The National (?) Intercollegiates
Item
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Title
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The National (?) Intercollegiates
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Date
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April 1939
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volume
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4
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issue
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3
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page start
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12
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page end
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12
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list of authors
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Frank A. Riebel
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content
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en
The National (?) Intercollegiates
Editor of Riposte:
A generation ago college fencing was confined to a few institutions along the eastern seaboard and this group quite naturally preempted the term “National Championships.” But today there are well-trained teams from Miami to Wisconsin and California. None of these by the rules of the game have a chance to be considered as National Champions.
Away from the eastern seaboard, only one school — Ohio State — has ever entered that select group. From about 1926 to 1931, when the depression squeezed us out, we did send a team east and made a fair showing. Thus, in our last year of competition, we were defeated for the epee championships by a single touch, although we were of about average strength in the Western Conference.
I believe that we are all inclined to feel that eastern fencing still has a definite jump on the rest of the country; but I, for one, feel that occasionally a team is developed, as at the University of Chicago, which might knock off the eastern champion.
Easterners may make the stock reply that other schools may join if they wish; but that is an unfair statement of the case as membership must be taken out and dues paid annually for the privilege of traveling a great distance. And I imagine that even the ample facilities of the New York Clubs would be overwhelmed if 200 college teams would appear.
I therefore say that it is time for the eastern intercollegiate group to prove their superiority by sending representative teams into the hinterland or to meet by challenge the leading teams in the Midwest or South each year; or to acknowledge that the “National Intercollegiate Championships” is a misnomer.
Frank A. Riebel, M.D.
Ohio State University
