Last night the pairings for the 2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament were released, leading to a day of lost work in corporate America as brackets are filled and the ESPN servers strain under the load of users doing their non-conference research and entering their online brackets.

This morning another connection between basketball and fencing came up as Mid-South Fencers’ coach Jen Oldham posted a photo of Dr. James Naismith instructing a pair of women’s foil fencers.

Dr. Naismith instructing the women’s fencing team. Photograph from the Dec. 1936 Jayhawker yearbook
Dr. Naismith instructing the women’s fencing team. Photograph from the Dec. 1936 Jayhawker yearbook

Apparently, Dr. Naismith actually preferred watching wrestling and fencing over basketball in his later years. He was opposed to many of the rule changes after 1925. Imagine how he would feel about the rule changes in fencing today!

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