The Ann Arbor Sword Club Story
1977 – The Ann Arbor Sword Club
In 1977, David and a group of students perceived that, in the class format, little room was available for anyone to advance beyond foil or explore the world of competition. They decided that more could be done on an independent club basis. The Ann Arbor Sword Club was named to reflect interests beyond modern fencing, including theatrical swordplay and historical fencing research, then being pursued by only a few people in the U.S. and almost none in the rest of the world.
The logotype incorporated a German jousting shield, Celtic roundhand letters, and a fight choreography sword made for the 1973/4 movies 3 (and 4) Musketeers and given to the club by member David Craig. The movie inspired, and the weapon was used in, our early theatrical efforts.
The US Fencing Association
Terry Gruber (above left) scores in USFA competition, circa 1979.
The club soon became a presence in the USFA (U.S. Fencing Association, then called the Amateur Fencers league of America) Michigan Division competitive community. Not only did club members bring home substantial numbers of tournament medals, we also became USFA officials. David served as Division Secretary, Armourer, Vice President and Additional Governor as well as officiating in tournaments. Members John Hasler served as Division Armourer, and Barb Schutz as Divison Treasurer. David and John also traveled to take advanced lessons at the Fencing Academy of Michigan, and David qualified for and traveled to several Midwest and National Championships from 1973 to 1985.
John Hasler, an electrical engineer, built us a solid-state scoring machine which along with commercial reels, helped members get practice with electric scoring for many years.
In 1984, David wrote a paper called “The Future of Fencing” which led to his being appointed to the USFA publicity committee in 1985.
The Ann Arbor Medieval Festival
David got involved with the Ann Arbor Medieval Festival through other teachers at Ann Arbor Art Worlds on Main Street. Jim Moran and Kathy Millar invited us to do swordplay performances as “Intermezzi” acts, and we soon became regulars. David Hoornstra, David Glauser and Craig Hartley were the chief combatants, but David Craig was a regular at period fencing practice. We broke a few cheap brass guards and epee blades before David Craig found a pair of theatrical swords made for combat in the 1973/73 Three (and Four) Musketeer movies starring Michael York.
David Hoornstra (it became difficult to keep the Davids straight in this period) bought a pair of heavy wall-hanger bastard swords with which a few of us risked our hands and more for the sake of knocking real sparks off the blades in front of the Festival audience from about 1977 to 1984. We lost a great deal when Davids Glauser and Craig moved to the Coasts (west and east, respectively). But Craig Hartley and Jim Vesper picked up the slack very well, Jim appearing with David Hoornstra in the very first Michigan Renaissance Festival in 1979.
In the late eighties, however, more of the Sword Club got involved, giving demos and introductory lessons in modern fencing at the Festival.
The Society of American Fight Directors
In the summer of 1979, we would fence under the Dental Building on main campus.
Erik Fredricksen, a faculty member in the U-M Theatre Department, found us there and fenced a bit of saber with us. He turned out to be President of the brand-new Society of American Fight Directors and was organizing a major three-week, full-time summer combat performance workshop through the Professional Theatre Program. In return for helping Erik prepare the weapons, David Hoornstra got to enjoy Rapier Week, taught by the legendary Patrick Crean, who had been one of Errol Flynn’s old coaches and was then fight director at Stratford Festival Theatre.
SAFD was nearly unknown then but its system of fight choreography is now the one in which theatre pros seek certification. In 1980, Erik was a mere instructor among many. Now, in 2005, he has for many years been department chairman.
The Society for Creative Anachronism
This sorta-medieval-fantasy organization was founded in 1966 in Berkeley, CA by science-fiction and fantasy fans. It spread to the Midwest by 1969 and to Ann Arbor in 1972 when Bob Asprin and John Bailey started a household. David Hoornstra joined “the horde” in 1974 and since Bob was withdrawing, founded his own sub-household, with most members also in fencing. David became Seneschal of the regular Ann Arbor chapter in 1980, and things got very complex. By 1978, many Sword Club members were also the core of what would become the Ann Arbor SCA chapter.
