Santelli in the 1940's
Personal remembrances from
former students are below the dates, in alphabetical order.
Berrick, Mike
Conomikes, Peter
Schmitter, Charles
1941: Giorgio joins the Broadway production of MacBeth as fencing
master-choreographer. Play opens Nov. 11 and runs through Feb. 28, 1942
at the National Theater.
Link to details:
http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=1130
1944: Student Tibor Nyilas wins the U.S. National Men's Saber Champion title for the first time.
1946: Tibor Nyilas wins back his U.S. National Men's Saber Chamion title from Norman Armitage. This is the second time Nyilas holds the title.
1948, July 24 -14 August - XIV Olympic Games, London, England. Coach of the U.S.A. Olympic team. The Men's Saber team brings home bronze. Team consists of Dean Victor Cetrulo, Norman Cohen Armitage, Miguel Angel DiCapriles, James Hummitzsch Flynn, Tibor Andrew Nyilas, George Vitez Worth. In the individual event George Worth finished #5. Both Tibor Nyilas and George Worth took lessons from Santelli in Salle Santelli.
1948 - 1949, Head Coach of the
Columbia University Fencing Team. The team had a record of 2-10 but
had Bob Nielson who became the First All-American from Columbia , and won both
the IFA and NCAA foil championships in the following two years. Santelli's
assistant coach was Irv DeKoff (who later became head coach).
(info. from
Columbia University)
Berrick, Mike: My Recollections of Giorgio by Mike Berrick
I was a poor kid living in Brooklyn. I fenced on my high school team and twice a week at the Metropolitan Club on 57th Street in Manhattan with Joe Smith. When the building was sold and Joe could no longer use the facility, Giorgio Santelli offered the club his University Place Salle on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Giorgio did not teach on those nights but he was always there.
One night Giorgio watched as I took a lesson from Joe. Afterwards, he gave suggestions to Joe. The next day, when I went to buy equipment from Giorgio, he invited me to fence at his Salle. When I told him that I could just barely afford to pay for the equipment I was purchasing, Giorgio told me to come to the Salle and not to worry about it. I was able to fence with people who beat the hell out of me..
At that point, I was then fencing every night One night, I defeated Leo Nunez. Leo laughed and was very impressed. He liked my style. He went over to speak with Giorgio. Leo would pay for a scholarship for me so that I could take lessons from Giorgio for one year. I helped Giorgio in his shop on Fridays as part of the scholarship.
I was in awe of Giorgio. An aura surrounded him. I listened to every word he told me in the lessons and practiced the skills during bouts at the Salle. Every minute I was not fencing, I watched Giorgio teach and listened to his instructions. One of the high points of my sessions at the Salle was watching Giorgio giving sabre lessons to Tibor Nylas and George Worth. The action and the Hungarian comments were priceless. When he stood speaking with Leo Nunez, an aura engulfed both of them and I wished I could hear and understand the words of fencing wisdom they discussed in Italian. AFLA Big Shots, Durnell Every and Warren Dow, who were not Salle Santelli members, would stop what they were doing to listen if Giorgio spoke. (in English.).
Miguel De Capriles offered me a scholarship to N.Y.U. Coach Julio Castello did not need another foil fencer at the time. Giorgio had given me one sabre lesson. With just that one lesson, I was able to convince Coach Castello that I could be a sabre fencer and was awarded a four year scholarship.
After my first year at N.Y.U., I went into the army for four years. When I returned to N.Y.U. after the war, Coach Julio had left. I fenced under his son, Hugo for one year. However, due to family pressures, I had to change to the night session and therefore was ineligible to fence.
I was able to fence at the Henry Hudson, but no longer took lessons from Giorgio as he was busy preparing the Olympic Team. I eventually gave up fencing when I entered the Veteran’s Administration Training Program for Clinical Psychology.
While I was not an outstanding fencer at all, I did
have the privilege of being taught by some of the outstanding coaches of that
time, Joe Smith, Giorgio Santelli, Julio Castello and, while stationed in San
Francisco, Hans Halberstadt. They were all great coaches – but Giorgio was the
most fun to be around.
Conomikes, Peter: was an epee student of Giorgio's while he was coach at Colombia University during the early 1940's. Conomikes fenced all three weapons, and went on to become a coach at Camp Perry, and in1974 at William and Mary College and the Williamsburg Fencing Club. Read more about Coach Conomikes successful coaching career at: http://www.wm.edu/SO/fencing/content.php?section=team_info&page=coach 30 years later and one year after his official retirement date, Coach Conomikes is still head coach at William and Mary in 2004.
"When I entered Columbia, Giorgio Santelli was the head coach. I started taking epee lessons with him. Once I left Columbia I went away to the war, but came back on leave. I dropped into Salle Santelli to say hello to Giorgio. He was making hunting knives as gifts and gave me one. After the war, I had a job and fenced occasionally in his club. In the late 1940's I moved to Washington D.C.. During 1949-1950 Giorgio came to Baltimore and Washington several times to put on fencing exhibitions for several local clubs, where I would be sure to go to see the exhibition and say hello. Thereafter I stayed in touch with him and his wife Betty, much of it through buying equipment from him, and after his death I stayed in touch with Betty. If you look at the old issues of American Fencing newsletters you'll see a list of national champions from Salle Santelli".
Schmitter, Charles: trained with Santelli in the early 1940's. Schmitter was Michigan State University coach from 1940 - 1983 when he retired. (More about Schmitter at: http://home.att.net/~glswords/page3.html)
After being hired by MSU "I realized that I needed to improve my own technique if I was going to continue teaching." Shortly after that Schmitter began studying with Maestro Giorgio Santelli. "He helped me with my form and taught me a teachable style of fencing," Schmitter said. "He did it as a "professional courtesy, can you imagine that? We became very close friends. He was a good man."
