New York Athletic Club#Handball

City House, located at 180 Central Park South, is the club's headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Completed in 1929, City House is a 24-story building which offers panoramic views of Central Park. The building includes a swimming pool, gymnasium, basketball court, squash courts, golf simulators, a fencing and wrestling room, a judo hall, and two boxing rings. There are also leisure amenities for members and guests, including two restaurants, a cocktail lounge, and 187 overnight guest rooms.{{cite web|url=https://www.nyac.org/city-house|title=City House - New York Athletic Club|access-date=September 26, 2022}}

File:NYAC NYC jeh.JPG

Travers Island is the club's summer location in Westchester County. The island was named for New York Athletic Club president William R. Travers, who arranged for its purchase in 1888. Club amenities on Travers Island include a saltwater swimming pool, yacht club, rowing house, and tennis courts, situated on {{convert|33|acre|m2}} of landscaped grounds.{{cite web|url=https://www.nyac.org/travers-island|title=Travers Island - New York Athletic Club|access-date=September 26, 2022}}

File:NYAC Travers Island jeh.jpg

In 1866, William Buckingham Curtis, Harry Buermeyer, and John C. Babcock opened a gymnasium on the corner of 6th Avenue and 14th Street in their New York City apartment, after discussing the rapid rise of organized athletics in England."A history of American amateur athletics and aquatics" by Frederick W. Janssen (1888), page 124 Interest in their gym grew, and the three men decided to found the New York Athletic Club on September 8, 1868.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wh09AAAAYAAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+1868&pg=PA7 |title=Constitution, By-laws, Rules and Alphabetical Lists of Members – New York Athletic Club |access-date=April 29, 2014|last1=Club |first1=New York Athletic |year=1905 }} The club was modeled after the London Athletic Club.{{cite book|title=Sport in America, Volume II: From Colonial Leisure to Celebrity Figures and Globalization |year=2009 |last=Wiggins |first=David K. |publisher=Human Kinetics, Inc. |page=51 |isbn=978-0-7360-7886-3}} Their goal was to sponsor athletic competitions in the New York area, and to keep official records for different sports. The NYAC was established on September 8, 1868. Its Constitution and Bylaws were adopted in December 1868. In the beginning there was no initiation fee, but $10 was required for the first six months of dues.LA84Foundation.org Outing Volume IV Issue September 6, 1884

The club obtained the Mott Haven grounds with cinder track in 1875, using the Mott Haven grounds were used for several national athletic championships.

In 1879, when the club had 170 members, it published rules in various amateur sports, including fencing, sparring, and Greco-Roman wrestling. The NYAC can be considered the foundation for amateur athletics in the United States. It was the first organization to compile and apply a code of rules for the government of athletic meetings, the first to offer prizes for open amateur games, and the first to hold an amateur championship.New York Athletic Club Journal, February 1905, Page 18

{{As of|2022}}, New York Athletic Club members have won 271 Olympic medals: 151 gold, 54 silver, and 66 bronze. NYAC athletes have competed at every modern Summer Olympics since 1896, with the exception of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which the United States boycotted. 57 NYAC members competed for six countries at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, winning medals in 10 events.{{cite web|url=https://www.nyac.org/olympic-medalists|title=Olympic Medalists – New York Athletic Club|access-date=September 26, 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://nyactokyo2020.com/team-nyac/|title=NYAC Tokyo 2020|access-date=September 26, 2022}}

File:New York Athletic Club Hockey Team.jpg

From 1896 to 1912 (a span counting 16 consecutive seasons) the New York Athletic Club had a team represented in the American Amateur Hockey League and played its games at the St. Nicholas Rink at 69 West 66th Street in Manhattan. The NYAC ice hockey branch won league championship honors four times: in 1896–97, 1897–98, 1908–09 and 1909–10.[https://archive.org/stream/officialrulesfor01newy#page/11/mode/1up Spalding's official ice hockey guide 1918] at archive.org Canadian hockey player Tom Howard, who won the Stanley Cup with the Winnipeg Victorias in February 1896, played four season with the team between 1899 and 1903.

File:NYAC 4-Oar Senior Crew 1911.jpg

The NYAC's Mercury Cup series is the premier regional fencing event in North America. The series includes a number of épée and sabre tournaments, ending each season with the "Epeepalooza" and "Sabrage" events. Competitors earn points based on final placements at each tournament, with the champion being the highest-ranked fencer at the conclusion of the season.

