In the early 1960s, the Unitarian Fellowship of Houston, seeking more space for their activities, worked out an arrangement with the Spring Branch YMCA on Campbell Road, on Houston’s far west side. In exchange for using the YMCA’s facilities, the group taught classes in art, dancing, singing and fencing.

On May 14-15, the Southwest Section Championship was held at the Carl Nessler Civic Center in Texas City. One of the those involved in the event was Texas City resident and fencer, Ed Gause, who was, as noted, also the secretary of the Gulf Coast Division. He was also one of three Texas City locals to be competing in the tournament. The other two were Sandra Taylor and Patricia Cloniger.

At Texas A&M, Russell Wieder continued coaching fencing as a club sport. Members of the A&M fencing club at this time included veteran Ralph Bryant, along with Millegan, Stella, Danzeiger, Nelson, Penrod, Ferrassa, Hopkins, Clifford, Norton, Farrias, Fix, Trevino, Alcorn and Rodriguez.

Another coach had moved away from Texas. Work took Steve Farid to Wichita, Kansas. Of course, he naturally found fencers there, as well. Some would recall his time in Kansas well after Farid moved back to Texas. As Chris Holzman relayed it decades later, "My Maestro, Ted Hootman, is an old friend/fencing buddy of Mr. Farid's (from as best I can gather, from about 1960? or so)… Steve was working with Vulcan Chemical as a chemist.

"Ted has fenced in Wichita since the early 1950's, and I got the feeling from Ted that Steve had spent some amount of time here in Wichita. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. Ted says
that Steve had the nicest foil hand he's ever seen, and was exceptionally difficult to fence because of it."

In Corpus Christi, fencing was incorporated into a flashy seasonal event known as Buccaneer Days, which ran from April 28 to May 8. Taking it cue, however loosely, from the era when Jean Lafitte and Michel Aury haunted the coastline. The festival includes the usual seaside events, such as sail boat races, but fencing, golf and tennis tournaments were also held in conjunction with it.

Even flashier fencing flew into Houston on June 16^th with actor Guy Williams, star of the Walt Disney produced television series, Zorro. Williams was in town as part of a 6-city promotional mini-tour for the show. The series had been off the air during the past season. In the meantime, some of the initial episodes had been edited together into a feature film titled, Sign of Zorro. The tour was to promote the film and the return of the series to television.

Williams, who had been fencing for some eight years, and Buddy Van Horne, who worked on the fencing choreography of the show, put on a number of spectacular fencing demonstrations for enthusiastic crowds of youngsters.

On a more contemporary note, 1960 marked the first time an American fencer, in the person of Dr. Miguel A. deCapriles, was elected to the presidency of the FIE.

Fred Sklar, meanwhile, had settled back in at his alma mater. "[F]rom 1960 to about 1963 when I returned to Houston from the service and was unofficial coach of the remnants of the Rice fencing team (and came within a hair of getting fencing reinstated as a SW Conference sport) as well as very active in the AFLA."

Around the same time, one of Sklar’s old rival, Michael Fooks, moved to Houston. The one-time UT fencer settled in with the Houston Fencing Club. Before long he found himself fencing locally and at nearby AFLA tournaments in Texas City and Baytown.

At first they fenced at a small neighborhood park just north of Westheimer that had a small athletic center. In time, however, they moved to a larger facility.

The 1960-1961 fencing season began with the Franks Memorial Invitational Tournament, October 1-2 at the Carl Nessler Civic Center in Texas City. In media notices for the event, it was noted that the Franks Trophy was currently held by Arnold Mercado, who had won it the last three years

On December 8^th a competition between Rice and the University of Houston was held in the Rice gym.

The first Gulf Coast Division tournament of the year was January 7-8, 1961 in San Antonio. It also drew five fencers from the Dallas area, including one, Helen Keller, of Salle De Gall, who took first in women’s open foil.

January also saw Rice and the University of Houston continuing their friendly rivalry with a Thursday night foil competition in the Rice gym. The home team won the event overall, 7-2. Rice fencer Roland "Ron" Lovett won three bouts. His teammate Bailey Phelps won two bouts for Rice. University of Houston foilists Charles Hatfield and Russ Spicer won one bout, a piece.

On Saturday, February 18, the Gulf Coast Division of the AFLA sponsored a tournament at Rice University. The top three winners in the men’s novice foil competition were Burton Silverman and Bailey Phelps of Rice and Buzz Black from the University of Houston. In the women’s event, Gayle Adamson of Texas City captured first place.

Rice fencers had a tougher time of it the next Saturday. On February 25, fencers from the University of Texas won a comfortable victory over Rice by a score of 18-9. Ralph Holmes from UT was the top victor, winning three bouts. Rice’s Bailey Phelps won two.

Competitions returned to Rice with a sabre and epee competition sponsored by the Gulf Coast Division. Alan Finger and Rice fencer Bailey Phelps placed first and second, respectively in the sabre event, with UT’s Ralph Holmes coming in third. In the epee event, Holmes captured first place. Gill Estes, another UT fencer, took second. Third place went to Ed Gause of the Buccaneers Club of Texas City.

Fred Sklar remembered Alan Finger years later, "He fenced a few tournaments after he came back to Houston from college...he was a varsity saber fencer at Yale…"

Some years later, Alan Finger stated, "You got me! I am that person. the only correction you need to make is that I went to U of Pennsylvania, class of 58. My coach was Lajos Cizar. I was 2 time Ivy League sabre champion while on the team."

"I'm a native Houstonian. Part of the furniture clan. I never pick up any fencing weapons until late in my first semester of college. I mostly played football, ran track and a little baseball in high school. I hurt my back so I couldn't play any more football. One day after working out at the gym, I walked by a room and saw people fencing and I thought I'd give it a try. I liked it and took to it very quickly. I went to the nationals my senior in Detroit and got my butt kicked. I lost the first round to a kid from Wisconsin and the second round to a kid from Texas Tech."

The Gulf Coast Division sponsored a summer tournament at the Downtown Recreation Center in Houston on Saturday, July 15^th. Competitions were held in men’s and women’s open foil. Mike Fooks won the men’s event and Betty Kolinda, formerly Betty Jean Fox, captured the top spot in the women’s competition.

Just a bit south of Houston, Ed Gause agreed to teach fencing over the summer as park of Texas City’s recreation department.

Houston fencing got some attention from the local media in the form of a one-page feature piece in the Houston Chronicle, which ran in the August 27, 1961 issue. The article was accompanied by photographs of fencers Fred Sklar, George and Hattie Taylor, Donovan Green, Barbara Berry, Mike Fooks and Pierre Chartier at the Downtown Recreation Center. The article mentioned the requirements of fencing and how unnoticed it was in the community. The article also noted that there was fencing at the Downtown Recreation Center every Wednesday and that it would be the site of the next fencing tournament on September 30^th. Years later Mike Fooks identified these as members of the Houston Fencing Club.

According to Fooks, the Houston Fencing Club grew to the point that on fencing nights as many as 35 fencers were in attendance. George Taylor, being one of the older fencers, was the most consistent coach to beginners, but "everyone helped out some." Fooks recalled crossing blades with many fencers during these years: Charley Reed, Naomia Abbott, and Fred Sklar. Particularly he recalled fencing Robert Shelby. At the club, they often held informal bouts. In foil, these frequently came down to Shelby and Fooks.

Once they made their own rule that the winner had to win by at least two touches. "That was a mistake," Fooks later recalled with a laugh. "It might has gone on for thirty minutes!" As the bout went on and on, and as each fencer got more fatigued, each chided the other to surrender. Each steadfastly refused. Decades later Fooks could not remember who won, but clearly recalled how worn out he was by the time it ended.

