The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament, or as it is more widely known, Bingham Cup, is the biennial world championship of gay and inclusive rugby, considered to be ‘The world cup of gay and inclusive rugby’.
This flagship IGR tournament was first held in 2002, in memory of 9/11 gay rugby hero, Mark Bingham, one of the passengers who fought back against hijackers on board United flight 93.
Mark’s club, San Francisco Fog, hosted the first back in 2002, which was attended by 8 teams.
Today, the event has grown to be the world’s largest amateur rugby tournament with 74 teams and hundreds of players competing and enjoying the most recent gathering in Amsterdam in 2018.
To view the Bingham Cup timeline click here.
Shortly after a handful of rugby union clubs for gay and bisexual men from the UK and USA had founded the International Gay Rugby Association and Board (IGRAB) in October 2000, The Washington Renegades held an informal, international, invitational tournament at their home in DC in May 2001.
Players from Manchester, London, Buenos Aires, L.A and San Francisco attended – one of whom was Mark Bingham, a former University of California, Berkeley rugby star, playing for San Francisco Fog.
The event was officially a Rugby sevens tournament amongst the existing IGRAB teams with the addition of exhibition rugby union or XVs matches.
In the exhibition match between the San Francisco Fog RFC and the Renegades, playing against each other for the first time, Mark’s team won 19-0. As a gay man and regular rugby player, Mark not only played for San Francisco Fog but also helped to set up Gotham Knights in New York City and was well known throughout the fledgling IGR community.
It was incredibly shocking that just three month’s following the invitational, Mark would loose his life in the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, onboard flight United 93.
In October 2001, following the 2001 invitational, the San Francisco Fog successfully lobbied IGRAB for the right to put on a XVs rugby tournament in San Francisco in June 2002.
The tournament was fashioned in the style of the Rugby World Cup, with both the tournament and cup prize named in honor of Mark following a unanimous decision by all the members of IGRAB.
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Mark’s legacy sees rugby players, supporters and staff from around the world, coming together every two years in a celebration of equality, inclusivity and sportsmanship. 74 teams from 20 countries participated in the most recent Bingham Cup in Amsterdam in June 2018 with the current IGR World Champions being Sydney Convicts.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bingham Cup Ottawa 2020 has been postponed and will now take place in August 2022.
The bid process for the Bingham Cup 2024 will be announced by IGR in early 2022.
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