the first. "It had always been interesting to me." Growing up in Texarkana, he and his brother would have mock sword fights. At one point, he ordered what purported to be fencing foils from a mail order catalogue. As he described it, "The blade was made out of wire stock. The guard was a big tin bell. The handle looked like a tootsie-roll."

"At the time, I was about twelve or thirteen." In time, however, he discovered the existence of the Castello Fencing Equipment Company and ordered some real foils to play with.

Around 1955 or 1956, he began his fencing education in earnest. He knew a "kid across the street, Paul Gray." The Grays’ family dentist was Dr. Pierce Noble, who also taught fencing. They took lessons out of Dr. Noble’s garage and driveway. "He would teach us one attack and one parry for that attack., and, of course, footwork." Fencing took with Fooks, a fact both he a Dr. Noble recognized. The lessons under Dr. Noble continued for a little less than a year.

In 1956 Michael Fooks graduated from high school and left for the University of Texas. There he took fencing under Coach Ed Barlow, who was about 50 years old at the time. In Barlow’s class, he would watch the early "messing around," Fooks and the other students engaged in. After watching and evaluating, he would then pair the students with each other as practice partners. The partnerships would then remain in place.

Presumably Barlow liked what he saw in Fooks, because he put him on the fencing team. Fooks later recalled remarking to Barlow, "I don’t think freshmen are supposed to be on the varsity team." Barlow replied, "I won’t tell if you won’t."

The team traveled to competitions against the likes of SMU and Rice University. It was during these visits to Houston to fence against Rice that Fooks first met the Rice fencers. "We had many knock-down, drag-outs," Fooks laughed. "They should remember me, I was the pain in their sides."

Fooks was only at UT for a year when he moved to Sarasota, Florida. For the next few years he competed actively with the Sarasota Fencing Club.

At Texas A&M, the fall brought a new fencing coach, Russell K. Wieder. Wieder had graduated from Kenyon College in 1942 and had pursued graduate studies at Case Western Reserve. He had been a charter member of the National Fencing Coaches Association of America. He was also a member of the Association Monidale des Academies d’Armes Nationale.

He had also served in Army Intelligence in the European Theatre during World War II. This service also left him with a wound that, many decades later in the 1980s, eventually cost him his left leg.

He did not gain a fan out of Sonny Mercado. "Wieder may be the Aggie coach I remember. If so, he was a wrestling-fencing coach who made the Aggie bad fencing manners worse, to the point where he embarrassed some of them."

"He was a dreadful referee. Once when our teams met we alternated directing and he had the last sabre bout: we were tied. He called it without benefit of right of way the way he wanted. We lost. This left us with such a bad taste in our mouth that we wouldn't have anything to do with them. Our AFLA secretary, who was a friend of someone on the Aggie Board, wrote to him explaining how bad this man was to the Aggie image."

It should come as no surprise that his students did not share Arnold Mercado’s view of Wieder. As one of his much later students described him, "Maestro Wieder coached the Olympic saber team in the 1950s and boxed professionally." A man of strong opinions, he was good with a sabre, but held it in disdain as a "butcher’s weapon." He was, however, particularly fond of the epee. An instructor from the Italian school, he had his students use epees equipped with Italian grips and points d’arret, despite the prevalence of orthopedic grips and the fact that the electric epee had begun making occasional appearances at Gulf Coast Division competitions.

Wieder wanted his students to treat fencing weapons as though they were sharp, as though they were swords. Some descriptions of his style seem extremely combative, but always employing technique and finesse. As one of his later students would recall, "Mr. Wieder was 5'4" tall, and he would stand with his front foot between yours and execute perfect disengages." The same student recalled his maestro’s attitudes toward the basics of fencing, remembering a lesson drummed into the students as, "He who parries not, dies."

Anne Marie did dispute one small part of that description, however. "One little correction, my father was 5-6, not 5-4."

If Wieder’s attitudes seem out of touch with the fact that fencing had become purely a competitive sport or recreational pastime, it should not be surprising. One of Wieder’s last pupils, from the late 1970s, would later relate, "He learned to fence in the late 1920s, from an Italian gentleman who had been the fencing instructor at Annapolis in the late 19th century. He received his Master's license in Europe in the 1930s."