Of the tournament styles during the 1960s, Fooks stated that they occasionally fenced something they called "sudden death," but that this was largely just during the informal club night bouts. AFLA competitions were all fenced as round robins. Foil was fenced to five touches, as was sabre. Epee was fenced to three touches.

Of grips in foil and epee, Fooks stated, "I fenced French all the time," but he added that Belgian grips were out there. He noted, as well, that, "There were some other weird-looking grips," to be found from time to time.

"As far as I knew, epee had always been scored electrically." Foil was another matter. "We went through the changeover [from dry to electric foil]. I hated electric foil," Fooks stated. "The [score] boxes would go down in the middle of the tournament and we switch to manual."

Electrically scored foil, or electric foil, was still quite new, having only been used in the Olympics as of 1956. As Arnold Mercado later recalled, "In terms of how things were called, I seem to remember that things were fairly stable and consistent until the electric foil came into the picture. That's been about forty-five years now and I've been in the game 53-54 years. Then all hell seem to break loose with changing rules and changing interpretations. And, since in those early years of electric foil the USA was out of the international loop, except for Olympic years, we never seemed to stay up to date with rule changes and changes in interpretation."

"At that time, after the Melbourne Olympics, the Eastern European block gained a great deal of influence on fencing techniques in foil and foil rule interpretation. And it seemed that in the US, regionally, we were always two years behind in what was happening."

A team of University of Texas fencers came to Rice University for a tournament on November 4. UT’s team won the foil competition 6-3 and the epee event 8-1.

On December 2^nd, the Gulf Coast Division sponsored a tournament at the St. John’s School in Houston. The bill consisted of invitational men’s open epee and women’s open foil competitions. Fred Sklar, Desi Trevino and James Monroe, all members of the Southwest Fencing Club, placed first, second and third, respectively. Jean Thompson of Texas City captured first place in the foil event. Second place went to Barbara Berry from the Houston Fencing Club. Nancy Tips of St. Johns placed third.

Shortly thereafter, the U of H fencers crossed swords with Rice in a Tuesday tournament. Rice narrowly won with a score of 5-4. Burton Silverman won three bouts and thus accounted for 3/5 of Rice’s victory. Archie Rodrigues accounted for two of Houston’s four victories.

The final competition of 1961 was the Gulf Coast Division-sponsored competition at the Houston YMCA. Desi Trevino captured first place honors in men’s open foil. Ed Gause and Gill Estes took second and third places, respectively. In the novice epee category, Burton Silverman took first place, with Gill Estes and Robert T. Shelby taking second and third places.

Ed Gause resumed running fencing classes out of the Texas City recreation department for the summer of 1962.

At Texas A&M, coach Russell Wieder found himself facing a fencing club membership for the 1962-1963 fencing season made up entirely of inexperienced fencers. The roster included R. Cerna, P. Laird, D. Suhler, M. Linz, M. Works, C. Galindo, C. Jacobs, T. Wilson, A. Restrepo, W. Anderson and J. Bacera.

Galindo, at least, had some fencing contacts as he was a friend of Joseph Elliot, one of Wieder’s A&M fencers from the mid-1950s. Of these two, Anne Marie Wieder recalled, "They used to train and fence by candlelight in our backyard: points d’arret, no jacket or shirt.

"My father’s theory was if they could fence in poor lighting on slippery grass, when they got in good lighting on hardwood floors, they would kick butt… and they did. They were undefeated."

Wieder was not the only fencing coach who found he had to adjust to a changing set of circumstances. Arnold Mercado recalled a major change faced by Steve Farid. "When the first petrochemical recession hit, (late fifties-early sixties?) Shafik was dropped and he couldn't find another job. Fencing didn't make any money and he got into the soccer uniform business. He often seemed hurt and confused by the American industrial system but he persevered and seemed to be doing OK. The last time I saw him was at his wife's funeral."

In October, the Galveston YWCA, once home to Naomia Abbott and Jack Baird, began offering fencing lessons taught by Thomas Rice.

As for Everett and Naomia Abbott, October found them teaching beginning and advanced fencing at the YMCA in Waco, where they now lived.

1963: Roland Reed

In 1963 Roland Reed appeared on the local fencing scene. In no time he sought out Arnold Mercado for fencing lessons. As Mercado later recalled, "I can't remember exactly when I met Roland. Perhaps the mid sixties. I was teaching at St. John's. He had learned some fencing somewhere and I worked with him for awhile. Also, as I drifted in and out of competition we competed a few times. I remember one good bout where I set him up, picked him up with a septime and hit to win the bout. He was very appreciative of what I had done and he was a gentleman about fencing with anyone."

Mercado’s student, Robert Shelby recalled, "Sonny Mercado and I planned a trip to Dallas for the Southwest Sectionals, and Sonny told me we would be taking along this guy that had showed up a couple of times at practice. Practice at that time was at St. John’s School where Sonny taught for a number of years. The guy was Roland Reed who became one of the closet friends I ever had… Roland had begun his fencing at North Texas University and took many lessons from Sonny here in Houston."

Years later Mercado recallled developing a system to determine a fair price for fencing lessons. "Years ago before the big Karate craze I used to check ballet schools to get a group rate. For private lessons I used to check with tennis coaches and golf coaches and charge about half."

1965: The South Texas Division

The year 1965 saw the formation of a new division in Texas. The South Texas Division took in, primarily the area around San Antonio and Austin, the state capitol and home to the University of Texas, areas formerly within the Gulf Coast Division. In years past, the only significant fencing in the area was at UT, but fencing was growing in the Texas Hill Country.

The primary personalities involved in forming the division were Jerold Bennett of San Antonio, Darrell Williams in Austin and Maitre Gerard J. Poujardieu, Fencing Master at the US Modern Pentathlon Training Center at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio.

As Robert Shelby recalled it, "One year when I was Gulf Coast Chairman and Roland was Vice Chairman, we received notice from AFLA headquarters in New York that some groups over in the Austin-San Antonio region wanted to split off from the Gulf Coast and form the South Texas Division. The Modern Pentathlon was stationed at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, and a considerable number of fencers were at the University of Texas as well as several other colleges in the area. There wasn’t much we could say about the split as NY seemed to approve. However, NY wanted to know the boundaries of the Gulf Coast Division as we were the senior group. OK! Roland and I sat down at my kitchen table and with a service station road map drew out what I think are still the boundaries of the Gulf Coast Division, for NY approved of our effort. We took the lines down the coast practically to Brownsville to where we left some space for the old Border Division (which was inactive at that time), over east to the Louisiana border, up to as close to the north Texas Division as we thought we could get away with and the same to the west. And ten miles out into the Gulf in case we ever wanted to hold a meet on an oil drilling rig and to equal the historic tidelands claimed by Texas."

The new South Texas Division also included the small college town of San Marcos, home of Southwest Texas State University. This was not significant at the time, but later years would make San Marcos very much an equal to its larger sisters in producing a dynamic fencing program.

There can be no doubt by this point that Arnold Mercado loved fencing. In and of itself, however, it could be hard to pay your bills just by teaching fencing in Houston, Texas. Mercado, though, had another passion: theatre. It should come as no surprise, then, to find that by 1966, he was serving as the Managing Director of the fledgling Houston Ballet, running most of the day-to-day business. At that time the Houston Ballet's Artistic Director was Nina Popova, Michael Lland was the Ballet Master, and Holgar Linden assisted them.

