{{Short description|American fencer (1917–2008)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Daniel Bukantz | image = Daniel_Bukantz.jpg | birth_name = | fullname = | nationality = | birth_date = {{birth date|1917|12|4}} | birth_place = New York City, United States | death_date = {{death date and age|2008|7|26|1917|12|4}} | death_place = Forest Hills, New York, United States | occupation = Dentist | height = 6-0.5 feet (185 cm)<ref name="auto5">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/bu/daniel-bukantz-1.html|title=Daniel Bukantz Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com|date=April 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417043638/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/bu/daniel-bukantz-1.html|archive-date=2020-04-17}}</ref> | weight = 194 pounds<ref name="auto5"/> | sport = Fencing | event = Foil | collegeteam = City College of New York | club = Fencers Club | event_type = Weapon | team = | coach = | retired = | spouse = Alice Ellenbogen Bukantz | worlds = | regionals = | nationals = Foil individual champion in 1949, 1952, 1953, and 1957; foil team champion nine times. | olympics = | highestranking = | pb = | show-medals = yes | medaltemplates = {{MedalSport |}} {{MedalCountry| {{USA}} }} {{MedalCompetition|Maccabiah Games}} {{MedalGold|1950 Tel Aviv|Foil}} {{MedalCompetition|US National Champion}} {{MedalGold|1949|Foil}} {{MedalGold|1952|Foil}} {{MedalGold|1953|Foil}} {{MedalGold|1957|Foil}} }} '''Daniel Bukantz''' (December 4, 1917 – July 26, 2008) was an American four-time individual United States national foil fencing champion, Maccabiah Games individual foil champion, four-time Olympic fencer, fencing referee, and a dentist. He has been inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame, the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
==Early life== Bukantz was born in Manhattan in New York City in the United States. He grew up in the Bronx, on the Grand Concourse, and attended the New York children's summer camp Camp Scatico in the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scatico.com/alumni-newsletters/2019/11/25/spring-2019-edition-99-issue-4|title=Alumni Newsletter; Spring 2019, Edition 99|date=November 25, 2019|website=Camp Scatico}}</ref><ref name="auto8">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/sports/olympics/31bukantz.html|title=Dr. Daniel Bukantz, 90, a Champion Fencer, Dies|first=Richard|last=Goldstein|date=July 31, 2008|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="auto3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/sports/othersports/02vecsey.html|title=A Righteous Recipe for Longevity|first=George|last=Vecsey|date=December 2, 2007|work=The New York Times}}</ref> He was Jewish.<ref name="auto8"/><ref>Bernard Postal, Jesse Silver, Roy Silver (1965). [https://books.google.com/books?id=AgmDAAAAMAAJ&q=dan+bukantz ''Encyclopedia of Jews in Sports''], Bloch Publishing Company.</ref><ref>George B. Kirsch, Othello Harris, Claire Elaine Nolte (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=xdV_JV1fbZMC&dq=dan+bukantz&pg=PA152 ''Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States''], Greenwood Press.</ref>
He attended City College of New York ('38).<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto6">{{Cite web|url=https://olympics.com/en/athletes/daniel-b-bukantz|title=Daniel B. Bukantz|website=Olympics.com}}</ref><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://ccnyathletics.com/honors/hall-of-fame/dr-daniel-bukantz/2|title=Dr. Daniel Bukantz (1967) - Hall of Fame|website=The City College of New York Athletics}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/02/20/512888912.html?pdf_redirect=true&site=false|title=C. C. N. Y. Fencers Triumph|date=February 20, 1938|work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="auto7">{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/04/04/84204319.html?pdf_redirect=true&site=false|title=BUKANTZ TAKES TITLE IN EPEE COMPETITION|date=April 4, 1949|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Bukantz then earned a D.D.S. dental degree in 1943 from the New York University College of Dentistry.<ref name="auto8"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9h0bAQAAMAAJ&q=dan+bukantz|title=Dental Survey|volume=35|date= 1959|publisher=Dental Survey Publications}}</ref><ref>[https://dental.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyudental/documents/Nexus_W2009.pdf "In Remembrance]," ''Global Health Nexus'', NYU College of Dentistry, Winter 2009, volume 10, # 2, p.116.</ref>
Bukantz was a captain in the Army Dental Corps during World War II.<ref name="auto8"/> He served in the 87th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-45.<ref name="auto8"/>