"My master learned in the 1920s from a master who learned in the 1880s, so I am only three generations away from real sword fights. In fact, my master fought a duel with live steel in the 1940s (I understand it was fought to first blood, with another master over a point of technique. Mr. Wieder won.) I was never allowed to forget that I was learning the sport form of a martial art, not a pure sport. Unfortunately, this is an attitude rarely found in the contemporary salle d’armes."

Anne Marie Wieder noted, "The master he studied under was brought over by Teddy Roosevelt to Annapolis. His name is Generoso Parvese."

Born on June 27, 1907, Wieder had, in his youth, been part of an unusual fencing event. In the late 1930s, as east-west tensions mounted and the world neared the Second World War, the Japanese community in Panama brought in a Japanese kendo master and an American fencing master to face off against each other. Wieder was that American. It was fencing epee versus bamboo shinai. The kendo master raised his blade three times to begin his pass…and three times Wieder lunged, striking the kendo master’s kote (right mitten). Wieder remained untouched. That ended the bout. Years later, Bob Lyle heard the story straight from the combatant, "He told me the story in his Lufkin, Texas living room and I saw the yellowed newspaper clipping."

The Dallas Invitational was held November 18^th. In the women’s open foil, Forth Worth’s Kay Coddington took the top spot and Nancy Derrick of Houston took second place. Galveston’s Jack Baird won the men’s open foil competition, with Fred Algia of El Paso in second and Richard Slaughter of Fort Worth in third. Baird also won the open saber competition, with Houston’s Bob Derrick and the Dallas YMCA’s Bill Towry in second and third, respectively. The open epee event was won by Ben Firth of Connoly Air Force Base, with Baird in second and Bob Montgomery of the Universit of Texas in third.

The A&M fencers took off, winning most of their 15 meets of the 1956-1957 season. Team Captain Bryan Russell, Joseph Elliot, John Kirschke, Bryant Ralph, Albert Ong, Cecil Hill, Don Palumbo, fenced successfully and set an example for teammates Stumbo, Trevino, Yantrs, Layne, Klopfenstein, Spurlock and Reeves.

They felt on their way to another Southwest Conference title when it was announced that Texas University in Austin would not be fielding fencers to the event. As a result of T U’s withdrawal, there were an insufficient number of teams to maintain the event. Only Rice and Texas A&M remained. Fencing was eliminated from the conference as an official sport in December 1956.

In an era when most of the fencing in the region was based in the colleges and universities, this was a crushing blow. While both Rice and Texas A&M had maintained vigorous fencing programs, the sport had waned outside the Gulf Coast region.

About this time Lonnie Frankel stumbled back into fencing. As a sixteen year old, he often helped out at his father’s business, a "fun shop" downtown. This was the early incarnation of what would become Frankel’s Costumes, a multi-generational business. One day another teen walked in and began fiddling around with different props. Picking up a cane, the teen began fencing with it and executed a lunge more or less toward Lonnie Frankel. Frankel picked up a cane of his own and lunged back. In that moment they each realized the other fenced. The other teen was Jon Conlon.

Frankel fell in with the group that fenced under the auspices of the "Old Man of Cherryhurst Park," Ardien Benneau Rodner. The park in the Montrose area of Houston included a small structure. As Lonnie Frankel recalled it, it was not long enough to hold legitimate length fencing pistes, but 8-9 pairs of fencers could enjoy bouts there.

As Frankel recalled, Rodner kept it organized. Often Mrs. Rodner would attend and sit off to one side knitting. Among those fencing at Cherryhuirst Park in this era were Jon Conlon, George Taylor, Mary Jane Henderson and Robert Shelby. Frankel also recalled Sonny Mercado stopping by on occasion. One person who was conspicuous by their absence was Steve Farid. "I think there was some kind of friction between those two," Frankel recalled.

With the spring of 1957, Arnold Mercado ended his stay with the University of Houston.