Far from the foil-sabre-epee crowd crossing blades along the Texas coast, a unique event occurred on the West Coast, which would ripple out over the years, touching many fencing communities across America. David Thewlis and Ken de Maiffe were studying the medieval orders of chivalry and the art of sword and shield fighting. In February of 1966 they began practicing sword and shield fighting in the backyard of Diana Paxson, a medieval history major. Thewlis and de Maiffe were trying to teach themselves how to fight and thereby learning how it was really done. They based their actions on the old order of chivalry. Diana was enthralled with the idea and remembered the fabled "Last Tournament". This was an event that took place in Scotland in 1839. The Earl of Eglanton, a high-minded young nobleman, complete with castle, serfs, and a head full of the novels of Sir Walter Scott, decided to dramatize the values of the Middle Ages by having a tournament. Costumes were prepared, banners were sewn, and the springs of the London hansom cabs broken by the weight of men in armor being born to practice. In was the social event of the year. The Great Day arrived and the splendid procession processed and the jousting commenced. And then it began to rain. That was the end of the Romantic Period in England.

Paxson, Thewlis and de Maiffe decided to hold their own "Last Tournament." The plan was to invite all of their friends over to Diana's backyard in Berkeley for a tournament. Attendees would come in costume and the men could fight with wooden swords and shields as knights for the right to crown their lady Queen for the day. Diana was going to graduate in June and this would be a last fling before the end of the quarter and finals. The event was set for May Day, May 1, 1966.

Steven McEanruig later recalled, "Ken and Dave were doing their practicing with padded maces (hardwood handles and cloth wrapped heads), as I recall. The shields, however, were out of steel backed with leather. The steel was sufficiently good to shatter an arrow from a 75 lb bow with essentially no penetration.

"Diana was going to be going into the Peace Corp. Part of the genesis of the idea was to be the only one in the Corp who had ever had a tournament in their back yard."

"Henrik Olsgaard saw it pinned to our bulletin board in our dorm room. He was interested and asked if he could come as well. In the end, Stefan, Henrik, two other guys whose names I can't remember, and I all went, catching a ride with another friend of ours, Felice."

Stefan remembered, "A friend of ours in the dorms at San Francisco State, one Henrik Olsgaard, saw the notice on our bulletin board and said ‘I do that kind of stuff.’ We invited him along and he showed up with a pile of fencing sabers, lath weapons, and a broadsword he’d made from a truck spring that was truly the 20 pound sword you keep hearing about in the fantasy novels that no real knight ever swung. Impressive, though."

Henrik Olsgaard remembered, "Howard Friedlander was one. Alan Burafato (fencer, SF State) may have been the other one since he did attend at least one event (at Cragmont Park - later)."

As to his sword, Olsgaard later noted, "It only weighed 5 1/2 lbs. (the pommel was solid brass and the handle was 3/4" thick solid steel), but compared to Steve’s Knight Templar small sword it was heavy." To which Steve further observed, "For the sake of accuracy, I didn’t have the Knight Templar sword until some months after the SCA got started. For the Blessing of the Swords I held one of Henrik’s fencing sabres."

The event included costumes and mock weapons. The rapier combat used modern fencing equipment and rules. There was also broadsword combat. For that they primarily made up the rules as they went along. A court was held at the day’s end and included the crowning of the champion’s lady.

The event was so successful that another was soon being planned. From this seed, the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) was born. In 1968, the SCA incorporated under California law with a set of by-laws interpreted and added to by the Board of Directors.

Lee Gold later recalled, "I attended the first Crown Tourney in 1965 or 1966 at 18 or 19
years old…Most of us there were science fiction fans. Diana Paxson (the hostess), Owen Hannifen, Dave Thewlis, Richard the Short, Poul Anderson…"

It is as good a place to begin a story as any. Most do date the beginnings of the SCA from the May Day Tournament in Berkley, although some like to set a kind of prologue in 1985 with de Maiffe and Thewlis practicing in Paxson’s backyard. As Dave Thewlis remarked, "Or back to 1962 when Ken and I were learning to fence in a Luftwaffe barracks attic in Bremerhaven, Germany."

Another early member of this proto-SCA cadre noted, "Ken taught me how to fence, a thing he had learned in Europe. He was very good at it. So was Dave. They used to hold up a pillow in the living room at night, and I would have to lunge as they dropped it. If I pointed it, then I got a shot of the bottle of Napoleon Brandy that Ken had brought home."

April of 1967 saw fencers from several parts of Texas converge on SMU for the second annual Mustang Invitational at Moody Coliseum. Among those heavily favored to do well were Houston’s Jerry Konig in men’s foil and sabre and Mary West of Trinity University in San Antonio in women’s foil.

Rice University student John McBride fenced avidly at that college for three years in the last half of the 1960s. He had grown up in the east Texas oil town of Longview and began fencing at the local YMCA. McBride graduated with his undergraduate degree from Rice in 1968. In the early 1980s, having gravitated to the faculty at Baylor, he would re-start their fencing program, which had lapsed over the years.

It is not surprising that, in this era, Rice University produced the type of fencers who could go on to re-generate faded fencing programs. In 1968 Rice, in fact, was about to give birth to a tradition.

Roland Reed wrote, "Bob Shelby, who fenced for the University of Houston and was a long time saber fencer in the Division, and my own saber teacher, told me that the tournament started because Bob mentioned to Fred Sklar that ‘somebody ought to do something in appreciation for Mr. Van Buskirk.’ Sklar had fenced for Mr. Van Buskirk at Rice… "

"Fred Sklar raised a group of supporters and Arnold ‘Sonny’ Mercado, who was teaching fencing at Rice then, set up the tournament and got the whole thing in motion. Sonny organized it, promoted it, ran it and got Rice to agree to host it in the Rice Gym for lo these many years. I believe we started it in 1968."

"In the beginning it was simply a sabre tournament. In the early years Mr. Van directed a lot and was good at it… "

"There were always other events at the Van Buskirk, from the first… "

"I should say something about Women’s Foil. It has been in place since the first year. It was a struggling event in the early years. Typically there would be Betty Jean "Foxy" Kolenda, Naomi Abbot, and Sophie Trent, the Polish National Champion, and a small gaggle of [others]. But those were a tenacious bunch of women. They never let the event die. They dragged people out of the bushes to fence. They got neophytes and girls who had never held a foil out onto that strip. And they made it grow. It became a fine tournament with sometimes forty or fifty fencers. The competition became heated, then torrid and finally furious… In my opinion there were enemies made on that strip that would last a lady a lifetime. All in all the women’s foil produced some of the most exciting and excellent fencing in the history of the tournament..."

"The official, original Van Buskirk Sabre Trophy [was] a large double handled silver cup… Usually the winners were allowed to keep it for a year and the Division had their names engraved on it. They also got a ‘Keeper’ trophy... " Ed Carfagno, who fenced with the US Modern Pentathlon Association in the South Texas Division, became the first winner of the Van Buskirk Cup at that first Van Buskirk tournament in 1968.

"At first it was traditional to give only silver trophies at the Van Buskirk. The trophy table was resplendent… stunning… awesome! Fencers frothed to take home some of that silver plate. There were cups, platters, bowls… all huge and gleaming. This tradition has been horribly breached on occasions, but it held for many years and helped the tournament grow."

Even as fencing got a shot in the arm in Houston, with the organization of the Van Buskirk tournament, it was not yet dead on Galveston Island. Johanna Blumel, now a doctor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, taught fencing classes on the side. One of her pupils, Kenneth Shelton would move on, only to return thirty years later and restore Galveston fencing. "In the 1960's Johanna Blumel taught fencing at the YWCA. She was a MD or PHD at UTMB," Shelton later recalled. "Among the fencers was a Clough, son of Roy Cough, the colorful mayor of Galveston. Clough repaired TV's and had a Dick Powell moustache, and fenced with panache."

Fencing was not exactly a new idea in Shelton’s family. "My grandfather went on a grand tour with his mother in the late 19th century and studied at Hiedelburg… I don't know, but I presume he was introduced to fencing then. Later at Harvard he was in the fencing club. I have his framed membership certificate."

