Santelli - 1950's
Personal remembrances below dated material
1950 - Tibor Nyilas, still Giorgio's student win's back the Men's National saber champion title from Umberto de Martino. This is the third time he holds the title. He continues to hold the title for the next 3 years.
1951 - George Kolombatovich (now head coach at Columbia University in NY) with one year of foil lessons with father Oscar F., at the young age of 5 starts taking lessons with Maestro Giorgio at Salle Santelli on Spring Street (NYC). (interview with Mr. Kolombatovich regarding referring) .
Tibor Nyilas - wins the Gold Medal for Men's Saber, George Worth wins the silver at the 1951 Pan American Games in Buenos Aires. The U.S. men's team also takes the gold in both saber and foil. Edward Vebell of the U.S. takes the bronze in epee.
1952 - Students Tibor Nyilas and George V. Worth as part of the U.S. Olympic men's saber team come in 4th at the Olympic Games (in Helsinki). Other team members included Norman C. Armitage, Allan Sidney Kwartler, Miquel A. DeCapriles, Alfonso Morales, and Alex Treves. Tibor continues to the hold Men's saber champion title.
1953 - Jan. 10 1953, The New Yorker Magazine runs a caricature of Maestro Giorgio in profile holding an epee in his hand. The caricature was created by artist Alfred Joseph Freuh. It is in ink and whiteout over pencil, and located on Page 30. It was copyrighted by The New Yorker Magazine, we have asked for permission to show it and are awaiting an answer. During the 1953-1954 period, Santelli travels to Washington D.C. and Baltimore again to put on fencing exhibitions for various clubs. Pete Conomikes, now living the Washington area attends.
1954 - George V. Worth wins the National Champion Men's saber title, winning it from Santelli student Tibor Nyilas. Pete Conomikes (see 1940's section for his profile) reaches #3 ranking at the national level in epee.
1956 - Student George Worth, part of the U.S. Olympic team makes it to the semi-finals at the Olympic Games (held in Melbourne), but was then eliminated. As part of the team event, the U.S. received a bye in the first round, and moved into the semi-finals. They were eventually eliminated from the medals by Poland and Hungary. Tibor Nyilas wins back the National Champion title for Men's saber. Joel Prostick becomes a student of Santelli's.
1959 - George Worth takes the Pan American Games Oath for his country (U.S.A) during the opening ceremonies of the 1959 Pan American Games held in the United States.
Prostick, Joel - student of both Santelli and Aldo Nadi (once Prostick moved to Calif. in 1960). Prostick started foil fencing at Brooklyn College in 1952. After graduating from B.C. in 1956 he decided to continue fencing and walked into the Salle Santelli and introduced himself to Maestro Giorgio.He studied with Santelli from 1956-1959. "In May 1959 I accepted a job in Los Angeles California. Giorgio insisted that I study with Aldo Nadi and wrote a letter of introduction for me. I continued to fence until Maestro Nadi's death on November 10, 1965" Joel Prostick. Mr. Prostick has also kindly given us more background on the Santelli duel, which I have put into the 1920 section (when the duel was fought).
An Anecdote by Joel Prostick:
"Giorgio, as was the custom with European coaches of that era, would constantly throw insults at his students during lessons. It was an effort to make them try harder, to go faster, and to bring out the best in them. Since these insults were reserved only for those students that he felt might amount to something his students accepted them as a complement. No one ever complained. Well, hardly ever.
One day during a lesson, he showed me a somewhat complex action. It was taking longer than it should have for me to get it right, and the insults starting coming. They continued to come as my futility continued, and for the first time it started to get to me. Finally I did the action as fast and as perfectly as I possibly could. I turned to Giorgio and said, “Well, what did you think of that?” He never hesitated and replied in a very calm and thoughtful voice “Average! Of course if all you ever want to be is an average fencer, then I guess it was pretty good.” It was the last time I ever spoke back to Giorgio."
Boris
Karloff with Santelli in the late 1950's
Photos courtesy of USFA and Andrea Santelli
1955 Article from New York Times
George Worth information from:
http://www.jewsinsports.org/olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=336
1951 Pan Am. Games results from:
http://ourworld.cs.com/eblibrarian/1951Champions.html and
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/pafc/Pan_American_Games_Results.htm#S1951