At Rice, despite the loss of fencing from Southwest Conference competition, the fencing club pushed on. Dave Dillehay served as junior captain. There were privately arranged meets with fencers from the University of Houston and Texas A & M, with Rice winning both. Rice fencers also won the collegiate foil trophy in AFLA competition. Dillehay went to the NCAA meet in Detroit placing 7^th in an event drawing fencers from 36 colleges and universities.

Far away, in Florida, Naomia Abbott won the title of All-Florida Women’s Fencing Champion for the second time in as many years.

For only the third time since 1892, the AFLA held its National Championship tournament away from New York. The 1957 championships were not only unique for being held in Milwaukee, however. The year 1957 saw the introduction of electrically scored foil into the AFLA’s national championships for the first time.

More complex in design than the system for electrically scoring with epee, continuous problems plagued the events to the point that the men's foil finals were conducted dry. Like electric epee, electric foil was here to stay and, at first, most foilists would accept the change, with some grumbling.

Ultimately, however, with electrical scoring and the rise in use of orthopedic grips and more and more flexible, even whippy, blades, the schism which would ultimately divide fencers into rival sport fencing and classical fencing camps was beginning.

At Texas A&M Russell Wieder was among those who felt more kinship to the older style. He also felt a kinship with the often-swashbuckling actor Basil Rathbone. In fact, in 1957, Rathbone paid a visit to the Texas A&M campus to confer with Wieder and discuss fencing techniques.

Electric foil, however endorsed by the AFLA, was still years away from Texas.

Texas was currently divided into three AFLA divisions: Border, North Texas, and Gulf Coast. These were three of 42 active divisions in the AFLA. (There were also another 10 divisions listed as "inactive.") Additionally, there was also an active New Orleans Division, next door in Louisiana.

The Southwest Section was a very different creature than exists today. Arnold Mercado recalled, "As far back as I can remember there was a section. But, I may be wrong. If anyone can look at ancient rule books… (I have one from 1957.) The 1957 book says the SW Championships (Art.716) are open to all divisions of the AFLA within the State of Texas, and to any division in territory immediately contiguous thereto provided it requests and obtains the consent of the SW Executive Committee. Other neighboring divisions may be invited at the discretion of the sectional Executive Committee.

"At it's largest the section included Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona."

The Southwest Sectional Championship tournament was also one of only four AFLA-approved Sectional Championships operating by 1957. The other three at this time were Pacific Coast, Mid-West and North Atlantic. By AFLA rules, all were to be held in the spring, at least one month prior to the date set for that year’s National Championships, since these were qualifying competitions for those wishing to compete in the National Championships.

Divisional Championships, which were also qualifying competitions to the national championships, were similarly to be held at least a month prior to the date of the national championships. In this era, the number of competitive fencers in the division determined the number of fencers a division could send to the national championships. For instance, a division with 25 or less competitive AFLA fencers in good standing could send a minimum of 3 to the national championships. A minimum of four could qualify if a division had 26 to 50 competitive fencers. A minimum of five could qualify if a division had 51 to 100 competitive fencers. Divisions with over 100 competitive fencers could qualify a minimum of six.

"Additional qualifiers shall be permitted if there are 10 or more actual competitors in the qualifying competition, as follows: 10-19 inclusive, one additional qualifier; 20-29 inclusive, two additional qualifiers; 30-39 inclusive, three additional qualifiers; 40 or more, four additional qualifiers.

"In other words, three shall be the minimum and ten the maximum that shall be allowed to qualify from any divisional or non-divisional competition, over and above the automatic qualifiers… "

The 1957 rulebook also describes the "automatic qualifiers" of that era.

"The following members of the AFLA in good standing are eligible to participate in the individual events of the national championship tournament without taking part in the qualifying competitions and without reducing the number of other qualifiers from the division or non-divisional group to which they belong.

1. the finalists of the previous national individual championships in a particular weapon;
2. all former national champions in that weapon;
3. members of the U. S. Olympic Fencing Team selected not more than four years prior to the tournament, in the weapon fenced;
4. current sectional champions in their respective weapons;
5. fencers of veteran classification (aged 50 or over) who have been national championship medalists or members of a U. S. Olympic Fencing Team."

