Saber

1932 US Olympic Saber Team:  Norman Armitage, John Huffman, Peter Bruder , Nicholas Muray, Harold Van Buskirk, Ralph Faulkner

1948 US Olympic Saber Fencing Team, London
l to r : George Worth, Dean Cetrulo, Miguel deCapriles, Norman Armitage, Tibor Nyilas, James Flynn

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Al Morales, Andre Deladrier, Buzz Hurst at 1960 North Atlantic section championships.

L to r – Steve Mormando, Paul Friedberg, Peter Westbrook, Michael Lofton, Bob Cottingham
Photo by Carl Borack

l to r  John Moreau, Jon Normile, Carl Borack

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1995 Pan Am Men’s Saber Team Gold

’96 Olympians, photo taken in the holding area prior to Opening Ceremonies in Atlanta
Photo By Carl Borack

1996 Olympic Team at the White House

Congratulations Team USA – 2005 World Champions! OFA members Caity Thompson (far left), Rebecca Ward (2nd from right) and Mariel Zagunis (far right) along with team-mate Sada Jacobson bring home the gold and World Champion Title   ( From OregonFencing.com)

2008 Men’s Olympic Saber Team, Beijing.  Keeth Smart, Jason Rogers, Tim Morehouse, James Williams

17 US saber titles

Robert Max Blum occupies a special place in American fencing. Beginning his successful competitive career as an All-American fencer at Trinity College, Bob went on to capture national or international points in five different decades, became the first of only 2 Americans in history to make the World Championship individual saber finals (1958)  (equaled later only by Peter Westbrook) , competed on two US Olympic Teams (1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City), qualified for 3 US Pan American Games teams, won the Metropolitan Division Men’s Individual Saber title 7 times, appeared almost perennially in the final round of the National Championships during the late 1950s and the 1960s, won the United States Saber Team title 10 times for Santelli and later Fencers Club, made the semi-final rounds of a world-circuit saber event at age 46, and officiated at 4 Olympic Games (1964, 1968, 1976, 1984),  earning him a place in US saber fencing history. But what also sets him above and apart from so many others has been Bob’s breadth of achievement.

Peter Bruder fenced on the US Olympic Team in 1932 and 1936, and on the 1934 US International Team.

AFLA national foil champion (1941, ’47); national sabre champion (1948). Member, US. Olympic team (1948), reached the semifinals in foil individual and sabre individual. Member, Olympic bronze medal-winning sabre team (1948).

Shoulders slumped. Hands plunged deep into Levi pockets when they weren’t wrapped around a weapon. The “plain wrap” baseball cap. And a heart as boundless as Olympic dreams. Tom DiCerbo was a living, breathing caricature of the gruff, “do it my way or else” fencing coach, but most of all, he was one hell of a human being.

Pan Am Games Saber Team member, 1959 Pan Am Gold Medal, and 1971 Pan Am Silver Medal.  Miwest Section Saber Champion 24 times. USFA Board of Directors Member 1959 – 1991

Pan American saber champion, 1968

“The mindset I learned from my coach, is that if your facing someone you know you can beat, you shouldn’t be nervous,” says Levitt…

Men’s Individual Sabre

1904 William Grebe, Silver

1904 Albertson Van Zo Post, Bronze

1984 Peter Westbrook, Bronze

17 Titles

Norman Armitage: 1929 (out), 1930, 1930 (out), 1932 (out), 1933 (out), 1934, 1935, 1935 (out), 1936, 1939, 1939 (out), 1940, 1940 (out), 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945

13 Titles

Peter Westbrook: 1974, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1995

(1892-1965) – Born in Hungary. AFLA national sabre champion (1927, ’28). Member, U.S. Olympic team (1928, ’32). Known as the “photographer of the famous” – he was the outstanding portraitist of the 1920’s and ’30’s. 

Tibor Nyilas’ achievements in fencing were simply spectacular. A youthful national star in his native Hungary before he came to the United States in 1939, Tibor absolutely dominated American Saber Fencing for more than twenty years.