Mercury Cup champions

Individual event champions

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2005–2006 Épée series

Mercury Cup #1: Noah Zucker

Mercury Cup #2: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #3: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #4: Mykhaylo Mokretsov

Mercury Cup #5: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #6: Alex Tsinis

2006–2007 Épée series

Mercury Cup #1: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #2: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #3: Soren Thompson

Mercury Cup #4: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #5: Brendan Baby

Mercury Cup #6: Tommi Hurme

2007–2008 Épée series

Mercury Cup #1: Alexander Abend

Mercury Cup #2: Bas Verwijlen

Mercury Cup #3: Tommi Hurme

Mercury Cup #4: Jon Normile

Mercury Cup #5: Jon Normile

2008–2009 Épée series

Mercury Cup #1: Alex Tsinis

Mercury Cup #2: Jon Normile

Mercury Cup #3: Jon Normile

2007–2008 Sabre series

Mercury Cup #1: Sergey Isayenko

Mercury Cup #2: Ben Igoe

Mercury Cup #3: Sergey Isayenko

2008–2009 Sabre series

Mercury Cup #1: Ben Igoe

Mercury Cup #2: Ben Igoe

Mercury Cup #3: Daryl Homer

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In November 2003, the club was the site of a four-game chess match between Garry Kasparov and the computer program X3D Fritz. In June 2004, the club played host to the final play-offs of the United States National Snooker Championship, and in May 2017 it played host to the entire event.{{cite web|url=http://www.snookerusa.com/ussa/nationalchampionship/rollofhonor.php |title=United States National Snooker Championship – Roll Of Honor |publisher=SnookerUSA.com |access-date=June 18, 2012}}

The NYAC currently fields 22 different teams for the following sports:{{cite web|url=https://www.nyac.org/our-teams |title=The New York Athletic Club – SPORTS TEAMS |publisher=Nyac.org |access-date=January 25, 2022}}

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• Basketball
• Boxing
• Fencing
• Handball
• Judo
• Lacrosse
• Rowing
• Rugby
• Soccer (men's, women's)
• Squash
• Swimming
• Team handball
• Track and field
• Triathlon
• Water polo
• Wrestling

{{div col end}}

The New York Athletic Club is record champion of the USA with 15 titles. The handball department was originally the Garden City Team Handball Club which joint NYAC around March 2006.{{Cite web |last=Ryan |first=John |date=16 March 2006 |title=USA Top 5 Poll (NYC take the Top Spot) |url=https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/03/usa-top-5-poll-nyc-take-the-top-spot/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509163901/https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/03/usa-top-5-poll-nyc-take-the-top-spot/ |archive-date=9 May 2024 |access-date=9 May 2024 |website=Team Handball News}} Garden City was found by Laszlo Jurak around 1977.{{Cite web |last=Minty |first=Chip |date=28 July 1989 |title='92 Olympics the Goal |url=https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/1989/07/28/92-olympics-the-goal/62606275007/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509164247/https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1989/07/28/92-olympics-the-goal/62606275007/ |archive-date=9 May 2024 |access-date=9 May 2024 |website=The Oklahoman}} In 2011 a women's team was created as joint venture with Dynamo and they became third at the Nationals.{{Cite web|url=https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Team-Handball/News/2011/May/16/Some-things-never-change|title=Some things never change|date=2011-05-16|website=USA Team Handball|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180510114748/https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Team-Handball/News/2011/May/16/Some-things-never-change|archive-date=2018-05-10|url-status=dead|access-date=2018-05-10}}

• Until 1999 the Open Div. I was the highest Championship in the USA. Since 2000 an Elite division exists which is higher and the Open Div. I is the second division.

NYAC was involved with forming the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America and the Amateur Athletic Union and their related National Amateur Athletic Championships during the 1800s.National Association of Amateur Athletes of America

NYAC has held the National Amateur Athletic Championship and National Convention several times. [http://mastershistory.org/x-aau-outdoor-championship-locations/] [http://mastershistory.org/x-aau-convention-locations/]