The same 1957 rulebook describes the time constraints of the fencing bout. Foil and sabre bouts, which were to five touches, had a limit of ten minutes "of effective combat," that is, like contemporary bouts, no time passed between the command to "halt" and the command to "fence." In women’s foil, fenced to four touches, bouts ran eight minutes. Epee was more variable. There were AFLA-sanctioned bouts to one touch, to three touches and to five touches. A one touch epee bout could run five minutes. Five minutes were allotted to three and five touch bouts.

It should be interesting to note that in 1957, while the round foil bell guard had come to dominate the weapon, lunette or figure-8 style guards were still allowed. The rules noted, "The bell guard may be replaced by a double-loop guard, provided the front face of the latter be covered with leather, and that the construction is so arranged that the opponent’s point cannot be caught in it."

The rules for electric foil were still described in the rulebook as, frankly, "experimental." The experimental quality of early electric foil can be gauged by the fact that AFLA rules noted that the use of "tubular" blades was being permitted on an experimental basis, but that fiberglass blades were forbidden.

According to the 1957 rulebook, "At least four championship events – the men’s individual open, epee, foil and sabre, and the women’s individual foil – shall be held… and the championship competitions therein shall constitute the national championship tournament."

"Whenever possible, the four corresponding national team championships and the three-weapon team championship shall be held at the same time as part of the same national tournament."

"It has been customary to schedule the tournament in the late spring or early summer, and most frequently in the month of June."

"The New York Metropolitan Division, under the terms of its charter, makes a standing bid for the national championship tournament, and will be awarded the tournament automatically if no other bids are received in time."

Once there, the competition format the fencers encountered, as described in the 1957 rulebook was thus:

"Unless otherwise specifically announced in the schedule, the first round of the championship competitions, team and individual, shall be held by the pool method, but byes may be given without limitation of number at the discretion of the Bout Committee according to a formula of general application.

"The seeded draw in the first round of the championship competition shall be governed, first by the national list of Ranking Fencers, and next according to the judgement of the National Bout Committee aided by the statements of estimated strength contained in the certifications filed by the divisional secretaries… "

"Unless otherwise specifically announced in the schedule, at least three fencers shall qualify from each elimination round in individual events… and the final round-robin shall consist of at least six fencers."

On the national level, the AFLA had also done away with the old skill categories of senior, intermediate, junior, novice and prep. Fencers were now categorized as A, B, C or unclassified.

It was a mark of a simpler time with a smaller national population of fencers.

Sonny Mercado’s pupil Robert Shelby recalled the summer of 1957. "Mostly during the summer months my roommate at UH, James Monroe, and myself would go by Cherryhurst Park and fence the folks there. Mr. [Ardien Bennau] Rodner was a great old guy but his style of fencing was yearrs out of date. His saber was the old Italian school and his movements were too wide. However, much credit must be given to him for keeping the flame of fencing alive when it would dim (as it frequently did) at other places in Houston. Many young persons were introduced to the sport by him. Lonnie [Frankel] and Ken [Hogan] are two examples."

Interestingly, in September of 1957, Donald Thompson of Cleveland, Ohio took office as President of the AFLA. He was the first AFLA President to come from outside the Metropolitan New York area.

The 1957-1958 fencing season in the Gulf Coast Division began with the Franks Memorial and it was Arnold "Sonny" Mercado who captured the Franks Trophy this year.

With the fall of 1957, Moomaw, Dave Dillehay, Mike Simons and Jim Strange returned to fencing at Rice. There was some hope among fencers in other schools, like Rice, that it would be reinstated with the addition of Texas Tech in Lubbock to SWC fencers. It was not to be. Fencing never returned to the Southwest Conference.

