When I left the band in 1965 and ended up in Texas I had no work for a long time . I took a place on the Colorado River with two other guys . One of the guys was a drummer and professor at the U of Texas, Austin, Sticks Whipple. Sticks was also the fencing champion at the University. Usually he was a quiet kind of guy with a good sense of humor but one night he drank a bit at our "Castle" and got pretty arrogant at a party we had there. Another friend and me had put together what we called a "Color Organ" by attaching wires to each contact on an organ fingerboard . While it wasn't connected to sound , the front panel danced with the different colored lights inside the television type enclosure.Basically, as we played along with the music at the party , the lights rhythmically mesmerized the other drinking ,smoking people who happened to look in the direction of the organ set up.As I was playing I could see Sticks bragging uncharacteristically and goading another ,younger mathematics student into picking up the sword to have a mock battle with him , "the champion".He wouldn't let up , eventually poking the math guy with his sword till finally the other guy grabbed a sword and went at Sticks. There was no dancing ,dodging ,or maneuvering involved because as quick as a wink the math major attacked , cutting Sticks who was bleeding nicely from his forehead and bending the sword in the process,evidently over Stick's head .



The one thing about this fight that seems to ring true is that in a violent struggle even a champion can be defeated . The rules of fencing didn't come into play and ,without restraint , Sticks was lucky he didn't lose his life in the quickness and violence.The party went on after the short battle with sticks licking his wounds and making up with the other guy , realizing that he was the one who had pressed the comical issue and had brought it to a dramatic conclusion.