Long before Haverford began admitting women, men’s fencing became a varsity program in 1935 with the arrival of Haverford’s first Maestro, Henri Gordon. Gordon was a protégé of the famous Yale coach Robert Grasson, and was Haverford’s coach for almost 50 years, passing the torch to Maestro James Murray (currently of UNC) for another 20 years.

Haverford became co-ed in 1980 and the women’s fencing team quickly grew to varsity status. In 2002, Olympian Dave Littell took the reins of the program and the Haverford teams began their climb to the top of the NCAA Division III, as the men’s team won the conference title twice under his leadership. Current coach Christopher Spencer, a protégé of Soviet Olympic coach Pavel Zelikman, has since led the men and women to three conference titles apiece during his time coaching at Haverford. Women’s sabre fencing got its start at Haverford when Donna Kaminsky ’98 was the first female sabriste in the NCAA, but she had to join the men’s team to do it.

The women’s team won its first EWFC Championship in 2009. Two year later, the 2010-11 Fords won a program-record 21 matches, as well as establish their first NCAA All-Americans, when the foil squad placed third at the Weapon Squad Nationals. Other recent program firsts are victories over Brandeis, Brown, Boston College, NYU and Vassar. In 2014, the women’s team won its second NIWFA Division III Championship.