Some Houston area fencers of this era came up with their own diversions, however. Robert Shelby recalled, "When we were young, a number of us aficionados of sabre had a game we played, separate from foil and epee and quite un-sanctioned. Although we fenced the other weapons, some of us had a particular fondness for the military weapon. The game was simple. You fenced without a shirt or jacket. Some called this "guts sabre." Unfortunately, this occurred back in the old days prior to ladies fencing sabre. The object was to inflict a certain amount of pain on your opponent without giving too much blood for the cause yourself. Unlike schlager, where no mask is worn, we kept the mask (we weren’t complete fools) and took our wounds where only we knew about them. This activity also aided one in learning to parry!"

Reminded of this ritual, Robert Shelby elaborated, "Ah! Guts saber. Beautiful way to learn to parry. At least, that's what Roland Reed told me when I introduced him to the "sport." See, he didn't just teach me bad habits, it worked both ways. Yes, I miss Roland. Well let's see, who else. Yes, got Kenny to fence our little secret. It was secret when I started at UH. Don Green, Richard Sturm, later James Monroe
and several others I don't recall. We had to keep this a secret or Sonny, who was teaching there, would have had a fit! Really more interesting after a fencing meet and a few beers. See why saber was really more popular than foil or epee to a certain adolescent mind set."

Some Gulf Coast fencers ventured north to Big D for Dallas Invitational, November 9-10. In the first day of fencing, Galveston’s Betty Day captured first place in the women’s foil event, with Fort Worth’s Mozelle Hampton in second and Dallasite Helen Gray in third place. In men’s foil, however, it was Texas Tech fencer Frank Griffin who took first place. Forth Worth’s Richard Slaughter came in second, while Fred Aliaga of El Paso placed third.

The loss of Southwest Conference fencing had been profound and fencing activity began to slow along the Texas Gulf Coast. The event had been dropped because of the loss of participating schools had left only Texas A&M and Rice fielding fencers to the event. Now the effect was reaching them.

Rice had also lost the coaching services of Harold Van Buskirk.

At Texas A&M, Russ Wieder continued coaching, but due to a lack of competition the varsity fencing team would fail to compete in any collegiate meets. As with Rice, the fencing team was reduced to a fencing club. Eight members hung on: Smith, Lyles, Moran, Krisch, Ralph, Brentwood, Navar and Ong.

The Southwest Sectional Championships were held in Houston, May 3-4.

Far away, in Florida, Naomia Abbott continued her dominance of women’s foil, winning the All-Florida Women’s Fencing Champion title for the third straight year. A newspaper photograph of the era shows her smiling, with her hair pulled back, a medal around her neck, her mask held under her left arm, her right hand holding her characteristic Italian foil.

The 1958-1959 fencing season kicked off with the Franks Memorial Tournament. Once again, Arnold Mercado took home the Franks Trophy.

Times were still slow for Texas A&M. The club’s fencers saw only intra-squad action for the 1958-1959 season. With no one else fielding teams, they had only themselves to contend against. Within that limited setting, Albert Ong was the top winner, followed by Bryant Ralph.

It was pretty quiet in parts of Houston, as well. Rice fencer Fred Sklar had gone into the service after college. "When I returned to Houston from the service in the spring of 1959, I don't think Mr. Van was still coaching at Rice since they had dropped the sport by the SWC and Dillehay and the rest of our team would have been gone by then. He was petty well along in years by then and his wife was in a nursing home, which kept him occupied."

On the western end of the Gulf Coast Division, fencing was about to get a profound shot in the arm in the person of Gerard J. Poujardieu.

A Gascon, he hailed from a region of France noted for producing the Musketeers of legend. In the course of military service in Morocco in the 1930s, he was introduced to fencing via Maitre Toussaint, one of the few 4^th echelon masters at this time. He soon became Maitre Toussaint’s prevot. This allowed him to compete in 1936 World Masters Tournament in Paris. He took first place in all three weapons.

At 23 he earned the position of head fencing coach at St. Cyr. When World War II overtook France, he rejoined his military unit and soon found himself fighting behind enemy lines. He was captured and spent the next five years shuttled from one prisoner of war camp to another, always attempting escape. On his fifth try he succeeded.