The New York Athletic Club was, for most of its history, a men's club with the purpose to "promote manly sports". New York City passed a law in 1984 requiring "the admission of women to large, private clubs that play an important role in business and professional life".{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/21/us/justices-back-new-york-law-ending-sex-bias-by-big-clubs.html?pagewanted=all|title=Justices Back New York Law Ending Sex Bias by Big Clubs|last=Taylor|first=Stuart Jr|date=June 21, 1988|work=New York Times|access-date=February 8, 2016}} The NYAC, with 10,000 members, was one of four clubs that the city sanctioned for disobeying the law. The NYAC challenged the law, arguing it was a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right to freedom of association. The case made its way to the United States Supreme Court where in June 1988, the court held that the clubs who had brought the suit were too dissimilar for the court to decide the case and remanded the case back to the federal district court. This has sometimes been incorrectly reported as upholding the ban.New York State Club Ass'n v. City of New York, 487 U.S. 1 (1988). Facing the high cost of restarting the case on its own, the NYAC changed its by-laws and voluntarily admitted some female members in 1989.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/28/nyregion/121-years-of-men-only-ends-at-club.html?src=pm|title=121 Years Of Men Only Ends at Club|first=Felicia R.|last=Lee|website=The New York Times| date=July 28, 1989 |access-date=April 8, 2018}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=861&dat=19880621&id=2r1dAAAAIBAJ&pg=7031,5473258 |title=In Supreme Court Ruling-Ban on Exclusive Clubs Upheld |newspaper=The Victoria Advocate |date= June 21, 1988|access-date=February 8, 2016}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19880620&id=C20aAAAAIBAJ&pg=4991,3805120 |title=Court Upholds Ban on Club Bias |newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal |date=June 20, 1988 |access-date=April 29, 2014}}

There were also claims, over the years, that the club discriminated against blacks and Jews. In 1936, Eddie O'Sullivan invited Olympic track athlete Marty Glickman, who was Jewish, to work out together at the NYAC. When Glickman walked into the lobby, Athletic Director Paul Pilgrim turned the Olympian away. Glickman believed he was turned away because he was Jewish.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUa9AQAAQBAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PA73 |title=The Fastest Kid on the Block: The Mary Glickman Story |author=Marty Glickman |date=2013 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=9781560004448 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vAEnAgAAQBAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PT82 |title=Roosevelt and the Holocaust: How FDR Saved the Jews and Brought Hope to a Nation |author=Robert L. Beir |date=2013 |publisher=Skyhorse |isbn=9781626363663 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjOYf1YAhaoC&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PA325 |title=Ellis Island to Ebbets Field |author=Peter Levine |publisher= Oxford University Press|date= September 9, 1993|isbn=9780195359008 |access-date=April 28, 2014}} In the mid-1950s, New York City Councilman Earl D. Brown, a Manhattan Democrat, refused to attend an outing at an NYAC facility to protest the fact that the club: "discriminates against Negroes and Jews on its track team". The Race Relations Reporter reported that a spokesman for the NYAC, Alfred Foster, "admitted that the club has no Jewish or Negro athletes on its teams". However, it also reported that the club secretary stated there were some Jewish members of the NYAC.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDtDAQAAIAAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+jews |title=Race Relations Law Reporter |year=1957 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=msEfAQAAMAAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22 |title=Newsletter |publisher= Indiana Fair Employment Practices Commission|date=1955 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1842&dat=19560711&id=iBcsAAAAIBAJ&pg=5587,4255510 |title=Negro Councilman Takes Fiery Blast at Athletic Club |newspaper=Times Daily |date= July 11, 1956|access-date=April 29, 2014}}

In February 1962, New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. quit the NYAC due to allegations that it barred blacks and Jews.{{cite news|last=Hunt |first=Richard P. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/02/10/archives/mayor-quits-club-over-bias-charge-he-notes-allegations-that-the-new.html |title=MAYOR QUITS CLUB OVER BIAS CHARGE – He Notes Allegations That the New York A.C. Bars Negroes and Jews Accused by 2 Groups Wagner Quits New York A.C. After Hearing Charge of Bias Rules on Entry Attorney General Quit – Front Page |work=The New York Times |date=February 10, 1962 |access-date=October 27, 2011}} Woody Allen had a joke about a Jewish couple that was dressed as a moose and was shot and stuffed and mounted at the NYAC, with his punch line being "And the joke is on them, because it is restricted."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YW9AgAAQBAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PA158 |title=Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allan Sherman |page=158 |author=Mark Cohen |publisher=UPNE |date= 2013|isbn=9781611684278 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xS9f-DI5ag4C&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PA26 |title=Love, Sex, Death, And The Meaning Of Life: The Films Of Woody Allen |author=Foster Hirsch |publisher= Da Capo Press|date= 2001|isbn=9780786748419 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhFQW45uTkoC&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PA60 |title=The Unruly Life of Woody Allen |author=Marion Meade |date=2010 |publisher=E-Reads |isbn=9781617560712 |access-date=April 29, 2014}}

