10 members from the Gotham Knights Rugby Football Club and 4 from the Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club visited the City of Brotherly Love on January 24, 2003 in order to spark interest in the "greatest sport in the world!"

The initial response from Philadelphia was strong; the Philadelphia Gryphons RFC will be the first men’s rugby club in the Philadelphia area established to invite members from traditionally under-represented groups, particularly gay men and men of color, to engage in the world's third most popular team sport. This new Club will welcome newcomers, as well as experienced players, coaches and fans of all ages, races and sexual orientations

Still as PG Rugby, the Philly team headed down to DC on April 12, to watch a rugby match between the Washington Renegades and the Boston Ironsides. We watched the match and the learning began and so did the camaraderie. The energy was high. 7 PG Ruggers showed their faces at the drink up to interact with the Renegades and the Ironsides. PG Rugby made impressive the advances that day: the club saw a great game among two IGRAB teams and hopefully learned more about the game; on an individual basis, the team made contacts with the other clubs; and as a group, they demonstrated that Philadelphia is going to have an IGRAB team in the future.

As of May 10, the newly-named Gryphons have established themselves as players in the IGRAB world. Seven very zealous men trekked to Randalls Island in New York City for a mini-bootcamp/scrimmage with the Gotham Knights Rugby. After 8 weeks of practice, the Gryphons got onto a pitch and had a blast. Philly didn’t win in the sense of scoring more tries than the Gotham Knights, but the experience, itself, was the victory. This is amazing progress since most of the team didn’t know that the field was called a pitch before 2003.

For more information about the Philly Gryphons, and to sign up to play, email becomeagryphon@gmail.com