After the war he returned to France. He was sent to the Fort Carre Fencing Masters’ School in the Antibes. He completed their three-year program in two years. His students there included Michel Alaux. Following his graduation, he was sent to resume his old position as head fencing coach at St. Cyr. By now married with a son and a daughter, he asked for reassignment back to Morocco, the place where he had first me his wife, Louise. For the next ten years he served as garrison fencing master at both Port Lyavtey (now Mohammedia) and Rabat.

In 1954, with the hope of becoming a Masters’ School Instructor, he acquired his 4^th echelon, following a 30-month posting to Vietnam. There he was the post fencing master at the Cercle Sportif Saigonnais.

Upon retiring from military service, he reviewed many offers of a fencing coach position before settling on one in the United States. He spent the years 1958 and 1959 coaching in Connecticut and New York City. In 1959 he was appointed fencing coach at the US Modern Pentathlon Association at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio.

He would prove to be a dynamic force for training epeeistes, not only for the Pentathlon, but the Austin-San Antonio area, in general. He would also become instrumental in brining other fencing masters over from France to United States. Their number would include the likes of Daniel Nevot, Claude Caux, Michel Sebastiani and Leon Auriol. Before very long, most fencers in Texas knew about, "Pouj."

Years later, an article in American Fencing would read, "It might be considered miraculous that nationally ranked epee fencers have been developed regularly within three to five years of training from run/swim oriented athletes in their early twenties."

In fact, the USMPA’s fencers made their presence felt by winning the team epee competition in the Southwest Sectional Championships. The Southwest Section Championship was hosted that year by the Dallas Blades at the Downtown YMCA, May 9-10.

Texas Tech also enjoyed a good outing. In both team saber and men’s team epee, Texas Tech triumphed over composite teams from the Gulf Coast Division. In women’s team foil, Dallas took top honors. A Gulf Coast Division composite team placed second and Galveston took third. Individually, Galveston fared better as Naomia Abbott captured first place in women’s foil. Dallas’ Helen Gray and Marietta Towry took second and third places, respectively.

Lt. Charles Willis of El Paso took first place in men’s foil. A fellow El Pasoan, Jack McDaniel grabbed the second place spot. Texas Tech fencer Frank Griffin was third. Griffin fared better in men’s saber, taking first place. Houston’s Desi Trevino came in second, with Lt. Willis in third. Dallasite Tom Bickley won the men’s epee competition, while Lee Bleamaster of USMPA and Mario Turner of North Texas State came in second and third.

With August, the officers of the Gulf Coast Division and Southwest Section took their positions for the 1959-1960 fencing season. Galveston’s Jack Baird served as Chair of the Southwest Section. Baird was also Chair of the Gulf Coast Division, while Texas City’s Ed Gause served as Division Secretary.

Years later, Robert Shelby observed of Gause and his wife, Lou, "I seemed to remember that he and perhaps Lou served more than one season as division secretary."

Baird was also second vice-president of the AFLA.

Galveston County, of course, was also the site of each season’s opening event, the W. A. Franks Memorial Tournament. For the third year in a row, Arnold Mercado took home the Franks Trophy.

He discovered fencing at the University of Houston in 1947, learning under John Himes. An active fencer, as well as a friend and rival of Harold Van Buskirk, he taught fencing at the University of Houston, Rice University, St. John's School and many other places. He won the Franks Memorial on numerous occasions, helped organize the Van Buskirk tournament and served as Chair of the Gulf Coast Division. A playwright, he helped found Houston's first resident billingual threatre and was a manager at the fledgling Houston Ballet. By the 21st century he was the President of the United States Fencing Coaches Association. He is shown here in 1954 with a trophy for first place in a "dueling sword" (epee) championship.

Fencing was added to the roster of Southwest Conference competitions in 1938 and continued with some breaks until 1956. In the 1950s the award  went back and forth between Rice University and Texas A&M. Pictured is that final, 1956, trophy. It was won by Rice University. Fred Sklar was the captain. The Rice trophies were on display for years, but eventually, with fencing relegated to but an occasional club sport, they were slated for the oblivion of storage. After speaking with someone in the athletics department, Sklar was given the trophy from his time as captain. 

(Photo courtesy of Fred Sklar.)