May 2016 Serving Active Seniors in the Lawrence-Topeka Area since 2001 Vol. 15, No. 11 INSIDE JJohnJJohnoohhnn DillardDDillardDiillllaarrdd KEVIN GROENHAGEN PHOTO KEVIN GROENHAGEN tteachestteacheseeaacchheess fencingffencingfeenncciinngg aasaasss aa lifetimellifetimeliiffeettiimmee aactivityaactivityccttiivviittyy SSeeSSeeeeee sstorysstoryttoorryy onoononn ppageppageaaggee tthreetthreehhrreeee The Spring 2016 issue of JAAA’s Amazing Aging is included in this month’s Senior Monthly. See inside. Business Card Directory ...24, 25 Calendar ..................................16 Estate Planning ......................14 Goren on Bridge .....................32 Health & Wellness.............12, 13 Humor ......................................28 Jill on Money ...........................15 Mayo Clinic .............................11 Memories Are Forever ...........31 Pet World .................................29 Puzzles and Games ................33 Rick Steves’ Europe ...............27 ENIO Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen ........30 SprofileR Permit No. 19 No. Permit Lawrence, KS Lawrence, PAID U.S. Postage U.S. PRSRT STD PRSRT KAW VALLEY SENIOR MONTHLY May 2016 • 3 Dillard has taught fencing for nearly six decades By Kevin Groenhagen try, but it’s a different story in Europe,” Dillard said. “There’s not a lot of money ohn Dillard played football in high in it. The chancellor’s program allowed Jschool in Caldwell, Kan., but didn’t our fencing club to do intercollegiate have the size and skills to play at the competitions. I got in on the ground college level. However, he still had a fl oor as a freshman in college.” PHOTO KEVIN GROENHAGEN desire to participate in a sport when Interestingly, KU did have a fencing he entered the University of Kansas in program decades before Coach Giele 1957. He found what he was looking started a new program in 1957. In for while walking down a stairwell in fact, chances are you’ve heard of KU’s the student union. fi rst fencing coach. He was Dr. James “The fencing coach, John Giele, took Naismith, the inventor of basketball. an index card, and he wrote on it, ‘All According to a 1939 article in Spring- men interested in competitive fencing fi eld University’s newspaper, Naismith report to Robinson Gymnasium,’” Dil- preferred fencing over basketball in his lard said. “I forget the exact date, but it later years. was in October 1957. He posted it on a Dillard had never even seen an actual bulletin board in the student union in fencing bout before going to KU. How- the stairwell. At the bottom of the card ever, he soon discovered it was perfect it said, ‘No experience necessary.’ So I for him. thought I’d look into fencing.” “As it happened, I seemed to have good John Dillard holds fencing weapons while standing in front of shelves Coach Giele, a KU sociologist who form and technique from the beginning,” holding some of the many awards and honors he has received. started to fence at the age of nine, had he said. “At the beginning of my second a considerable background in fencing. year of fencing at KU, the coach assigned allowed the coach to spend more time tion at KU to teach fencing in the credit He was able to start a fencing club at me to teach fencing to the beginners. with non-beginners. Eventually, I got courses in fencing in the physical educa- That’s how I got started teaching. That KU through the chancellor’s offi ce, a part-time teaching assistantship posi- CONTINUED ON PAGE FOUR which funded a minor sports clubs association. The association autho- rized certain sports in which the ath- Meals on Wheels letic department had no interest. of Shawnee and “Fencing is a niche sport in this coun- Jefferson Counties, Inc. Kaw Valley SeniorMonthly Kevin L. Groenhagen Editor and Publisher Kaw Valley Senior Monthly is published monthly by Groenhagen Advertising, L.L.C., Lawrence, Kansas, and is distributed at over 160 locations throughout the Lawrence- Your affordable option for hot, Topeka area. Any opinions expressed by our healthy and delicious meals writers are not necessarily those of Groenhagen Advertising, L.L.C. Subscription Call today: (785) 295-3980 rate is $8.50 for 12 monthly issues. Meals on Wheels and good Contact us: nutrition can help you: 5HPDLQLQGHSHQGHQWLQ MAIL your home 2612 Cranley St. $YRLGKRVSLWDOL]DWLRQV $VVLVWZLWKPDQDJHPHQWRI Lawrence, KS 66046 chronic illness PHONE / TEXT RURAL DELIVERY AVAILABLE Please contact us, 785-841-9417 if you’d like to E-MAIL become a meal delivery volunteer! [email protected] ZZZPHDOVRQZKHHOVLQFRUJ 4 • May 2016 KAW VALLEY SENIOR MONTHLY non-credit fencing class at Johnson that required the skills of an analyst, John Dillard County Community College every including half a dozen years directly as so the students can get started with- CONTINUED FROM PAGE THREE Thursday night. He