In 1979, David took up SCA armored combat and found that the strength development gained made a huge difference in his fencing competition.
The Ann Arbor Y
During the period 1982 - 83, Sword Club membership declined and rental costs rose. One of the places David had been teaching was the Ann Arbor Y, and the problem appeared to be solvable by moving the club into the Y. The Y agreed to allow club members access without joining the Y, but the promise was never fulfilled.
Several remaining club members migrated to the Y, but after five years, David gradually shifted his efforts over to the SCA and dropped out of competition. Meanwhile, Terry Gruber and Joe O’Donnell, who understood young people well, had really begun to shine as instructors, and David was glad to see them take over the classes. USFA competitive fencing saw fewer and fewer Sword Club members. Joe O’Donnell moved to the east coast. When Terry turned the teaching over to a young student instructor, the Club was little more than a name on a patch and a filing-cabinet full of memorabilia.
Y fencers seldom got into competition unless we brought the tournament to the Y itself, which we did. But in general, the club aspect of Y Fencing simply evaporated after Terry left.
Several years later, a “core group” cystallized at the Y and formed the nucleus of a new club there. By the time they established the Ann Arbor Duellists, the Sword Club was active again.
The Return
Many factors conspired to bring back the Sword Club in the 1990s.
So David went to the Y to collect a portion – not even half – of the equipment the Sword Club had purchased over the years and left there, and rented Master Yu’s dojo on Tuesday evenings.
Terry and David gave lessons to a variety of students, but the essence of the club was now not so much instruction but a spirited fencing experience with old hands. The atmosphere was radically different from the pre-Y days. No classes at all, no pressure, no hard-riding lessons. Instead, a relaxed, supportive, not-too-competitive atmosphere.
After a couple of years, Master Yu decided to put in a foam floor throughout, which put an end to fencing there.
A quick survey of the various venues available turned up the Pittsfield Union Grange, a survival of a previous age of agrarianism. The SCA group had rented their Hall a few times, and David was able to get to a Grange meeting and gain acceptance for our activity. The Grange is very particular about its wonderful dance floor, which is too slippery for real fencing.
Terry and David spent the last few hundreds of the club treasury on fifty yards of rubber hall runner to lay down as fencing strips, which live at the hall and work quite well, leaving no mark.
The march of history
David Hoornstra (in red, sparring with Ben Spencer), started fencing in 1962. From ’73 to ’75, he was President/Instructor, U-M Fencing Club.
Jeffrey Forgeng had started us on Di Grassi’s 1575-period rapier technique, and when he moved out east to Plimoth Plantation in 2000, a few of us obtained replica weapons and continued it at the club.
There were many forces pulling us closer to historical swordplay. At the SCA’s Pennsic War in 1998, David H. saw Christian Tobler’s demonstration of German Longsword. At the 2002 Congress in Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, he saw Bob Charron’s scholarly demonstration of Fiori’s 15th-century techniques, and brought home a copy of the original John Vernier had obtained. Jeffrey returned to the area and gave a workshop to an SCA symposium showing many medieval combat manuals and pointing out a growing international movement towards finding, translating, and learning from them.
Former member Jim Vesper (above left, officiating at the 2005 Duellist Open at the Ann Arbor Y) now coaches the U-M Fencing Club.
In 2003, David H. brought home Tobler’s book. He and Terry Gruber made some rudimentary longswords from a piece of ashwood John Vernier had left with David. Several friends of Terry’s daughter Andrea requested an actual class in longsword, which ran through the 2003/04 season at the club. Before the year was half through, Terry began ordering complete hickory swords from Purple Heart Armoury. These are now the core of our wooden arsenal, now joined by a pair of poll-axes purchased by Alex Gleason and Ben Spencer.
Members of the Sword Club have continued to encourage SCA members to learn the sport, to the point where now the fencers outnumber the rattan fighters at every Cynnabar practice.
All this does not mean we do not do modern fencing. Indeed, we have found that an addiction to SCA rapier and German Longsword will not keep you in the kind of shape modern fencers enjoy, so some of us are working to keep balance in our diet.
More info: phone (734) 996-4290 or info@annarborsword.com