About Gotham

The Gotham Knights Rugby Football Club was founded in 2001. Through our 10 year history we have proudly fielded teams of diverse athletes of all skill levels and experience dedicated to competitiveness, rugby excellence, fitness, fun, and refuting negative stereotypes of the Gay/Bi-sexual male athletic community. While our membership is not Gay/Bisexual exclusive, all active members fully support their Gotham Rugby brothers and support the Gotham Mission Statement.

Mission Statement

The mission of Gotham RFC is to:

• Increase diversity within the sport of rugby football
• Refute negative stereotypes
• Create a welcoming and encouraging learning environment for new ruggers
• Create a competitive team on local, national and international levels

Gotham is proud to be celebrating it's 10th Anniversary this coming September. As any of our alumni would agree, it is truly amazing how far we've all come. The world-wide competitiveness of Rugby Teams associated with the International Gay Rugby and Board has increased to an outstanding standard over the past 10 years, the diversity of the 2010/2011 Gotham Knights has never been so extensive, and the movement of professional athletes to be open about their sexuality to their teammates and the press is a true testament to our Mission and the Mission of all LGBT athletic initiatives worldwide.

Club History:
Following in the tradition of the King Cross Steelers in England in 1995 and the San Francisco Fog and the Washington Renegades in 2000, recent part-time New York City business owner and resident, Mark Bingham, met with local rugby player, Scott Glaessgen, to form a New York team. Their plans were cut short on September 11th, 2001, when Mark was lost in a terrorist attack on United Airlines Flight 93 over rural Pennsylvania.

The inspiration of Mark’s life, work, and dedication to the sport of rugby led Scott and other New York City rugby players to meet in late 2001 to establish Gotham Knights RFC. Practice started in the cold, early months of 2002 under difficult pitch conditions, but within weeks the membership grew exponentially. By late February the team had elected a president, officers, and a board, prepared for incorporation, ordered equipment, and chosen team colors (blue and gold after Mark's college team, Cal Berkley).

The Knights proudly went to Washington, D.C. in April 2002 to play the Renegades in their first ever match and later that spring played in the inaugural Mark Bingham Cup. Since then Gotham teams have played in the finals of the plate division at Bingham Cup II and London and in 2006 hosted Bingham Cup III, where their two sides finished fourth in the cup and plate divisions. They followed that up with their first ever multi-win season in the New York Met Union and their first ever overall winning season in the spring of 2007. Gotham Placed third in the Cup devision of the 2008 IGRAB Bingham Tournament in Dublin. In Minneapolis 2010 the Gotham Knights defeated the two time defending champion Sydney Convicts to win the Bingham Cup. We are proud to be hosting the Cup in NYC and looking forward to defending our title in Manchester 2012.