The regional Junior Olympics qualifying competition for electric foil was held April 20 at the Galveston YMCA. Galveston fencer John Flores took first place in the men’s event, with James Collins, also of Galveston, and Texas City’s John Rasor in second and third places, respectively. Bonnie Wies of Texas City took top honors in the women’s event. Carol Price of Galveston was second. Jenny Grove of Rice University was the third place finisher.

In the spring,, the1968 Southwest Section Championships were held in Dallas on May 11 and featured 40 competitors. Ten of them came from the South Texas Division, including Lt. Col. Everett W. Abbot (ret.) and Naomia Abbot. Eighteen were from the North Texas Division. There were three fencers competing from the Oklahoma Division. Six came from the US Modern Pentathlon Team, including Ed Carfagno.

There were also three from the Gulf Coast Division. Howard Stokes fenced in the men’s foil event. Bobby McCready fenced foil and epee. Arnold Mercado fenced in all three weapons.

The annual summer National Fencing Championships were held June 22-29 in Miami.

In 1969, Maitre Poujardieu, one of the founders of the South Texas Division, received the AFLA Certificate of Merit.

Another South Texas fencer, Ed Carfagno, from USMPA, repeated his victory from the previous year and won the Van Buskirk Cup for the second time.

Farther afield that year, in more ways than one, science fiction author Poul Anderson wrote, "some people are experimenting with rapier and dagger" in a fanzine article about the SCA titled, "Richard the Lionhearted is Alive and Well in California."

Over the ensuing years the SCA grew. Its avowed purpose was to study and relive the culture of Western Europe before 1600, with focus on the High Middle Ages. Their focus was on, "Western Europe and cultures that had contact with Western Europe before the 17th Century."

Still, the fighting was always a major aspect of the organization. For the first decade of its existence, it was mostly "armored" or "heavy" combat, that is, wearing reproductions of medieval armor and wielding plywood shields and rattan swords. In its earliest phase, these included such items as motorcycle helmets or fencing masks combined with elbow and kneepads. As the organization and its membership evolved, methods became much more sophisticated. By the close of the 20^th Century, SCA artisans could be found who could fabricate authentic period armor from a variety of time periods and regions.

One document created by a member explained the "heavy" combat and its philosophy this way: "There are two basic types of SCA fights: single combat, and group or team battles, known as melees. SCA fighting does have rules. The first, and most important rule, is that each and every fighter on the field has honor. The fighter keeps faith with his honor by accepting blows that would be killing or wounding (more about this a little later)."

"The second basic principle is like the first; A fighter keeps faith with his brother fighters by acknowledging his opponent's word -- if he says a blow was too light to cause injury, then it was light. Since we prefer that no one get hurt, SCA fighting is done with real armor (made with leather, metal, padding, kydex, etc) and rattan swords. Rattan is that bamboo-y stuff, only with a solid core, that furniture is made of. Rattan, surprisingly enough, is springy enough to absorb some of the force of the blow (although blows are *real solid*) and light enough to approximate a real steel sword. Swords are made by wrapping rattan staffs with strapping tape, covering them with duct tape for aesthetic reasons, and attaching some sort of crosspiece or guard. Armor is much more complex -- some armor, being made of steel, rivets, leather, etc, can take more than 40 hours per piece of armor (for example, a gauntlet, or armored glove, with moving fingers and joints can take upwards of 75 hours to complete)."

They concluded with: "We also have a form of fencing or rapier combat, which simulates the honorable combat found toward the end of our period. We use modern fencing masks and blades, primarily, but we fence in the round and use weapons or blocking implements in both hands. As with sword and shield combat, we require authorization and special gear for safety reasons. Rapier combat is not practiced everywhere in the Society, but it has become quite popular in recent years. Our other official combat sport is archery. We offer both target shooting, and in some places we allow lightweight bows and very special arrows to be used in simulations of combat archery. Again, we are extremely concerned with safety."

At first, their versions of swordplay were barely noted by the sport fencing community. In time however, there would be both rivalry and cross-pollination. The sport fencing community, in fact, would occasionally discover to its own surprise fencing salle members who also held SCA memberships.

In Houston, among the competitive fencers, the Van Buskirk Sabre Tournament was back for a second year. Roland Reed noted, "It became the big money maker for the division. In its second year, Mercado, who, by the way, should be considered the Father of this tournament, began to call the rest of the [non-sabre] events by the collective name of the Gulf Coast Invitational. The tournament was what Sonny called an ‘Open Invitational,’ that is you didn’t have to be a member of the AFLA to fence in it. The name never stuck and the tournament was always ‘The Van Buskirk...’

"During the early years, we provided a buffet lunch with the price of the entry fee. It ranged from cold cuts, salads, chips and dips to honey baked hams and roast beef. And we had cold drinks. Fencers were poor then (then?) and they loved it.

"And we always had a party on Saturday night and sometimes Sunday night too. Wine flowed and beer flowed and there was lots and lots of fun. The tradition for the Houston fencers was that no matter how you felt the next day, you fenced. We were the hosts and we were expected to provide our bodies, as targets at least, for all three weapons. Our visitors deserved it. Also the Gulf Coast fencers were expected to be there the night before the event to lay down strips and set up. In addition, if we were eliminated, we were expected to stay and help judge or keep score, and be there to clean up the gym after the meet. We did it. We learned from it. We loved it."

In April, to the north, in Dallas, Lois Goldthwaite, a student at Texas Christian University, captured first place in women’s foil at the Mustang Open. Goldthwaite would continue to fence foil, but she would never content herself with women having but a single weapon with which to compete.

The Southwest Section’s Championships were also held in the spring. The South Texas Division sent 10 competitors. The North Texas Division was represented by 21 competitors. The Oklahoma Division sent two.

The Gulf Coast Division contingent consisted of five fencers, including a now-returned Naomia Abbot, competing in women’s foil. Alfred Snyder fenced the men’s foil competitions. John Stafurik fenced in the foil and epee events. James Collins competed in under-19 men’s foil and under-19 epee. Juan D. Flores, Jr., fenced all three under-19 men’s events.

November saw fencers converging on Dallas for the annual Dallas Open Invitational Fencing Tournament at the Downtown YMCA. Houston’s Steve Farid captured third place in men’s foil. Third place in women’s foil went to former Galvestonian Naomia Abbott, who now lived in Huntsville.

The third annual Van Buskirk tournament was that March. Steve Farid won the Van Buskirk trophy for sabre.

About 1970, Roland Reed organized the Bellaire Fencing Club, which would run for a dozen years or so. David Hubbard and Robert Shelby would be among his students.

At the 4^th annual Van Buskirk tournament, Edwin Hurst won the coveted Van Buskirk trophy.

University of Texas fencer John Lusby carried memories of different tournament. "During the fall semester of 1971, the group of fencers at UT were looking for tournaments to try. The club got a mailing from El Paso for an International Fencing Tournament in December. (We later learned that EVERYTHING in El Paso is International). The only problem was:

• It was the day after my last exam
• My folks and I were driving to L.A. for Christmas
• There were four (4) of us that wanted to go

"We talked about it, and Allen Robinson had his pilots license and access to a private plane. The plan started to gel. I was going to take my last exam, we were to get on the plane and fly to El Paso, while my folks drove to meet us there.

"Susan Helber, Allen Robinson, Pat Strle and I flew to El Paso and arrived early the next morning (with only one gallon of gas left). We checked into a hotel but got no sleep.

"We fenced all day, I won the Men's foil and Susan won the Women's foil, my folks arrived and we all had pizza that night, quite an experience.

"I then drove on to L. A. where I first met Ralph Faulkner at his studio on Hollywood Blvd. That is a whole other story."

