On September 11, 2001, Mark Bingham boarded United Airlines Flight 93 bound for San Francisco.
He was 31 years old.
He was openly gay.
He was a former championship rugby player at the University of California, Berkeley.
And before that morning was over, he would become part of one of the most extraordinary acts of collective courage in American history.
A Gay Rugby Player On Flight 93
Bingham had been a member of Cal’s rugby program and later joined the San Francisco Fog, a gay and inclusive rugby club founded in 2000.
The National Park Service describes him as adventurous, successful and deeply connected to rugby.
On the morning of September 11, he nearly missed Flight 93 after oversleeping and became the last passenger to board.
Less than an hour after takeoff, hijackers seized control of the aircraft.
Bingham managed to call his mother, Alice Hoagland, from an onboard phone.
He told her that his plane had been hijacked and that the men who had taken control claimed to have a bomb.
Then the call ended.
By that point, passengers aboard Flight 93 were learning through phone calls that other hijacked aircraft had already struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
They understood that their own plane was likely part of the same attack.
And they made a decision.
They would fight back.
The Passenger Revolt
Bingham was among the passengers who joined the counterattack against the hijackers.
The revolt was collective, involving several passengers and crew members who acted knowing that the situation aboard the plane was desperate.
Flight 93 never reached Washington.
The aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 40 passengers and crew members aboard.
Investigators later concluded that the hijackers were most likely attempting to reach the U.S. Capitol.
The actions of the passengers and crew prevented Flight 93 from reaching that target.
Mark Bingham became one of the names most closely associated with that resistance.
But for the LGBTQ+ community, his story carried another kind of significance too.
At a time when gay men were still routinely stereotyped as weak, unathletic or somehow less masculine, Bingham’s life challenged those assumptions before his heroism on Flight 93 made the contradiction impossible to ignore.
A Rugby Legacy Built In His Name
After Bingham’s death, friends and fellow rugby players created a tournament in his honor.
The first Bingham Cup was held in San Francisco in 2002.
What began as a memorial tournament has grown into one of the largest international celebrations of gay and inclusive rugby.
Teams from around the world now gather every two years to compete, build community and honor the man whose name the tournament carries.
The 2026 Bingham Cup was held in Brisbane, Australia, just weeks before the 25th anniversary of September 11.
London’s Kings Cross Steelers defeated the Sydney Convicts 12–5 to win the championship.
Twenty-five years after Bingham’s death, gay rugby players were still running onto the field with his name attached to one of the sport’s biggest inclusive tournaments.
His old club has never stopped remembering him either.
The San Francisco Fog continues to gather each September 11 to honor Bingham, the other people lost that day and members of their own rugby family who have died.
More Than One Kind Of Legacy
Mark Bingham’s place in September 11 history is inseparable from the other passengers and crew members who resisted the hijackers aboard Flight 93.
Their courage was collective.
But Bingham’s individual story has continued to resonate far beyond that field in Pennsylvania.
He was a son.
An entrepreneur.
A rugby player.
A teammate.
An openly gay man.
And one of the people who decided that morning that they were going to fight back.
Twenty-five years later, his name is still spoken every September 11.
It is also shouted from rugby sidelines, printed on jerseys and engraved on trophies around the world.
For generations of LGBTQ+ athletes who never met him, Mark Bingham became proof that being openly gay and being strong, competitive, courageous and unapologetically yourself were never contradictions in the first place.
That may be one of the most remarkable parts of the legacy he left behind. ❤️🌈🏉
📷 @gothamrugby / @fogrugby
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