William Scott O’Connor, Charles Tatham, C. C. Nadal, and Albertson Van Zo Post

World Class Fencer
Orban is a star. An international star. He can do everything that ever was intended to be done with a saber. And he probably can do it faster than anybody. He is generally acknowledged to be one of the three fastest, if not the fastest, man in the world.  (exerpt from “Spotlight is on Alex Orban, by Jack Keane”)

1908 US National Saber champion, 1910 Silver medalist in the US 3-weapon competition

Two-time NCAA Championships bronze medalist for Ohio State, in 2002 and 2003; Bronze, individual saber, 2003 Pan Am Games and member of Gold-medal U.S. team; 8th, Senior “A” World Cup, Madrid, SPA, May 2003

Seven Hall of Famers in the NY Fencers Club – Rene Pinchart, Warren Dow, Giorgio Santelli, Tibor Nyilas, Lajos Csiszar, Dean Cetrulo, and Norman Armitage Seven Hall of Famers in the NY Fencers Club – Rene Pinchart, Warren Dow, Giorgio Santelli, Tibor Nyilas, Lajos Csiszar, Dean Cetrulo, and Norman Armitage

Striking gold – Historic fencing win for Zagunis; bronze to Jacobson
By Tony Chamberlain, Boston Globe Staff

ATHENS — There’s a tradition in fencing that an Olympic champion gets thrown in the air by teammates. Not that the United States knows too much about that tradition, since it’s been 100 years since they won a gold in the sport at the Games. But that all changed last night at the Helleniko Sports Center as members of the US men’s team stormed the fencing strip and tossed 19-year-old Mariel Zagunis high into the air after she beat former world champion Tan Xue of China to win the first Olympic women’s individual sabre competition.

1888 Hildreth Bloodgood

1889 Luis Franke

1890 George Heintz

1891 Charles Bothner

1892 Rudolph Haubold

1893 Graeme Hammond

1998-1999

1998 Kelly Williams was the first Div 1 champion

Harold Van Buskirk, from the Houston Post, 1964

Lieutenant Hubert Van Blijenburgh, an officer of the Dutch Army who has been represending the N.Y.A.C in fencing contests this year, is not going to remain very long in the United States. He is taking a course in the Y.M.C.A. College at Springfield, Mass, having been sent there by his Government, and after finishing up his studies will return to his native land to assume an important position in the Royal Military Academy, which is an institution similar to West Point.

Ward steps to the fore at saber championships
From: The Regal Courier

Rebecca Ward, 16, of Cedar Mill, became the new Senior World Champion in Women’s Saber fencing Oct. 2 in Torino, Italy at the 2006 Senior World Championships.

Ruby Watson of the Metropolitan Division was the most formidable voice year after year for the development and inclusion of Women’s Epee and Women’s Saber in US Division 1 and Olympic events.

13-time national champion and six-time Olympian.

2004 Mariel Zagunis, Gold

2004 Sada Jacobson, Bronze

Gold Medalists

2000, Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson, Christine Becker, Nicole Mustilli, WST

2001, Mariel Zagunis, Sada Jacobson, Amelia Gaillard, Emily Jacobson, JWST

2001, Mariel Zagunis, CWS

2001, Mariel Zagunis, JWS

2003, Sada Jacobson, JWS

2004, Caitlin Thompson, CWS

2004, Emily Jacobson, JWS

U.S. national sabre champion (1954); medalist five times. U.S. Olympic team (1948, ’52, ’56, ’60). Finalist, Olympic sabre individual (1948) – fifth place. Member, bronze medal-winning sabre team (1948) and fourth place sabre team (1960). One of the leading officials in the sport.

Mariel Zagunis competed in the 2004 Athens Women’s sabre competition, and was the first American to win an Olympic fencing gold medal in 100 years.   She won the gold again at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and then went on to win the 2009 World Fencing Championships in Antalya, Turkey.