A knight’s legacy
2001: How Gotham started
Twenty-five years ago, Gotham Knights RFC became New York's entry into the growing ranks of inclusive rugby clubs worldwide. Following the lead of International Gay Rugby (IGR) clubs like the London Kings Cross Steelers (1995), San Francisco Fog RFC (2000), and the Washington Renegades (2000), Fog player and part-time New York business owner Mark Bingham talked with local rugby player Scott Glaessgen about founding a team in New York. Those plans were cut short on September 11, 2001, when Mark was lost in the attack on United Airlines Flight 93 over rural Pennsylvania.
Mark's life, work, and love of the game led Scott and other New York City rugby players to meet in late 2001 and establish the Gotham Knights RFC. Practices began that December and carried on through the early months of 2002 in bitter cold and on rough pitches. Word spread fast, and within weeks membership had grown many times over. By late February the club had elected Toby Butterfield as its first president and a board of directors, incorporated as a New York State not-for-profit, ordered kit, and chosen its colors. In Glaessgen's words:
"In Mark's honor, we decided to adopt the colors of blue and gold, because those were his university colors — Cal Berkeley."
Gotham then applied for membership in the Met New York Rugby Union, the club's first official entry into league rugby.
2002–2006: Finding our feet
Warm spring weather brought the Knights into more intensive practices through March and April under coach Glaessgen, joined by assistant coach Mio Nitta, formerly of Tufts Rugby, and a steady stream of new recruits. Club socials knit Gotham into New York's rugby community, and members recruited across the metro area, built a fan base, and brought in sponsors. As the club's need to get better at rugby grew, Australian Geoff Quinn was invited to be Gotham's first head coach for the fall 2002 season. Steven Cain took over in 2003 with assistance from Harold Bahr, who then led the side from fall 2003 through fall 2006.
The Knights celebrated their first union win, over Suffolk Bull Moose RFC, in September 2004, with players Keiran Lanham and Callum Sigg sharing head-coaching duties. Peter Rizzo coached from 2007 until his move to Brisbane in 2008 to referee; Spencer Blake stepped in as player-coach that fall. Jeff Simpson, now a prominent referee, led a period of rebuilding in 2009, followed by Philippose Kyriacou in late 2009. Lenny Pereira (2011), Bob Hoban, and NYRC's Junior Blaber held coaching roles between 2011 and 2013.
Tournaments and the Bingham Cup
Gotham has shown up strong in tournaments at home and abroad. Every November from 2002 through 2008, the Knights hosted the East Coast Rugby Invitational, a tournament of traditional and predominantly gay clubs from across eastern North America that later added college sides.
At the 2004 Bingham Cup in London, the Knights reached the quarterfinals while the B side finished runner-up for the Bingham Plate. In 2006 the Knights hosted the Bingham Cup — IGR's biennial world championship — over Memorial Day weekend: 29 teams from 22 clubs and 6 countries, including the tournament's first-ever women's division, and more than 800 registered players, the largest Bingham Cup to date. On the pitch, the A side reached the Cup semifinals and finished 4th, and the B side placed 4th in the Plate.
2007–2008: Breaking through
In fall 2007 the Knights finished 2nd in the union — the first time a predominantly gay team had reached the championship final in the Met New York Rugby Union — and went on to the Territorial Playoffs in April 2008, where they fell to the South Buffalo Thugs.
That June, the Knights traveled to Dublin for the 2008 Bingham Cup and competed in the premier Cup division. In pool play they dispatched the Boston Ironsides (50–0) and San Francisco Fog's B side (39–0) before a close loss to the Kings Cross Steelers' A side (8–16), who would finish second overall. In the knockouts Gotham beat perennial rival Washington Renegades (10–0), then lost a hard-fought semifinal to eventual champions Sydney Convicts (10–35) — the only team to score a try against the Convicts all tournament. In the consolation final the Knights beat San Francisco Fog's A side 8–5, the winning try scored on the last play of the match: third overall, and bragging rights as the top inclusive club in North America.
2010–2014: Champions
In 2010 the Gotham Knights A side won the Bingham Cup in Minneapolis. The B side placed 2nd in the Crest division, winning four of six and losing the final to the Phoenix Storm by two points. At the 2012 Bingham Cup in Manchester, England, the A side finished 4th after a semifinal loss to San Francisco Fog.
For the 2014 Bingham Cup the Knights converged on Sydney, Australia, facing the toughest field yet — Sydney Convicts, the Atlanta–North Carolina Royal Bucks, London Kings Cross Steelers, and San Francisco Fog — in the premier Cup division, and reached the Bingham Plate semifinals in a close match against the Fog. That spring, Ottawa native Sebastian Cray had taken over as head coach; his work raised Gotham's standing in the Division III Empire GU.
2015–2016: In the spotlight
2015 brought a front-page feature in The New York Times sports section, the award-winning short documentary Queens and Knights by Sandra Chuma and Nyasha Kadandara of Columbia Journalism School, and a feature in the French newspaper Le Monde by Jean-Philippe Leclaire. On the pitch, Gotham posted its best fall season in years, finishing 3rd in the Empire GU.
In 2016 the Knights competed in the Bingham Cup in Nashville, Tennessee — more than 40 gay and inclusive clubs and 1,300 players — placing 5th overall and beating perennial rival London Kings Cross Steelers in the Bingham Plate final.
2026: Still here, still Gotham
Twenty-five years on, the club Mark Bingham imagined is still on the pitch every season — and in 2026 we brought the Bingham Shield home from Australia. The next chapter gets written by whoever shows up next. Come try a practice.