• Leagues & Organizations

The Gotham Knights Rugby Football Club is the premier gay/inclusive rugby team in New York City. We are a D-III men’s rugby club in the Empire RFU GU of New York and a member of International Gay Rugby (IGR). Our mission of inclusion is to increase diversity within the sport of rugby by the recruitment of LGBTQ and underrepresented groups, refute negative stereotypes of the LGBTQ athletic community and to create a competitive team from local to international levels. Gotham Knights RFC became New York’s entry into the growing ranks of inclusive rugby union teams worldwide. Following the tradition of International Gay Rugby (IGR) teams like the London Kings Cross Steelers (1995), San Francisco Fog RFC (2000), and the Washington Renegades (2000), recent part-time New York City business owner and Fog player, Mark Bingham, discussed with local rugby player Scott Glaessgen the prospect of founding a team in New York. At the time, their plans were cut short on September 11, 2001, when Mark was lost in the terrorist attack on United Airlines Flight 93 over rural Pennsylvania.