ELECTED MEMBERS
   
Last NameSportCountryYear Inducted
JULIA JONES PUGLIESE
Sport: Fencing
Inducted: 2002
Country: USA
Born: May 9, 1909, in New York, NY
Died: March 6, 1993

In 1929, Julia Jones, with students from Cornell, Bryn Mawr, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, founded the (United States) Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association. 41 years later, for the 1970 World University Games in Turin, Italy, she was the first woman appointed to coach an international U.S. fencing team. (The IWFA was predecessor to the NIWFA–National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association).

Jones won the first IWFA Individual fencing title in 1929, leading her New York University fencers to the Team championship. From 1931 to 1938, she was either a competitor or coach of NYU's women's fencing teams, winning IWFA championships in 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1938.

Retiring for nearly two decades to raise a family, Jones-Pugliese returned to coaching at Hunter College in 1956. Her Hunter fencers won the NIWFA championship in 1970, and she was named Coach of the Year. Twenty-two years later, in 1992, she again was awarded Coach of the Year honors.

Julia married Anthony Pugliese, the sculptor-artist who designed the NIWFA competition medal awards (depicting a silhouette of Julia lunging), which are presented in her name.
The same design is also serves as the NIWFA's logo. Anthony Pugliese died in 1953.

The NIWFA is America’s oldest continuous intercollegiate championship competition for women in any sport. Julia attended every IWFA/NIWFA championship, with the exception of two events during World War II.

Jones-Pugliese was United States women’s and men’s fencing coach at the 1977 and 1981 World Maccabiah Games in Israel, and an active supporter of the New York Fencers Club’s Rene Pinchart Junior Olympic Program.

In addition to her recognition by the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Jones-Pugliese has been elected to the halls of fame of the United States Fencing Association, Helm’s, New York Sports, Hunter College and New York University.
 


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