Team History
Haverford College fencing has had only four fencing masters in over 70 years -- founder R. Henri Gordon; 20-year head coach Jim Murray, a protégé of famed Hungarian Maestro Lajos Csiszar; former U.S. Olympian Dave Littell and recently appointed head coach Chris Spencer.
Perhaps therein lies the secret of the Fords' success in this most ancient martial art. During the fall of 2005, the team moved from the Henri Gordon fencing salle to a modern, more spacious facility in the brand new Gardner '83 Integrated Athletic Center.
Haverford has always had a strong fencing squad, beating colleges many times its size. Roger Jones '52 was perhaps the outstanding performer of the Gordon era. Roger Chin '74 and John Bracker '84 were esteemed fencers who won Haverford's highest athletic recognition, the Varsity Cup. Two recent fencers have earned recognition in wider circles. Nathan Doty '99 was an NCAA regional competitor and winner of an NCAA Scholarship. A two-time Verizon Academic All-American, Asa Hopkins '01 also was the co-winner of the William Ambler '45 Award as the top scholar-athlete in his senior class. Chris Flanders '06, who led the Fords to a MACFA Championship in 2004, finished 15th in men's saber at the NCAA Championships in each of his first two years at Haverford and was 16th his junior year.
Women's fencing started in the 1980s with a trickle of participants, then advanced to club status and its current varsity ranking. Deborah Kaplan '94 was one of the first top female fencers at the college, and Sarah Zinn was the first woman to represent Haverford at the NCAA Championship. Donna Kaminski '98 became the first woman sabre fencer in college history, but she had to join the men's team to do it, since NCAA rules proscribed that weapon for women. The attention Kaminski received became the catalyst for women's sabre competition, which was approved for the 1999-2000 season. In 2004, Abby Buurma '07 became the Fords' first female NCAA qualifier since 1997 and ultimately placed 20th in the national women's saber competition.
Currently competing in the Middle Atlantic College Fencing Association (men) and in the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association, as well as fencing growing at a number of NCAA Division I colleges, the Fords often travel to New England, New York, Virginia, and North Carolina to meet the best in the east.