1968 Fencing Champion

 
1968 NCAA Individual Foil Champion

Individual Foil Champion: Gerard Esponda
Hometown: San Francisco
High School: Mission High School   
Notable Feats: 1967 Fencing All-American, 1967 NCAA Foil Runner-up, 1968 NCAA Foil Champion, 1984 USF Hall of Fame

Gerard Esponda won the 1968 NCAA Foil Championship taking 37 out of 39 matches. He was unanimously acclaimed as the best fencer in the tournament. An evening college student, Esponda was a “one-man” team as he often fenced against several competitors as most of the other schools had full rosters.

He won so often that USF was named on the 1968 All-American "team" for foil. That year he also won top honors in local qualifying for the 1968 Olympics. He finished the year as the eighth ranked amateur fencer in the country.  

In 1967 at the national collegiate championships as a junior, he had to fence each man on 34 teams for a total of more than 90 bouts in two days. His single-handed feat shocked the East Coast establishment that had dominated the college fencing championships since World War II. The competition included epee and saber as well as the foil.

His effort placed the USF “team” in second place at the 1967 national collegiate championships. The use of the word “team” is a bit of stretch, since Esponda was the “team.” After graduating from USF, Esponda was Grand Master at the Presidio’s Letterman Fencing Club.

Did You Know? Esponda was born in Mexico and transferred to USF from City College. His fencing abilities were handed down from older generations. His father, Jose, graduated from the Mexican Military Academy and his grandfather and great-grandfather were Mexican Army generals. All were noted swordsman.