Hall of Fame
Norman Armitage '27CC '29SEAS was one of the nation’s most heralded fencers, a sport he picked up as an undergraduate at Columbia, and he won just about every major sabre championship over a career that spanned more than 30 years.
At his death in 1972, The New York Times called Armitage “one of the greatest fencing champions in modern competition,” and said that he had “probably participated in more Olympic Games than any other American athlete.”
For starters, he won the 1928 Intercollegiate Fencing Association sabre title – the nation’s top collegiate championship at the time – and two years later won the first of 10 national titles earned between 1930 and 1945. Overall, he won 13 national championships, more than any other American sabreur, and was runner-up nine times.
Armitage also competed in six Olympics from 1928 to 1956 (there were no Olympics in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II), and was honored by being the U.S. flag bearer in the Olympic opening ceremony in 1948, 1952, and 1956.
At the 1928 games, Armitage made it to the semifinals in individual sabre and four years later he helped the U.S. reach the finals in the team competition (the team finished fourth) while taking ninth in individual sabre.
Armitage competed at the 1936 summer games in spite of chemical burns on his right hand suffered in January of that year. (he was a chemical engineer and later a patent attorney when not fencing), making it to the semifinals in individual sabre, and placing fifth in team sabre. After all those close calls, Armitage finally made it to the medal stand in 1948, earning bronze in team sabre.
Armitage’s contributions to the sport was recognized in 1963 when he was the first person inducted into the U.S. Fencing Association Hall of Fame.
When off the fencing strips, Armitage earned a law degree from New York University in 1937 and an additional degree in patent law two years later. He used his science and legal training, to build a successful business career in the textile industry.