In May 1964, the club was picketed by demonstrators from the Congress for Racial Equality who shouted slogans calling for integration of Negroes and Jews.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19640521&id=9wEuAAAAIBAJ&pg=5179,2424509 |title=New York Club Picketed |newspaper=Rome News-Tribune |date=May 21, 1964 |access-date=April 29, 2014}} In the late 1960s, members of The Olympic Project for Human Rights organized black athletes to boycott events held at the NYAC on the grounds that the club excluded Blacks and Jews from membership.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9uahvEkPKvkC&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+jews&pg=PA91 |title=Sports and the Racial Divide: African American and Latino Experience in an Era of Change |author= Michael E. Lomax|publisher= Univ. Press of Mississippi|date= 2008|isbn=9781617030468 |access-date=April 28, 2014}} Olympian Byron Dyce and most black athletes boycotted the NYAC Games at Madison Square Garden in February 1968 to protest what it alleged were the club's discriminatory membership policies.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlOUBad4ht8C&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PA229 |title=New York University and the City: An Illustrated History |author=Thomas J. Frusciano |publisher=Rutgers University Press |date=1997 |isbn=9780813523477 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19680130&id=ynBIAAAAIBAJ&pg=3104,6960341 |title=Boycott Plan Heats Up ... |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |date= January 30, 1968|access-date=April 29, 2014}} A 500-600-person crowd protested outside the Games, with picketers charging at police, who swung their nightsticks at the picketers in reaction, with each at times knocking the others to the ground.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JC4EAwAAQBAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PT307 |title=A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America |author=Jennifer H. Lansbury |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |date= 2014 |isbn=9781610755429 |access-date=April 28, 2014}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19671214&id=9GpYAAAAIBAJ&pg=6257,3630777 |title=Leader of Boycott Seeks to Aid Clay |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |access-date=April 29, 2014}} At the same time, fifty alumni of the University of Notre Dame encouraged their fellow alumni to resign from the club unless it explained its exclusion of non-Whites and Jews.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19680217&id=qsddAAAAIBAJ&pg=4028,6033349 |title=Madison Square Garden Demonstration Broken Up |newspaper=Observer-Reporter |access-date=April 29, 2014}} In June 1970, columnist Nat Hentoff criticized Ted Sorensen, who was running in the primary election for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator from New York, because Sorensen had lived for a time at the NYAC, writing: "what kind of man would choose to live in one of this city's redoubts of bigotry?"{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1299&dat=19700611&id=BOdLAAAAIBAJ&pg=3780,1866477|author= Nat Hentoff|title=One for Dwyer |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=June 11, 1970 |access-date=April 29, 2014}}

In 1980, Wrestler Ken Mallory became the first African-American to represent the New York Athletic Club.{{Cite web | url=https://nwhof.org/national-wrestling-hall-of-fame/bio/441 | title=Kenny Mallory }}{{Cite web | url=https://m.facebook.com/MANWHOF/photos/a.670897346447439/1869350326602129/?type=3 | title=Kenny Mallory MANWHOF | website=Facebook }}{{cite news|url=http://armdrag.com/matburn?event=5615&instance=17647|title=50th Annual Wilkes Open}}

In March 1981, prior to a press conference at the NYAC, Muhammad Ali picked up the microphone to test it out and said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Jews and niggers and all the other members of the NAACP welcome you to the NYAC."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w9PgTKiU4boC&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22+%22jews%22&pg=PT655 |title=Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times |author=Thomas Hauser |date=2012 |isbn=9781453241196 |access-date=April 29, 2014}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19810322&id=zUdOAAAAIBAJ&pg=7068,5675670 |title=Ali Says Clothes Are "Greatest" |newspaper=Star-News |date= March 22, 1981|access-date=April 29, 2014}} In 1989, Olympic gold medal winner Antonio McKay became the first Black track and field athlete to compete for the NYAC.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=m2BBAAAAIBAJ&pg=1670,2169935&dq=jews+new-york-athletic-club&hl=en|title=Point Pleasant Register - Google News Archive Search|website=news.google.com|access-date=April 8, 2018}} In January 1998, Curtis A. Harris would become the first black person elected to serve on the NYAC's 19-member board of directors.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/14/nyregion/public-lives-black-man-s-role-at-club-is-a-first.html|title=PUBLIC LIVES; Black Man's Role At Club Is a First|first=James|last=Barron|work=New York Times|date=January 14, 1998|accessdate=June 5, 2024}}

• Downtown Athletic Club, defunct rival NYC club that was well known for awarding the Heisman Trophy
• List of American gentlemen's clubs
• Atlanta Athletic Club
• Detroit Athletic Club

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• [http://www.nyac.org/ New York Athletic Club (official website)]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=NAe0YgEACAAJ&q=%22new+york+athletic+club%22 New York Athletic Club: Constitution, Amended February 3, 1917: By-laws, Amended May 15, 1917: House Rules, Amended May 22, 1917], New York Athletic Club (1918)

{{New York Athletic Club|state=collapsed}}

{{Midtown North, Manhattan}}

{{New Rochelle, New York}}

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