Harvard Fencing Team

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2006 Men's and Women's Championship Team
2006 Men's and Women's Championship Team

The Harvard Varsity Fencing Team is a Division I sports team based in Cambridge, MA. Established in 1888, it was the first organized collegiate fencing team in the United States. The team competes in Ivy League, Eastern Conference, and National level competition. It is considered one of the top fencing programs in the nation and won first place in the 2006 NCAA fencing championships.

[edit] History

The Harvard Fencing Club was established by 35 charter members in 1888. Official meetings of the club were often always followed by a ‘smoker’ or an evening of musical entertainment. It was declared as an official varsity sports team by the Harvard University Athletic Committee in 1901.

One of the first intercollegiate fencing tournaments took place May 5, 1894, at the New York Racquet and Tennis Club. Harvard defeated Columbia, 5-4, to win the title. J. E. Hoffman '96 was victorious in the decisive bout to gain the Crimson the championship. This tournament, later called the intercollegiate Fencing Association Tournament (IFA’s) or the East Coast Athletic Conference Tournament (ECAC’s), is the one of the oldest continually contested collegiate athletic competition in the United States. The famous “Iron Man” trophy presented at this competition is THE oldest continually awarded trophy in collegiate athletics. Harvard won the second IFA Tournament as well, defeating Columbia by a 6-3 score, and A.G. Thacher '97 became the school's first IFA title holder by winning the individual championship. In 1896, Harvard topped Columbia and Navy to win its third straight crown. In 1899, George H. Breed, who went on captain the 1912 and 1924 U.S. Olympic Teams, won the IFA individual title and led Harvard to its fifth team title of the decade.

On February 26, 1902, Harvard and Yale fenced in a dual meet for the first time, with the Crimson winning, 5-4. Previously, the schools had only met at the intercollegiate championships. Accompanying the team for that year's IFA Tournament was M. Pierre Pianelli, who became the University's fencing instructor the following season, and eventually was named the Harvard fencing team's first official coach. Harvard and Columbia held their first dual meet on February 14, 1903, with the host Crimson defeating the Lions, 7-2.

M. J.J. Leslabay became the team's coach in 1910. In his second season, led Harvard back to the IFA finals for the first time since 1906. His squads did their civic duty as well, as members of the Crimson and BAA fencing teams enacted the dueling scene in a production of "Cyrano de Bergerac" at Boston's Colonial Theatre in March 1915. The play was a wartime benefit for the Belgian Relief fund.

In 1916, Harvard sophomore W.H. Russell became the first undergraduate in any college to reach the finals of the National Amateur Championship and the youngest man to ever win the title. The 1919 team placed second at the IFA's with E.R. Gay '19 taking second in the individual competition. At the conclusion of that year, Prof. Jean Louis Danguy, the coach of the 1912 Olympic Team, took charge of the Harvard fencing program. His first captain was R. H. Snow '20, who won a Rhodes scholarship, which he used to study poetry at Oxford. Harvard returned to the winners' circle at IFA's in 1923. The Crimson won the foil title for the first time in 23 seasons, behind the efforts of twins E.L. Lane '24 and E.H. Lane '24, who placed second and third, respectively, in individual competition. They repeated that impressive feat in 1924.

M. Rene Peroy, who invented and patented a revolutionary fencing machine designed to afford better practice, took over as Harvard's fencing coach in 1929. He was at the helm when Harvard moved to its current home at the Indoor Athletic Building (now the Malkin Athletic Center), and held his post until 1952. Harvard won the 1931 IFA foil championship and the 1934 and 1935 epee titles under his tenure. Among his many stars was John G. Hurd '36, a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic Team who won the individual foil title at the 1934 IFA's to become Harvard's first champion in 37 years. In Peroy's "second era" as head coach--following World War II--he guided Joe Vera '50 to the IFA foil crown.

Edo Marion, named Harvard coach in 1953, guided the program for 23 years and coached 11 All-Americans, 26 All-Ivy selections, and four Rhodes Scholars.

Harvard hosted the 1964 NCAA Championships, welcoming 40 schools to Cambridge. The Crimson placed ninth in the event, which was won by Princeton. In 1969, Tom Keller '71 and Larry Cetrulo '71 were both First Team All-Americans and helped the Crimson place second as a team. Cetrulo was a three-year All-American who finished with an incredible Ivy dual record of 41-4. Marion was also at the helm when Harvard won its first Ivy League championship, sharing the title with Columbia and Cornell in 1974. Ben Zivkovic was named head coach in 1976--after tenures at West Point, Columbia, and Fairfield. He continued the men's tremendous success while establishing a strong Women’s Fencing Team. In the fall of 1976, Radcliffe women’s fencing was incorporated into the Harvard fencing program. Since then, the men and women’s team held practices together.

Among Zivkovic’s early accomplishments were guiding the Crimson to the 1977 IFA epee co-championship, the program's first since 1935. His '77 squad also captured a share of the Ivy title. Zivkovic's 1977 women's team placed fourth out of 15 schools at the New England Fencing Championships and, the following year, defeated perennial women's powerhouse Brandeis, 9-8. The 1981 men's team won the IFA foil championship, its first such title in a half-century, while the women captured the NEWIFA title. In 1984, Steve Kaufer '84 became Harvard's first IFA epee champion. The Crimson women’s team won their first Ivy League Championships ever in the 2004-2005 season and the men shared a part of the Ivy title for the first time since 1974.

The 2006 NCAA championship marked the fourth NCAA title in the history of Harvard's athletics. The fencing team joined the 1989 men's ice hockey team, the 1990 women's lacrosse team, and the 2003 women's rowing team as NCAA champions. The title was the 138th national championship in Harvard's history and the first in fencing since Harvard's men won the 1934 epee championship.

[edit] Sources

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