==Fencing career== Bukantz was Captain of the City College Beavers fencing team his senior year, and won the 1938 Intercollegiate Fencing Association individual championship in foil as a senior.<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto6"/><ref name="auto2"/><ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto7"/>
He won the US national Amateur Fencers League of America individual championship in foil four times—in 1949, 1952, 1953, and 1957; since then, only Michael Marx has won as many as four US national foil championships.<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto6"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.usafencing.org/page/show/2579720-past-national-champions|title=National Champions; Division I Men|website=USA Fencing}}</ref> Bukantz was also part of nine national championship teams for the Fencers Club of New York, in the years 1949-62.<ref name="auto8"/>
Bukantz competed in foil in the Olympic Games four consecutive times—in 1948 in London at 30 years of age, 1952 in Helsinki, 1956 in Melbourne, and 1960 in Rome.<ref name="sports-reference">{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/bu/daniel-bukantz-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417162546/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/bu/daniel-bukantz-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 17, 2020|title=Daniel Bukantz Olympic Results |accessdate=June 21, 2010 |work=sports-reference.com}}</ref> He fenced in team foil in each of the four Olympics, and in individual foil as well in 1952 (reaching the quarter-finals).<ref name="auto6"/><ref name="auto9">{{Cite web|url=https://museumofamericanfencing.com/wp/mens-foil-olympians/|title=Men's Foil Olympians |work=Museum Of American Fencing}}</ref><ref name="sports-reference"/> He placed 4th in team foil at the 1948 and 1956 Olympic Games, and 5th in team foil at the 1960 Olympic Games.<ref name="auto6"/><ref name="auto9"/><ref name="sports-reference"/> The entire USA Foil Fencing Team at the 1956 Olympics was Jewish, with the other Jewish fencers being Al Axelrod, Harold Goldsmith, Nathaniel Lubell, and Byron Krieger; at the time, the only fencing clubs in New York that accepted Jewish members were the Fencers Club and Salle Santelli.<ref> Paul Taylor (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=A3-BAAAAMAAJ&q=dan+bukantz ''Jews and the Olympic Games; The Clash Between Sport and Politics: with a Complete Review of Jewish Olympic Medalists''], Sussex Academic Press, p. 224.</ref><ref name="auto3"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Celebrating-Jewish-Heritage-Month-at-Fencers-Club.html?soid=1120499345600&aid=cSPq-dtTKm0|title=Celebrating Jewish Heritage Month at Fencers Club; The 1956 Olympic Men's Foil Team|website=constantcontact.com}}</ref>
He won the gold medal in foil at the 1950 Maccabiah Games in Israel, defeating teammate Allan Kwartler for the title.<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto6"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/10/03/89754475.html?pdf_redirect=true&site=false|title=U.S. ACES SHATTER 3 MARKS IN ISRAEL; Korik Annexes Decathlon Lead With Record Pole Vault and Then Goes On to Triumph|work=The New York Times }}</ref>
Bukantz also became a fencing official, judging at eight Olympics (from 1952 to 1984, except the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Games) and three World Fencing Championships (1958, 1967, and 1983).<ref name="auto6"/><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://fencing.net/305/daniel-bukantz-december-4-1917-july-26-2008/|title=Daniel Bukantz - December 4, 1917 - July 26, 2008|website=Fencing.net|date=July 28, 2008}}</ref> In the Olympic Games in 1952, 1956, and 1960 he was both a competitor and a referee.<ref>[https://s3.amazonaws.com/magazinesccnyalumni.org/AVA_Group/CCNY_Alumnus_SpringSummer_2021_Olympic_Article_1.pdf "Olympic Fever: CCNY'S Contenders Over the Years,"] ''CCNY Alumnus'', Spring/Summer 2021, p. 8.</ref> He was a head referee at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.<ref name="auto8"/>
==Halls of Fame== In 1978 Bukantz was inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame in Shreveport, Louisiana.<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto6"/><ref name="auto1"/> In 1967 he was inducted into the City College of New York Athletics Hall of Fame.<ref name="auto2"/> In 1975 he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.<ref name="auto1"/> In 2000 he received the Pillar of Achievement Award from the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.<ref name="auto6"/>
