George Charles Calnan

Armed Forces Personnel

• Born: January 18, 1900
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: April 4, 1933
• Place of death: Off the coast of southern New Jersey

Sport: Fencing

Early Life

George Charles Calnan was born in Boston on January 18, 1900, to working-class parents of Irish descent. Little is known of his childhood other than that his mother was Lena Crowley Calnan and his father was Patrick Calnan, who listed his occupation as teamster and his religion as Catholic.

George was apparently a hardworking, intelligent, and ambitious boy, able to attend English High School, one of the best Boston public schools, and to be appointed to the United States Naval Academy at the age of fifteen. For George, life began on June 28, 1916, the day he entered the Navy—a shy, awkward 6-footer, weighing only 130 pounds. Surprisingly, for someone who became the greatest American swordsman of his time, he had no early training in, or knowledge of, fencing. In his freshman year at Annapolis, he tried out for football, but the coach, after taking one look at him, did not give him a uniform.

The Road to Excellence

A friend told George to try out for fencing; at the time, it was not a popular sport. Luckily for George, the coach, George Heintz, Jr., liked him and persuaded him to take lessons. George became so interested in the sport that he practiced at least five days a week the entire time he was at the Naval Academy. By his senior year, he had become captain of the Naval Academy fencing team and was ready to prove himself a champion.

In 1919, George led the Naval Academy fencing team in its first intercollegiate match. The team lost, which made George realize that becoming a champion meant a great deal more work. In 1920, he managed to be a substitute on the U.S. Olympic team at the Antwerp, Belgium Games, where he saw the best fencing in the world. He especially admired the techniques of the two Italian champions, Aldo and Nedo Nadi.

After graduating near the top of his class at the Naval Academy, George studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the best and most difficult scientific schools in the country. In 1923, he obtained a master of science degree in engineering. While at MIT, George began building up his impressive record of wins with the Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA) and the New York Fencers Club (NYFC). Between 1923 and 1933, he won nine individual titles for the AFLA: four in foil, two in épée, one in three-weapon, and one in outdoor épée. He was a member of thirteen national championship teams for the NYFC.

The Emerging Champion

What made George a world-class champion was his record at the Olympic Games. The international field of fencing had been dominated by the French and Italians in foil and épée and by the Hungarians in saber. Before George, no American fencer had won any top medals. George fenced in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics without advancing to the finals. In 1928, however, at the Amsterdam Games, he achieved a first for the United States—a bronze medal in the individual épée. George’s greatest triumph came at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He advanced to the finals in the épée individual without winning a medal. However, the U.S. foil and épée teams, of which George was captain, won bronze medals in both competitions.

George’s proudest moment came at the Los Angeles Games. On July 30, before Vice President Charles Curtis and a crowd of 110,000, he had the honor of leading the athletes of the world in the Olympic Oath. In recognition of his outstanding record, George was nominated for the presidency of the AFLA, and it was assumed he would be elected. What no one could have predicted was that, in less than a year, George would be dead.

Continuing the Story

Immediately after the Games, the handsome naval lieutenant married his longtime sweetheart, Lillian Collier, the niece of a naval commodore. The couple moved to Lakehurst, New Jersey, where George was assigned to the Akron, the new 785-foot dirigible, the largest and finest in the world and the pride of the Navy’s air arm.

By a strange twist of fate, George’s death on the fourth of April, 1933, made him known to millions of Americans. The Akron, on a routine survey flight along the East Coast, ran into a freak storm off the coast of southern New Jersey. Winds buffeted the huge ship so violently that it lost a steering rudder and began to lose altitude. The captain ordered the release of ballast and, for a moment, the situation seemed to improve until more violent gusts forced the Akron onto the water, where the huge waves soon broke it into pieces.

Distress flares were sent up, but because of the violence of the storm, rescue ships could not reach the scene of the accident. The crew of a nearby German tanker, with great effort, managed to pull four of the men out of the swirling, chilly water, but George was not among them. In all, seventy-three men were lost, making this one of the worst disasters in U.S. Navy history. Probably the greatest tribute to George came from his captain, one of those rescued: “As the ship went down, officers and men stayed at their posts without flinching until the cabin began to fill with water.”

George never served as president of the AFLA, but in his memory, the organization established the George C. Calnan Memorial Trophy for the national three-weapon team championship.

Summary

Lieutenant George Charles Calnan was regarded as one of the finest American competitive fencers ever and the first American fencer ever to achieve international recognition in the field. His main contribution to fencing, though, was that he shifted the stress from pure technique to competitive excellence.

Bibliography

Evangelista, Nick. The Encyclopedia of the Sword. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press, 2008.

Wise, Michael T., Christina Bankes, and Jane Laing, eds. Chronicle of the Olympics, 1896-2000. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1998.