did that for 36 a systems analyst. When I teach fenc- out making an expenditure beyond the years, even after he and his wife moved ing, I don’t want the person simply to enrollment fee,” Dillard said. “If they tion department. That was nice because it back to Lawrence in 1991. learn the techniques and tactics, and like fencing suffi ciently to continue, paid for a lot of my education.” During many of the years Dillard how to implement them. I really want then I encourage them to begin to buy As a student, Dillard represented KU taught fencing, he also competed, people to understand the underlying their own equipment. If they’re going in the NCAA National Fencing Cham- including in the National Senior Cham- concepts that make those techniques to stick with the sport, they’re going to pionships two times. After leaving col- pionships, which is for those age 40 and tactics what they are. For example, want their own equipment.” lege, he fenced four times in the U.S. and over. I like to teach the concept of timing in The equipment includes masks, jack- National Championship, making it as Today, Dillard, who is accredited as fencing. What I mean by timing is the ets, and three types of weapons. Those far as the quarterfi nals. a fencing instructor through the United most advantageous moment to make weapons are the foil, saber, and épée. “The NCAA later prohibited fenc- States Fencing Coaches Association your action. So what we’re doing is “The foil was invented as a training ing clubs such as the one at KU from and the Académie d’Armes Inter- what we call ‘catch the timing.’ We do weapon,” Dillard said. “The saber is fencing against NCAA teams, so that nationale, is teaching fencing every that by observing what the opponent is an adaptation of a cutting weapon, like cut out the NCAA national champion- Thursday night at the Lawrence Sports doing and how they are doing it. Then a cavalry saber or naval cutlass. The ships to us, as well as competition with Pavilion through the Lawrence Parks & at the moment that it is most advanta- épée was invented in the late 1800s as a NCAA varsity teams,” Dillard said. “I Recreation Department (LPRD). The geous, you launch your attack or your modern dueling sword. Like the saber, try not to be too critical of the NCAA, current class has 10 students, of which defense. There are both offensive and it was originally intended to be a fi ght- but I don’t think that was its fi nest eight are men and two are women. defensive timing. You have to see that ing weapon. The modern adaptation hour. It defi nitely hurt fencing groups Their ages range from 25 to 83. The moment. From the instance you see the has a blunted point. The foil and épée all across the country.” eldest fenced 66 years ago when he was opportunity to making the action is a CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE After college, Dillard moved to the in high school in Chicago. very fast decision-making action in the Kansas City area to begin a career as an “There are people who have enrolled in brain. What this means is that, while analyst. Starting in 1969, he helped build the program who have been fencing for you’re fencing, it isn’t as if you’re a fencing program at the University 20 or 30 years,” Dillard said. “About half seeing the moment. You experience of Missouri-Kansas City. In its second the class have experience, and the other this. It’s a feeling. You feel the timing.” year, the nine-man squad traveled to the half are beginners. The class isn’t set up Dillard shares a two-page document University of Illinois at Champaign to to be just a beginners’ class. The program with his LPRD students that outlines compete against teams from the Uni- is set up to be ongoing. The opportunity is the program’s vision, goals, and objec- versity of Illinois, the University of Illi- there to not only learn fencing, but to con- tives. According to Dillard, someday nois-Chicago, Notre Dame, Iowa State tinue to fence in this program by enrolling this document may serve as an outline University, and KU. They also com- again in the next class schedule.” for another project related to fencing. peted against the Air Force Academy, According to Dillard, he takes an ana- “My wife has been after me for years the University of Wisconsin at Madison lytical approach towards teaching fencing. to write a book on fencing,” he said. and Parkside, Detroit University, and “I think that’s because I am natu- Getting started in fencing through the University of Colorado that year. rally an analyst,” he explained. “I have LPRD is relatively inexpensive. In 1980, Dillard started teaching a worked for many years in jobs in IT “I have basic equipment available In Business Over 40 Years 7ENOWCARRY 3TARTINGAT Did you know? #USTOM SIZED Over 100,000 are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.