==Family and personal life== On April 29, 1956, Bukantz married Alice Ellenbogen Bukantz, a Holocaust survivor from Nové Zámky, a town in a part of Hungary that is now Slovakia, who had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp while her parents and 87 other relatives were killed in the Holocaust.<ref>[https://www.fencingarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/magazines/af/AF%20Vol%2007%20Num%206%20-%201956-08.pdf "Wedding Bells,"] ''American Fencing'', Vol. 7, No. 6, p. 2, August 1956.</ref><ref name="auto3"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/42/?name=Nora_Bouknight&event=_NY|title= Daniel A. Bukantz|website=Ancestry.com}}</ref> They lived in The Meadowbrook building in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, and Sarasota, Florida.<ref name="auto8"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/alice-bukantz-obituary?id=15679188|title=Alice Bukantz Obituary (2019)|website=The New York Times}}</ref>
Their son Jeff Bukantz was captain of the 2004 and 2008 United States Olympic fencing teams, has won 13 medals (including three gold medals) at the Maccabiah Games, and is the President of the Maccabi USA organization.<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.tapinto.net/towns/millburn-slash-short-hills/articles/jeff-bukantz-hosts-fencing-workshop-at-millburn-h|title=Jeff Bukantz Hosts Fencing Workshop at Millburn High|website=TAPinto|date=February 3, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-712838|title=How the Maccabiah Games supported a Jewish family in the face of tragedy; Adam Henry, now a 20-year-old goalie playing Division I soccer at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, faced a terrible loss during a 2017 trip to Israel.|website=The Jerusalem Post|author=Jacob Gurvis|date=July 23, 2022}}</ref> Jeff was third alternate on the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Fencing teams, and earned a bronze medal in foil with Team USA in the 1987 Pan American Games.<ref>Richard Kagan (February 2007). [http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2007/FEB/assets/EdUpdate_Feb07.pdf "Have You Thought of Fencing?; An Interview with Bronze Medalist Bukantz,"] ''Education Update'', Volume XII, No. 6, p. 21.</ref> Jeff also wrote a memoir entitled ''Closing the Distance: Chasing a father’s Olympic Fencing Legacy'' (Acanthus Publishing, 2006).<ref name="auto4"/><ref name="auto3"/>
Bukantz operated a dental practice in Manhattan, New York, for about 40 years.<ref name="auto8"/><ref name="auto6"/> He provided free dental care to members of the fencing community who could not afford it. Bukantz died in 2008 from lung cancer.<ref name="auto8"/>
==See also== *List of select Jewish fencers *List of USFA Division I National Champions *List of USFA Hall of Fame members
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417162546/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/bu/daniel-bukantz-1.html "Daniel Bukantz; Olympic results]," Sports-Reference. *Shannon Campbell. [https://www.wnyc.org/story/clash-foils-look-fencers-club-1962/ "The Clash of Foils: A look into the Fencers Club of 1962,"] ''New York: A Portrait in Sound'', NYPR Archives & Preservation (audio). *Daniel Bukantz (July 20, 1997). [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/20/sports/l-premature-best-226360.html "Premature 'Best,'"] ''The New York Times''. *George Vecsey (December 2, 2007). [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/sports/othersports/02vecsey.html "A Righteous Recipe for Longevity,"] ''The New York Times''. *Richard Goldstein (July 31, 2008). [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/sports/olympics/31bukantz.html "Dr. Daniel Bukantz, 90, a Champion Fencer, Dies,"] ''The New York Times''.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bukantz, Daniel}} Category:1917 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Sportspeople from Queens, New York Category:Sportspeople from Sarasota, Florida Category:American male foil fencers Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:United States Army personnel of World War II Category:United States Army Medical Corps officers Category:Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) Category:City College of New York alumni Category:CCNY Beavers fencers Category:Jewish American sportspeople Category:Jewish foil fencers Category:Jews from New York (state) Category:International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Category:New York University College of Dentistry alumni Category:Fencers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Category:Maccabiah Games medalists in fencing Category:Maccabiah Games gold medalists for the United States Category:Competitors at the 1950 Maccabiah Games Category:Fencers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1960 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic fencers for the United States Category:People from Forest Hills, Queens Category:Sportspeople from the Bronx Category:Sportspeople from Manhattan Category:United States Army officers Category:20th-century American dentists Category:20th-century American Jews Category:21st-century American Jews Category:20th-century American sportsmen