The Stabbing Gentlemen's Report Summer 2014 | Page 3

The Stabbing Gentlemen’s Report

Issue #2

History Report: An Interview
with an Old Friend
It took some time to find dig up something great to share with
everyone, and as luck would have it we were able to interview with
someone very special. Today, we bring you an interview that was done
between David Deitz and Lisa MacElderberry. Mrs. Lisa joined the
fencing club while she attended MSU from 1978 to 1981. Back then she
was known as Lisa Bellamy, who exploits are shown to the left in this
1981 newspaper clipping. Here is the interview between the VP and
previous President of the club:
HOW LONG WERE YOU IN THE FENCING CLUB? FROM WHAT YEAR DID YOU
JOIN, AND WHAT YEAR DID YOU LEAVE ? I went to Murray State from

Blankenship Finishes First
Highlights of Mrs. MacElderberry:

“…Lisa Bellamy, who placed third in
women’s epee…
…According to Bellamy, MSU
fencing club president, four Racer
fencers have been invited to
compete in the Regional Midwest
Fencing Championships, to be held
in Chicago in May.
Greg Smith, Blankenship, Hughes
and Bellamy have been invited,
giving them a chance to move on to
the national championships in
June”

September, 1978 to May, 1981. I was trying to remember if I joined the fencing
club immediately. I think I did join the first semester. My suitemate Cindy
Doyle and I were taking judo classes and the fencing club was meeting right
after our class in the same room. She said "Let's do that!" and we did. I stayed
with it for 3 years. I did foil and epee.

HOW MANY MEMBERS AT TENDED THE CLUB WHILE YOU WERE IN THE CLUB? IT
WAS A VERY SMALL CLUB. The members I remember besides Cindy, who
actually I think stopped after that first year or semester were: brothers Jeff and
Greg Smith, David Dice who was our leader, Mark Sumter, Becky?, Cheryl. So
there were only 7-10 of us at any time.

HOW MANY TOURNAMENTS DID THE CLUB GO TO ? HOW MANY TOURNAMENTS
DID THE CLUB HOST , AND WHERE ON CAMPUS DID THEY HOST IT ? We never
hosted any tournaments while I was there. We went to two I remember, one in
Louisville, and one at Lexington, so I guess both were at the universities. U of L
and UK.

WHAT ARE YOUR THREE MOST MEMORABLE MEMORIES WITH THE FENCING
CLUB? I really enjoyed the comradery and the fun of participating in a sport
that few people did. It was neat to say you were a fencer....and get all the jokes
about what kind of fence, picket or chain link. I have never forgotten that we
headed to Lexington for a tournament with plans to stay at Dave's sister’s
house there. There was snow and ice on the roads. It was late at night, close to
midnight arriving. Dave had a sports car and did some sort of maneuver pulling
up to a stop sign in the neighborhood of his sister's and the car did a 180 spin.
We were sitting there looking at the car behind us.

THE CLUB STILL HAS A BRIGHT ORANGE SCORING BOX THAT WE HAVE SINCE THE
80'S. WAS THE SCORING BOX THERE WHEN YOU ATTENDED THE CLUB? OR WERE
YOU WITH THE CLUB WHEN THE CLUB GOT THE SCORING BOX ? DID IT WORK ON
ALL SETTINGS , OR DID IT ONLY WORK ON FOIL ? At first I really had to think
about this one, I remember a scoring box we sometimes pulled out and used at
practices....but did not remember it being orange. It was black. Then I realized
this is correct, because when I was fencing there, there were only two settings,
foil and epee. The technology had not been invented for sabre. I think maybe
it was invented at the end of my time there, but I remember several years at
tournaments where there were no scoring boxes for sabre.

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