Fencing along the Texas Coast continued to be, largely, a product of the colleges and universities at the beginning of the 1970s. In Beaumont, a local boy, Bill Worsham, joined the staff of Lamar College in 1972 as a Physical Education and secondary education instructor and assistant track coach. He later served as director of intramurals for men and coordinator of Lamar's soccer, swimming, sailing, rifle and fencing teams.

Meanwhile, back in Houston, Roland Reed continued to teach fencing with the Bellaire Fencing Club. He did face some trials, one being his twelve-year-old son, Brian. Reed would chide his son for causing disruptions while he was trying to teach. One day Brian came by with a young girl named Tracey Yelton, who was their next door neighbor. He announced that they wanted to learn to fence. Roland exclaimed, "You hate fencing."

Nonetheless, he gave Brian and Tracey their first fencing lesson in the driveway. It was a beginning. In time Brian would attend college on a fencing scholarship. Tracey would grow into a formidable competitor, marry an accomplished epeeiste and begin a family of fencers.

Of Roland Reed, Arnold Mercado noted, "He improved his sabre with me and eventually taught his son who was about the same age as mine. Roland was lucky that his boy had a quick hand and a soft shoulder. My son had a quick hand and a hard shoulder. Another friend of Roland who came back into fencing at that time was Bob Shelby, who had been taught by me some years before at the University of Houston… Bob won the Franks Sabre trophy many times."

"Roland was a great guy to teach and fence, as well as socialize."

At the 5^th annual Van Buskirk tournament, Edwin Hurst repeated his success from the previous year and won the Van Buskirk Cup.

Another major tournament still going strong was the Mustang Invitational. John Lusby recalled, "I won that in 1971 and 1972, as well as the Texas State Collegiate Fencing Tournament in both years.

"I also trained with Dr. De Gaul at SMU who started the Mustang Invitational. I fenced with his folks enough that he adopted me as an honorary Mustang even though I was from the University of Texas.

"My father had never seen a fencing tournament. They were from Abilene and I suggested they come to Dallas to see the Mustang. I warned him that these tournaments could last until midnight. He said, "I know I won’t stay that long!" The tournament started about 10:00 in the morning and finished at 5:00 AM the next day. There were lots of electrical problems with the equipment, as the gym was not air-conditioned. One match of note a little girl with braces would light up whenever she was touched (sparks in her braces). She could really parry! I won the tournament and he stayed the entire time.

"The next year, they came to the Mustang again, it was better organized but they added other weapons and it lasted until 5:00 AM again. He stayed up.

"The SMU Mustang Invitational also had a perpetual trophy. I won it two times and didn't even take it in 1972 because I was moving to California. It was about 1 1/2 ft square with a cup in the middle and a fencer on two corners. I used it in my trailer to hold my deodorant and spindle my checks. I wonder where that trophy is now.

"Years later, when I moved back to Texas, the Mustang Invitational (College only) had turned into an Open and I attended only because I loved and respected Dr. [Eric DeGall]. He had basically adopted me even thought I was a Tea Sip to be a Mustang. And since I won it two times, he considered me his pupil. I entered the tournament, basically just to say hello and pay my respects.

"When I got there, I discovered Dr. [DeGall] had had a stroke and wasn't doing well. I spoke to his wife, she remembered me and asked her to tell [De Gall] I was there just because of him.

"She left and came back in the afternoon. She told me that she had told Dr. [De Gall] I said hello and a tear rolled down his check. At that point, he was unable to speak. I was touched."

At the summer national championships in July, Gulf Coast Division competitiors included Robert Hurley, fencing men’s foil. In women’s foil, another Gulf Coast Division competitor was Vincent Hurley, described at the time in the New York Times as a "17-year-old housewife." She finished second in women’s foil.

In February of 1973, the AFLA Board of Directors met in Woodland Hills, California to consider an orderly means to integrate women’s competitions in epee and sabre into the standard four events. The advocates of change ranged from female fencers frustrated by having to travel, very often, hundreds of miles for a small women’s foil event and wished to broaden their horizons. Others were simply outraged that men had a choice of any one (or all) three weapons with which to fence, while women were restricted to foil. Opposing them was a hodgepodge of views including traditionalists, fearful of female fragility, and pragmatists who felt that, as long as the FIE held only foil events for women, America’s female fencers diluted their training by squandering their training on weapons not recognized on the international stage.

At the sixth annual Van Buskirk Tournament, Tim Graham won the Van Buskirk Cup. Arnold Mercado recalled, "I've mentioned to you that each year I selected a trophy, and we had not permanent trophy, and it was of a glass bowl with a silver base on which the information was engraved. In 1973 Tim Graham of Florida won it, didn't carry it in its box and at the airport dropped it and shattered it, leaving him with the engraved base. Tim stopped fencing many years ago after a car accident that left him with permanent leg damage. When I first came to Florida I saw him one night at the club. He took a lesson but he was very frustrated."

During the first part of the 1970s, fencing instruction in Houston was an uneven proposition, at best. Robert Lyle later recalled, "I always liked swashbuckling movies. In 1973 I took fencing in college in Houston… I was attending Rice University, and the maitre was not employed by the University but he was associated with the fencing club...It was my understanding that my club dues covered some rudimentary instruction which I do not recall receiving. Of course he has trying to make a living so private instruction took priority."

At Rice University, Arnold "Sonny" Mercado taught fencing for the 1973-1974. Mercado had studied under Raymond Prin, Roger Crosnier and Giorgio Santelli. In 1973 he was certified as a Fencing Master by the United States Fencing Coaches Association.

As an accredited fencing master, he had a different perspective on those years, "Once, a college asked me to teach fencing part time and asked if I had any accreditation. I was pleased to present my USFCA Master’s card. Three years later, when I left, a fencer who didn’t have any pedagogical training replaced me. So much for standards."

As future Rice fencer David Ladyman remembered, "He [Mercado] moved to Corpus [Christi] in about 1975 to work (I think) as a fundraiser for non-profits." If so, the move was temporary. Mercado remained a local fixture of the Houston fencing scene for awhile yet. In later years, Mercado would relocate to Florida, continuing as an active fencing instructor and a Regional Vice President in the United States Fencing Coaches Association. A student named Chris Zakes was among the Rice students taking fencing from Mercado.

In early 1973, however, David Ladyman was attending St. Mark’s High School in Dallas. He was already an active fencer, though. In February of 1973, he finished 7^th in the Junior Olympics in Los Angeles. Another competitor was young girl from Houston named Vincent, still attached to the surname Hurley. She tied for first place in women’s foil and nailed a spot competing in the International Junior Olympics in Buenos Aires later that year. Another future noteworthy attending the event was Stacy Johnson of San Antonio, who placed 4^th in the same event and gaining a spot as an alternate to Buenos Aires.

Roland Reed of the Bellaire Fencing Club served as Chairman of the Gulf Coast Division for the 1973-1974 fencing season. The Division Secretary was Rosine Wilson. Harold Van Buskirk served in no divisional office, but was listed as Honorary Vice-President of the AFLA. Thomas F. Bickley of Ft. Worth was Chair of the Southwest Section.

These were also changing times for the Amateur Fencers League of America. The AFLA, which now consisted of 56 divisions grouped into 8 sections, found itself dealing with many of the same pressures as the nation at large.

Up to this point in history, fencing in America (and much of the world) consisted of three weapons for men (foil, epee and sabre), but only one "approved" weapon for women (foil). It was also the norm to have segregated events. Men fenced men and women fenced women. The early seventies, however, saw the expansion of advocates of "mixed" competitions, where fencers of either gender could fence. Some considered this virtual repudiation of chivalry and a concept that spelled disaster for women. Others saw it as one more wall to be brought down by the changes occurring in the 1960s and 1970s.

