As much as Notre Dame is known for its proud football history, it’s a powerhouse in several other sports as well. Arguably the biggest of those is fencing, where Notre Dame seemingly competes for a national championship on an annual basis.
Yves Auriol served as Notre Dame’s women’s head fencing coach from 1985-2002 and men’s head coach from 1995-2002. In that time Notre Dame fencers combined to earn 69 All-American honors while bringing home eight individual national championships.
The University of Notre Dame announced that Auriol recently passed away at the age of 87.
His teams claimed the 1987 women’s national title while the Notre Dame fencing as a whole won the 1994 combined title, as he wasn’t coaching the men yet.
Notre Dame earned several national runner ups during Auriol’s time as he was named the national coach of the year in both 2001 and 2002.
A native of France, Auriol also coached the United States Olympics team in the 1980, 1984, and 1988 games.
He is survived by his wife Georgette (Jo) and son Stephane, who was a four-time monogram winner and two-time foil captain at Notre Dame.
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