Gotta love sports groups getting creative to raise money. In Nashville, Tenn., the Grizzlies Rugby Football Club held its Red Dress Rampage and raised over $4,000 for the group. The event features teammates and supporters wearing red dresses as they run from bar to bar, supported by many local businesses. Check out Total Sports’ video [...]
Posts under ‘Rugby’
French Rugby signs anti-homphobia charter
The French Ministry of Sport has presented its Charter Against Homophobia in Sport, and the French Rugby League Federation has become the first national sports federation to sign the charter. Gareth Thomas was on hand at the signing ceremony. The charter includes six commitments, including: Repudiate and take appropriate sanctions against any homophobic attitude, whether [...]
Swimmer Stephanie Rice: ‘Suck on that faggots!’
Australian gold medal swimmer Stephanie Rice has apologized for a Twitter post in which she gloated over Australia’s rugby win over South Africa this weekend by writing: “Suck on that faggots!” Ian Roberts, a former Aussie rugby star who is openly gay, responded by calling Rice an “idiot.” “I did not mean to cause offense [...]
Ben Cohen’s jockstrap fetches $460 at auction
One more reason rugby player Ben Cohen is one of the coolest athletes in the world: He donated a signed jockstrap for use in a fund-raiser for GMFA, a British gay men’s health charity. It was auctioned off at the annual Gay Sports Day in London on Monday and fetched $460 (300 British pounds), according [...]
Bingham Cup photo gallery
Our short post last month about the 2010 Bingham Cup rugby tournament solicited a rather intense debate about the competition. For the visual aspects, check out our photo gallery courtesy of Minneapolis-based photographer Grant Bowers. Share on Facebook
Rugby club fined for fans’ homophobic chants
Huge news alert! The British Rugby Football League has issued a £40k penalty to the Castleford team because their fans hurled homophobic chants at openly gay rugger Gareth Thomas during a match. A statement from the RFL read: “Castleford were found guilty of unacceptable behaviour, of breaching the RFL’s respect policy, of misconduct by their [...]
HBO sits down with Gareth Thomas
HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel turns its attention Tuesday night (10pmET/PT) to openly gay Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas. Thomas talks about the lengths he went to to look straight, from hitting on the prettiest girls in bars to starting fights; He even says how excited he was to get arrested for assault because [...]
Gotham Knights win Bingham Cup rugby
There is a new champion in international gay rugby, the Gotham Knights. The New York City squad beat two-time defending champion Sydney Convicts, 18-15, to win the fifth Bingham Cup, held in Minneapolis. The Convicts had won the event in 2006 and 2008, after San Francisco Fog won the first two cups. Minneapolis-based photographer Grant [...]
Bingham Cup rugby contested this week
The two-time defending champion Sydney Convicts will try to show again they are the best gay rugby squad when Minneapolis hosts this year’s Bingham Cup international rugby tournament Friday through Sunday. The event is named after Mark Bingham, a rugby player who died on one of the planes hijacked on Sept. 11. Sydney won the [...]
Thomas and Youngquest strike a pose
This picture of openly gay rugger Gareth Thomas and straight Nick Youngquest may look like just a couple very hot guys with their shirts off. And it is that. But it’s also a statement. Youngquest didn’t have to pose shirtless rubbing bods with Thomas, but he did. And with the flirtatious tweeting between the two [...]
Thomas and Youngquest in a Tweet bromance
It seems Gareth Thomas and Nick Youngquest have a Twitter affair brewing. The two began a banter about Thomas’ profile picture (which is now a shirtless shot, right), and it quickly turned to pubic hair and Youngquest being on all fours. The latest entry came yesterday from Thomas… Not had our naked twister yet,but we [...]
SI profiles out rugby player Gareth Thomas
“For me, he was the most ungay person who ever was,” a rugby teammate says of Welsh star Gareth Thomas, who came out as gay last year. “Our coach would point to him and say, ‘There’s an example of a real man.’ I don’t make gay jokes anymore since I found out about Alf.” That [...]
Kent State women’s rugby welcomes lesbians
Imagine coming out to your college rugby team and being met with: “Oh that’s cool. Pass the salt.” That’s what lesbians coming out on the Kent State rugby have experienced as more and more of them come out. There are straights and lesbians on the team, and what they’ve built is a welcoming environment for [...]
Gareth Thomas switching teams
I guess he did that a few months ago, but this time he’s switching rugby teams. Gareth Thomas, the most capped player in Wales history and one of sport’s most high-profile gay men, is set to switch codes and end his illustrious career playing rugby league for Crusaders. Share on Facebook
Gareth Thomas holds coming out party
Gay Welsh rugger Gareth Thomas held a coming-out party last Thursday at London’s club Movida. He was joined at the party by teammates and some gay celebrities. “Everybody here tonight is celebrating that the world is changing,” he said. “We are here to send the message that it’s OK to be a sportsman and it [...]
Bingham Cup coming this June
Every couple months I start typing an address in my email and Mark Bingham’s name comes up. It’s been over eight years since I was last able to send him a message, but I can’t bring myself to delete the address. I was honored to be able to attend the Bingham Cup in 2006 when [...]
‘Invictus’ can’t escape unbowed
Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite directors because of how deeply he delves into the characters in his films. Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, Gran Torino…these are great character studies that each left me emotionally drained. In Invictus, Eastwood had the opportunity to share with us the lives of two great men; Instead, the surface-level [...]
Reactions to Gareth Thomas’ coming out
The coming out of rugby star Gareth Thomas has, as does every major coming out in sports, generated plenty of discussion about gays in sports. John Amaechi, the last major “Big Four” athlete to come out, talked with the BBC over the weekend. Society in America is not where we are in Britain or in [...]
Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas comes out
Imagine if Michael Phelps or Lance Armstrong came out of the closet. The Welsh version (give or take) of those sports legends has come out of the closet with the announcement from Rugby star Gareth Thomas that he is gay. One of the many fascinating angles to this story is that he came out to [...]
Former Stade coach slings recruiting accusations
Former Stade Francais coach Ewen McKenzie isn’t happy about being let go, and he’s taking it to the team management. Specifically, McKenzie says club president Max Guazzini focuses his recruiting efforts not on athleticism but on good looks. He has a marketing outlook which is not always in the best interests of sport. For example, [...]