The AFLA put the question of mixed competitions to a mail vote by its entire board of directors. Out of 100 board members, only 27 responded: 16 for mixed events and 11 against. The "ayes" had it.

This was also the last era of the martingale. AFLA rules of the day specifically required a martingale for "dry," or non-electric, foils and epees. The martingale was, simply put, a loop of leather that was anchored between the grip and the cushion. It was long enough that a fencer could slide his fingers into the loop while still holding the weapon correctly. If his blade received a strong beat from his opponent and he lost his grip, the martingale would keep it from flying off.

Martingales were not used with electric weapons, since the attachment of the body cord to the socket was deemed enough to serve the same function. The absence of martingales in these weapons, however, apparently served as precursor to their disappearance from foils and epees in general.

Far from Houston, in Greeley, Colorado, the Roosevelt High School French Club presented a mime workshop by "a pantomime and fencing artist from Antibes, France. The man in question was Claude Caux. He was currently a special instructor at the University of Northern Colorado, but he was about to relocate…

The 1974 Junior Olympics were held in Tallahassee, Florida, February 16-18.

A more intimate affair was arranged in New Orleans for February 23. Fencers in that city organized the Mardi Gras Fencing Tournament, with competitions in (men’s) sabre and women’s foil. The intent was to revive a forgotten Mardi Gras tournament of the 1920s and 1930s. The event attracted Paul Apostol, the 1973 National Sabre Champion as well as some 30 fencers from across the South, including some Houstonians. Robert Shelby placed 5^th in sabre, while Barbara Akin and Donna Lewis placed 4^th and 6^th, respectively in women’s foil.

At the seventh annual Van Buskirk Tournament, local sabreur Robert Shelby won the coveted Van Buskirk Cup.

The NCAA fencing championships were held March 28-30 at Russell Wieder’s old stomping grounds, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Fifty Colleges and Universities sent fencers, including Rice University, which finished a disappointing 49^th place (there being a tie with San Jose so there was no 50^th place). On the final team standing, Rice had managed 4 points for epee and none for foil or sabre. The reason was simple. As Rice fencer David Ladyman wrote years later, "If I recall correctly, I was the only Rice competitor there. Most schools had three - one per weapon. I finished in the middle of the pack in Foil or Epee (I don’t remember which)."

The 1974 summer National Championships were held June 21-29 at the Commodore Hotel in New York City. Among the competitors was a former Galveston resident now fencing with the University of Texas fencing club, Donna VanDewalli.

In the midst of the competitions, on 25^th, the annual meeting of the AFLA was also held there. One of the big questions concerned women in epee and sabre events. According to the minutes of the meeting, the AFLA decided to have a committee appointed to "study participation and recommend guidelines for divisional, sectional and national competitions."

The minutes also noted, "The Southwest Section reported on a resolution it passed to encourage women in sabre and epee. The Board [of Directors of the AFLA] was also asked to change from a passive stance to one of actively promoting the scheduling of local events on an experimental basis."

This particular meeting, which had been called to order at 8:10 PM, was adjourned at 1:10 AM.

Far from the national championships and politics, a pair of veteran fencing hands had settled into semi-retirement. Everett and Naomia Abbott had established themselves in the small community of Sour Lake, some distance east of Houston, between that city and Beaumont. They were, however, only semi-retired. In 1974 the Abbotts could be found frequently presenting a fencing program for the Beaumont School Volunteer Program.

"We felt that fencing was something that most young people don’t come in contact with," Naomia told the local features reporter. "And we felt that a proper introduction to the sport would benefit them. We never demonstrate anything without a mask."

After giving the audience an explanation of fencing, the Abbott would stage a 5-touch bout. The school children would be instructed to raise their hands if they saw a touch. "This way they become really involved and learn something."

In the mid-1970s, a new instructor came to Houston, one who would have a profound effect on future fencers. Claude Anatole Caux had been born April 21, 1934 in Abbeville, France. A student and personal friend of famed mime Marcel Marceau, M. Caux had coached South Africa’s Olympic fencing team from 1969 to earlier in 1970s. More immediately, he had taught at the U. S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and, in 1973 had participated in an august gathering of masters. Adam Crown later recalled, "In 1973 I attended the International Fencing Camp at Cornell University. The coach at that time, Raoul Sudre, arranged to bring over about a dozen fencing masters from France: Henri d'Avignon, Jean Marie, Daniell Barbas, and Jean-Pierre Genin were among them. There were also Jacques Piguet, Claude Caux and Jean-Jacques Gillet, French-schooled masters already teaching in the US." With the autumn of 1974, M. Caux began teaching fencing and mime at the University of Houston.

Part of Claude Caux’ unique legacy was exemplified by the placement of the fencing course, which was not a part of the physical education department, but was within the drama department. A thoroughly qualified instructor in stage combat and mime, M. Caux taught fencing largely for the benefit of actors, yet also instructed a number of competitive fencers. In this way, he stood in both the worlds of the sport fencer and the stage fencer. He quickly began to have an influence in both venues. Among his first students in the fall of 1974 was Richard Alvarez. It would, in fact, be at M. Caux’ suggestion that Alvarez would ultimately pursue his own desire to teach and become an instructor.

Another student of Caux’ was Michael Monks, son of Gerald Monks who had fenced for Texas A&M in the late 1940s. Years later, Mike Monks remembered, "Caux had two or three stage fencing classes in addition to the mime club." Monks also noted that the current incarnation of the University of Houston Fencing Club was fairly new. "I think they had started it up about a year before I got there."

In many ways, Claude Caux’ most important pupil was his son, Patrice Yves Caux. Many years later one of Claude Caux’ student, Nicole Dickson, would recall learning that, as a youngster, Patrice Caux’ legs had been severely injured when he was struck down by a car. Fencing became Claude Caux’ physical therapy for his son.

Additionally, during that initial 1974-75 term, he also taught the Rice Fencing Club. As Chris Zakes, a Rice fencer at the time, later recalled, "I think this was done mostly as a favor to a friend of his, who was a student at Rice in those days." The friend was graduate student Rod Rich, whom Caux had met at the Air Force Academy.

On October 11, in the small town of Winnie, just east of Houston on the way to Beaumont, a program and demonstration of fencing was given by Everett and Naomia Abbott, who has since retired to Sour Lake, Texas. It was a harbinger of the future movement in "veterans fencing." The program and demonstration was given for the East Chambers County chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). All persons 55 years of age and older were invited to participate.

The New Orleans Fencers Club held their second annual Mardi Gras Fencing Tournament on February 8-9. Whereas the first year saw events in sabre and women’s foil, this year’s competitions were in epee and men’s foil. At least one Houstonian, Robert Hurley, made the trek, no doubt inspired by the chance to cross blades with the 1974 National Men’s Foil Champion, Haik Hambarzumian.

On the eve of the competition, a reception was held in the Grand Hall of the New Orleans International House. During the reception, some challenge matches were fenced, including one demonstration epee bout between Hurley and Hambarzumian, which Hurley won.

Hambarzumian fared better during the tournament proper, taking first place in men’s foil from a field of 39 competitors. Bob Hurley did not do badly himself, taking 4^th place in foil and capturing second place honors in epee from a field of 17.

Back in Houston, beginning Rice fencer Chris Zakes was about to encounter a form of fencing significantly different from the classical fencing of M. Caux. "This was in March of 1975; my residential college [Baker College] at Rice University in Houston was having its annual Shakespeare Fair, and one of the College officers had a sister who was in the SCA, so they were invited out to add some color. At that time I was in the Rice Fencing Club, and the rather battered rattan-and-duct tape swords the SCA was using looked awfully big and clunky to me, so I didn't go over and check them out."

