Coach J. Gerard Poujardieu, Jr. died this morning

[Geraldine]

That you would all remember my brother this way is truly a blessing.

I am also grateful to have been born into the Poujardieu family, my father being Gerard Poujardieu, Sr... and my brother Gerard, Jr.

My father taught us both to fence at a very early age, starting in Morocco, and many times took me to his fencing salle at the Modern Pentathlon at Ft. Sam Houston, and to Austin to fence with the students of Texas A&M when I was in my late teens. You could say that I grew up with a foil in my hand.

My brother and I often went together to fencing meets, and he always was willing to give me pointers against certain difficult challengers. The only time I joined one of his tournaments in Austin, I came out in second place. He was very good at teaching me the tricks of the trade.

I have so many pleasant memories of my brother, of course, all personal and funny. He once saved me from a serious whipping from my mom, by locating the cat of nine tails and cutting off all of its straps. When mom went to look for it, she pulled out nothing but a stick. We all laughed about it, and from then on, mom never whipped or spanked me again. He was my hero.

Gerard had epilepsy at a very early age (14), for which he took medication, and his whole life was a long list of miracles. I never heard him complain about his illness, he just took it in stride.

Thank you so much for the wonderful words that I find here from everyone of you.

I have known and loved two great coaches. Salut, Gerard! Bons baisers.

Geraldine Poujardieu Parker

[noahz]

Below is the text of the email I sent:

* * *

I am saddened to hear of Maestro Poujardieu's passing. It is truly a loss to the Texas fencing community, US Fencing, and the sport as a whole.

When I was a teenager, I cut my teeth fencing against Pouj's students in South Texas. Being young and hotheaded, I was prone to both unsportsmanlike celebrations and temper tantrums. At more than one competition, Pouj would tell me: "Zucker, one day you're going to act like that...and somebody's going to haul off and belt you one." Fortunately, his prediction never came to pass, but to this day his words help hold me back when I feel the rare urge to "act out." Pouj's curt observation played no small role in the mending of my ways.

Even though he was never my coach, over the following years I found that Pouj offered a wealth of practical fencing pointers - not to mention war stories. One time, I was experiencing problems with an older fencer who was notoroius for late, vindictive hits. Pouj overheard my complaints, and offered some candid advice: "yeah, he did that to me once too...knocked me to the piste." Me: "So how did you handle it?" (here I was expecting some advice about appealing to the referee) Pouj: "What'd you think I did? I went right up from the floor and hit him in the nuts!" Yeah, this is a combat sport, and sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.

The final and most enduring impression I have of Pouj is from the 1992 Junior Olympics in Louisville - the first JO's I ever attended. I remember Pouj watching his student, Michael Lindsey, fencing another of his former students* - Sean McClain - in the Gold Medal bout of the Under-20 Men's Epee championship. Sean was on a winning streak, having already taken Gold in Under-17 Men's Foil and Epee, and Bronze in the Under-20 Men's Foil.

Lindsey lost the first encounter (back then they fenced 2-out-of-3 five-touch bouts), and in the second it quickly became clear that McClain was on his way to an unprecedented third Gold Medal. Lindsey was an incredible fencer...but McClain was simply unstoppable in epee that weekend.

As the final touch of the match approached, I looked over to Pouj and saw something that stunned me. He had sitting in a chair, arms folded, watching the bout unfold, apparently stoic as always ... except for the tears streaming down his cheeks. That's how much Pouj loved fencing; and loved his students; and wanted them to succeed so badly.

I've never witnessed another coach that expressed such emotion at the side of the fencing strip, or who loved his students so deeply.

You will be missed, Pouj.

Warm regards and condolences,

Noah Zucker
Hoboken, New Jersey


* Sean McClain started his fencing career under Mstr. Poujardieu while at Round Rock Fencing Center in Texas. At the time of the 1992 JOs, he had moved to Rochester, New York, to train at the RFC with Buckie Leach.

[dekko]

I seem to recall Pouj telling both the Zucker boys something like that one time.

Guess it's safe to say for the past 20 years about 90% of the fencers in Texas have either been coached directly or indirectly by him.

Lots of influence. Lots of the right and correct influence.