"I had planned a choreographed duel with a friend from the fencing club [Jay Rudin], so I was wearing a sort of a costume and carrying a sword. After the duel, I was wandering around the fair when I ran across another guy from the fencing club. He challenged me, and I managed to beat him. I had just stepped back and half-jokingly said ‘Next?’ when this short, red-haired fellow, wearing what looked like a rusty pine cone suit said ‘I'll fight you, what are your weapons?’ I was carrying a fencing saber and had a costume dagger on my belt, so, straight out of Hamlet I said ‘rapier and dagger.’ "

"We fought for a minute or two, and I quickly realized that while my saber was quite a bit faster than his weapon, the blade was so flexible that he couldn't feel my touches through his scale armor. I went ahead and let him hit me and ended up on my back in a mud puddle."

"That was my introduction to the SCA."

"(Oh, yes, the fellow with whom I had the choreographed duel [Jay Rudin] also joined the SCA, a year or two after I did. He is now known as Robin of Gilwell, Pelican, White Scarf, Court Baron and frequent Rialto poster; my opponent in the scale armor was Lloyd von Eaker, second king of Ansteorra and one of its first dukes.)"

Rudin himself, on being asked why he joined and stayed with the SCA, said, "I stayed because modern fencing didn't ever really scratch the itch I felt. While the SCA has any number of flaws, it's always been the only place to scratch that itch. It combines the joys I found in fencing, theater, Tolkien, fantasy novels in general, swashbuckling movies, comic books, Shakespeare, and Guy Williams' Zorro. (No, I didn't come here for history. I learned my love of history in the SCA. This is, in my opinion, the most important thing the SCA does -- let geeks like me play at fun activities until a love of history is born.)"

Chris Zakes and Jay Rudin were not the only Rice students of this time to eventually drift toward the Society for Creative Anachronisms. A classmate, David Hughes would eventually join and become fairly active in SCA fencing as David Gallowglass. As he later recalled about SCA fencing during the following years, "When fencing blades were first used in what would become the SCA (At that first tourney), they used foil because that was what they had available. (I think they checked out of a local university gym.) When some members of the Principality of Ansteorra decided to attempt to recreate a renaissance style of combat, they used foils, because that was what they had available (we could sign them out from the Rice University Gym, along with masks and fencing jackets). A few years later, some people decided to use those damned, stiff, dangerous epees. It was decided that should be considered an advanced form, restricted to those who had already demonstrated safe control with a foil."

Epees could be problematic in other ways. As Chris Zakes recalled, "I once spent a very unpleasant half-hour with a Houston police officer who insisted that my fencing epee was a sword, because "it looks like a sword, therefore it is a sword, and swords are illegal." (I finally managed to talk him out of arresting me.)"

Rice students like Zakes, Rudin and Hughes were discovering the SCA and its swashbuckling style of fencing. Conversely, things were still slow for the competitive fencers of the Gulf Coast Division. The AFLA showed that, for the fencing season ending July 1, 1975, there were all of 39 AFLA member fencers: 11 active; 5 associate; 10 collegiate; and, 13 student members. This can be contrasted with the 67 AFLA members in the South Texas Division (which had splintered off a decade previous) or the 77 of the North Texas Division.

The division did still sponsor what was becoming a very prestigious event, the annual Van Buskirk Tournament. This year Chris Trammell won the Van Buskirk Cup.

In June the AFLA Board of Directors held their annual meeting. Among other things, they received a report from the Special Committee on Women’s Epee and Sabre (which included, among others, North Texas Division fencer Lois Goldthwaite.) Except for minor wording changes to aid in clarity, the report was accepted as submitted and, as simply as that, the AFLA had a system for recognized women’s epee and sabre competitions.

As August Skopik put it, "Lois is the reason that the USFA allowed mixed competitions. I think she lives in England now. She was an excellent epeeist. I last saw her in 1989, but she petitioned the USFA for the opportunity and I think she was very much behind the women's fencing sabre. I think she was a division and sectional officer at times."

With the beginning of the 1975-1976 fencing season in August, the new officers of the Southwest Section took their places. Rene A. Navarre was the Section Chair. The Vice-Chair was Dwain Blakely from the North Texas Division. Damian Du Bos served as Secretary-Treasurer.

Back at the University of Houston, Maitre Claude Caux had organized the University of Houston Festival Mime Company. Over the next several years he would set fencing choreography on performers at the Houston Shakespeare Festival, the Houston Ballet, Texas Opera Theatre and many other performing arts organizations. One University of Houston theatre student from the mid-1970s, Michael Sirois, later recalled, "I had some interesting experiences at U of H. I continued to do theater (some more Shakespeare), had Ferris Buehler's mom (Cindy Pickett) for a fencing partner...we were both left-handed." This was a reference to theatre head Cecil Pickett’s daughter who played the leader character’s mother in the film, Ferris Buehler’s Day Off.

As Claude Caux’ schedule filled with his theatre obligations he was unable to continue to instruct the Rice University Fencing Club. For the 1975-76 school year, those chores were assumed by one of the students, David Ladyman. Chris Zakes was still a member of the Rice club, but not for much longer. He was becoming more and more involved in the SCA. Other Rice fencers, like T. W. Cook, fenced avidly in 1974 and 1975.

By this time at Texas A&M, Russell K. Wieder had departed and Abe F. Cyrus had since assumed the chores of coach. Kevin Crowder served a club president while Roberta Marshment held the secretary’s post. R. H. Ballinger was their faculty advisor.

Elliot Richmond of Bridge City, a teacher at the local high school and fencing instructor at the Port Arthur YMCA presented a fencing demonstration open to the public at the Central Y on September 17.

In her book Houston by Stages: A History of Theatre in Houston (1981), Sue Dauphin wrote, "When George and David Coulam acquired a parcel of land just north of tiny Magnolia, Texas, in 1975, and opened the first season of the Texas Renaissance Festival, they expected it would be just the second cousin of the Festival they already operated in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The brothers had gotten interested in the festival business in California when George had had a booth to display and sell his stained glass art work.

"The Coulams moved home to Salt Lake City, and started out, in 1971, with a small festival that ran only two weeks. It was modestly successful, but the young entrepreneurs soon realized that Salt Lake City did not have the population to sustain a festival profitably. It would take, they reasoned, a city of at least a million people.

"Minneapolis was such a city, and one of George’s students had a wealthy father, willing to lend the Coulams the capital they needed to start a festival. They began small and expanded each year for five years.

"By 1975, they were ready for two festival, one in the spring and one in the fall. Unfamiliar with Houston’s climate, they planned a spring fair here, but changed their minds after they learned more about the normal weather patterns. Spring would bring rain, the dreaded enemy of the fair. And Texas summers were just too blasted hot. October was perfect, usually clear and with a slight nip in the air. They modified their plans to allow for two fall festivals, the one in Houston following immediately after the one in Minneapolis. This worked well, but the Coulams soon found they had gotten in over their heads, investing too much money too fast. While they leased the land in the North, they were buying some twoo hundred acres in the wooded tract near Magnolia. It took more money than they had, to start up the new park and keep the old one running; so they sold the Minneapolis Park. David says, ‘We decided to concentrate our efforts in Texas because we liked it so much. The economic strength was here. The population was here. We just fell in love with the place and together with the good economics of it, it was just a perfect place to be.’

"At first, there were just a few temporary booths for artisans and food sellers. The brothers planned a ten year program of building that led to the creation of an authentic, working, medieval village. Not strictly a theatre, the Festival is, nevertheless, a theatrical production in its entirety. In addition to presenting continuous skits and playlets throughout the park, the Festival includes several full-length productions of 16^th Century dramas (or comedies) put on by area organizations such as the Rice Players."

There at the first festival was Richard Alvarez and his newly created Pierrot Productions. Beginning with the swordsmen "Triomphe" at this first Texas Renaissance Festival.

Over the ensuing years, Alvarez’ Pierrot Productions clients would also include Houston Grand Opera, Texas Opera Theater, Operaworks, North Texas State University, Angelo State University, and PBS. His jousting troupe’s clients would include the Excalibur Hotel, Paul Newman's "Hole in the Wall Gang," Compaq Computers, and various renaissance festivals.

In November of 1975 Chris Zakes traveled to San Antonio to participate in a "swashbuckling list" that was part of a larger SCA tournament. As with the tournament that gave birth to SCA, there was broadsword combat, guided by established SCA rules, and the swashbuckling event, primarily using modern fencing rules. One difference, however, was that it required no protection beyond a fencing mask. There were only about seven competitors, but it was a beginning. On his way home, Zakes kept thinking, "This could be fun, if it was done right." Zake’s, adopting the persona of Tivar Moondragon, began what would develop into a lifetime interest in research and attempts to re-create the techniques described in historical fencing documents.

February 28-29 saw the third annual Mardi Gras Fencing Tournament held in New Orleans. As with the first year, the competitions were held in women’s foil and in sabre. The celebrity participants this year included the National Sabre Champion Peter Westbrook and Olympian John Kalmar. In the women’s foil event, Patricia Dillman of the Houston Fencer’s Club placed second from a field of 28.

Back in Houston, Claude Caux’ balance of fencing and theatre carried over into his students. One U of H student at this time was Brett Cullen. Before graduating in the late 1970s, Brett was an active and competitive fencer at the University of Houston who also spent four seasons with the Houston Shakespeare Festival. He then moved on to a variety of film roles and regular roles in various television series, even forming a production company, Yellow Rose, Inc., with the pop singer Meatloaf.

He put both his acting and fencing skills to use portraying the character of fencing coach Danny Gallagher in the 1993 film By the Sword. The film starred Eric Roberts and F. Murray Abraham. Abraham although a Pennsylvania native had himself attended the University of Texas in Austin. The character of Erin Clavelli, an aspiring fencer, was played by Mia Sara. Sara had previously worked with another Claude Caux student, Cindy Pickett, in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

UH fencer Mike Monks later recalled, "There was an actor, Brett Cullen, who was related to the Cullens, who fenced with the U of H club for about a year and a half. I remember I took him to his first fencing tournament, at Texas A&M, in 1976."

Monks remembered the University of Houston Fencing Club of this era. "Steve Elkins was a club founder… Pat Caux, Claude Caux’ son, was a strong fencer at the University of Houston."

The ninth annual Van Buskirk Tournament saw Chris Trammell repeated his victory of the year before and walk away with the Van Buskirk Cup.

On the weekend of April 3-4, Southwest Texas State University held the first annual Yorick Invitational. With competitions in a number of events, it attracted 152 entrants, including several Gulf Coast Division fencers. Texas A&M’s Doug Ridge took 4^th place in men’s foil. The University of Houston’s Mike Monks came in 5^th. Another A&M fencer, Mike Christian, took 2^nd place in men’s novice foil. One of his clubmates, Tim Smith, placed 5^th. Aggie fencer Annamarie Frost placed 6^th in women’s novice foil. In epee, A&M fencer John Dubose placed 8^th.

In April 1976, Rice University put together a team for the NCAA Championships. The Rice fencers placed a disappointing 52^nd in a field of 55 schools. Of the T. W. Cook later recalled, "Two of us made it to the NCAA national championships at Cal State Fullerton. We were pretty badly outclassed, since the Southwest Conference hadn't really had varsity fencing since the 50s or so, while all those East Coast guys had been doing serious competition. But it was fun anyway."

They fared better in the 1976 Texas Intercollegiate Fencing Championships. One of their own, David Ladyman, took first place in men’s foil. UH fencer Cindy Scarr took the top spot in women’s foil.

The foil fencing was, of course, electric. It had been twenty years since the Olympics went to electric foil fencing and most of the world had caught up by now, but some still felt the stress. A number of small colleges were beginning to phase out fencing. Never one of the most popular sports, the additional costs of electric scoring equipment caused a few schools to decide it was not worth the expense. A few continued on, trying to organize "dry," or non-electric, events as much as they could. The times and tides were working against them, however, and all major events had long since gone electric.

The Southwest Sectional Championships were in the spring. The winner in women’s foil was Lois Goldthwaite. In men’s foil, Ted Cotton was the winner. Paul Weber took gold in epee. The sabre champion was John Kalmar.

Competitive fencing seemed to be on the upswing in the Gulf Coast Division. AFLA records showed that, for the year ending July 31, there were 72 AFLA members in the division compared to 39 the year before. The 72 consisted of 22 active, 2 associate, 33 collegiate, and 15 student memberships. The division did still lag behind the South Texas Division’s 86 members and the North Texas Division’s 91 members. Still, the numbers were beginning to level out.

With regard to these figures, David Ladyman, who fenced at Rice University, made the following observation, "The Bellaire Fencing Club (in Bellaire, a Houston suburb) was one of the strengths of the division throughout this period. It accounted for many of the active and student memberships, and provided many of the division officers. Roland Reed was one of the primary leaders with this club."

That autumn, Abe Cyrus III of College Station took office as Chair of the Gulf Coast Division for 1976-1977. The Division Secretary was Kevin Crowder, also of College Station. The Aggies, it would seem counted for much of the division’s leadership at this point.

The Chairman of the Southwest Section this year was Dwain Blakley of Irving, Texas. Lynn Totten was the Vice-Chair. The Treasurer was Earl Upchurch.

Harold Van Buskirk remained listed as an Honorary Vice-President of the AFLA.

Van Buskirk had also appeared on a list of AFLA rated directors compiled on July 15. While the North Texas Division had a few names on the list, like Lois Goldthwaite and Bill and Marietta Towrey, Van Buskirk was the only rated director listed in the Gulf Coast Division.

The SCA, with its own form of fencing, continued to grow and develop in the Gulf Coast Region. "The Society for Creative Anachronisms," recalled SCA member Donald Blavier, "first came to College Station, Texas in March of 1976. At that year's AggieCon (Texas A & M’s annual science fiction convention), Bob Stahl brought his armor and weapons and, that Sunday, a group of us went to Hensel Park, tried it on and fought some. I was 16 then. The next year, we started our own Shire... the Shire of the Shadowlands."

Things did not, however, progress so well for local SCA fencers, at the time. The "rapier list" of November 1976, a chance to make a good impression on the powers that be, was cancelled due to cold weather. Chris Zakes later recalled, however, "we fought a couple of demo bouts for the King and Queen of Atenveldt."

The autumn weather did not prevent a few Gulf Coast fencers from trekking up to Dallas for the Dallas Fencer’s Club’s Dallas Open Invitational, November 6-7. The Houston Fencer’s Club’s Patricia Dillman took 2^nd place in women’s foil. Capturing 2^nd place in men’s foil was Robert Baum from the University of Houston. Rice University’s Robert Hurley took 3^rd place in epee.

A&M fencing coach Russell Wieder demonstating a sabre cut.

The cover of the May/June 1976 issue of American Fencing showed Patricia Dillman of Houston (on the left) fencing at the Mardi Gras open. It was a rare instance of a fencer from the Gulf Coast Division making it to the cover of that magazine.

In the first half of the 1970s, while a student at Rice University, Chris Zakes took fencing from the likes of Arnold Mercado, David Ladyman and Claude Caux. In 1975 he discovered the Society for Creative Anachronisms. Under the persona of Tivar Moondragon he became one of the most influential voices in SCA fencing, shaping it into the 21st century.