The New York Athletic Club is a private social club

Gentlemen's club

A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...

 and athletic club

Athletic club

An athletic club may be*A private club which provides sports facilities to members.*A sports club dedicated to athletics, often professional and fielding competitive teams...

 in Midtown

Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, is an area of Manhattan, New York City home to world-famous commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square...

 Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1868 and currently has approximately 8,600 members.

History

NYAC members have won more than 230 Olympic medals. Of those, more than 120 have been gold. Presently, the NYAC has top-ranked competitors in wrestling, judo, rowing, fencing, water polo and track and field, among other sports. Forty NYAC members competed for three countries at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, winning 16 medals.

Fifteen miles north of Manhattan, in Westchester County, the NYAC has a 30 acre facility on Travers Island. It offers tennis, swimming and boating, field sports and many other outdoor activities.

Through at least the 1960s, the NYAC had membership restrictions against blacks and Jews. In 1962, New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.

Robert F. Wagner, Jr.

Robert Ferdinand Wagner II, usually known as Robert F. Wagner, Jr. served three terms as the mayor of New York City, from 1954 through 1965.-Biography:...

 quit the NYAC over charges that it barred blacks and Jews.

Facilities

The club operates two facilities, one in New York City and the other on Travers Island  which straddles the border of New Rochelle

New Rochelle, New York

New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...

 and Pelham Manor, New York

Pelham Manor, New York

Pelham Manor is a village located in Westchester County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 5,486. It is located in the town of Pelham.- Demographics :...

.

The City House, located at 180 Central Park South

Central Park South

Central Park South is the portion of 59th Street that forms the southern border of Central Park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It runs from Columbus Circle at Eighth Avenue on the west to Grand Army Plaza at Fifth Avenue on the east...

, occupies one of the finest locations in the city. A large, cavernous building built in the early twentieth century, it offers panoramic views of Central Park and is the athletic as well as the social hub of the Club. The architect was Charles W. Clinton

Charles W. Clinton

Charles William Clinton was an American architect. From 1894 until his death, Clinton was a partner of the prominent firm of Clinton and Russell, but from 1858 through 1894 he conducted his own significant career....

. The 24-floor facility includes two restaurants, a cocktail lounge, library, ballroom, billiard room, meeting rooms, and eight floors of guest rooms for members and club guests. The athletic training floors include a swimming pool, basketball courts, boxing rings, a fencing and wrestling room, judo floor, and squash courts.

Named for Wall Street businessman William R. Travers

William R. Travers

William Riggin Travers was an American lawyer who made a fortune on Wall Street. A well-known cosmopolite and high liver, Travers was a member of 27 private clubs, according to Cleveland Amory in his book Who Killed Society?-Biography:He was born in 1819.Along with John Hunter, in 1863 he founded...

, who arranged for its purchase in 1886, Travers Island is the NYAC's summer home on Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...

. The island is located in the city's Lower Harbor and is situated between Neptune Island

Neptune Island (Long Island Sound)

Neptune Island was an island in Long Island Sound and part of the City of New Rochelle, New York. It is now connected to the mainland. In the early 19th century it was called "Moses Island," with the name changed to Neptune later that century. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the US...

, Glen Island

Glen Island Park (New Rochelle, New York)

Glen Island Park is a park, located on an island in Long Island Sound. The park is owned and operated by Westchester County and shares Glen Island with a privately operated but county-owned entertainment facility, the Glen Island Harbour Club....

 and Hunter Island in New York City's Pelham Bay Park

Pelham Bay Park

Pelham Bay Park, located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of The Bronx and extending partially into Westchester County, is at the largest public park in New York City. The section of the park within New York City's borders is more than three times the size of Manhattan's...

. It consists of the Main House and other buildings and facilities that sit on 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) of handsomely landscaped grounds. Centered around the Main House, the Olympic-sized salt water pool and accompanying cabanas, Travers Island  extends the range of NYAC sports to include tennis, rowing, yachting, outdoor swimming and diving, a children's Day Camp, rugby, soccer, croquet and lacrosse.

The Club offers many sports, including rowing

Sport rowing

Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

, wrestling

Amateur wrestling

Amateur wrestling is the most widespread form of sport wrestling. There are two international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games under the supervision of FILA : Greco-Roman and freestyle. Freestyle is possibly derived from the English Lancashire style...

, boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

, judo

Judo

is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...

, fencing, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

, soccer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

, tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, handball

American handball

American handball is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against a wall using their hands.- History :...

, squash

Squash (sport)

Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...

, snooker

Snooker

Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

, lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

 and at least a dozen others not listed here.

Geographic location

The New York Athletic Club on Travers Island is located at 40°53′05"N 73°47′21"W.

Mercury Cup Series

The NYAC's Mercury Cup series is the premier regional fencing event in North America. The series includes a number of épée and sabre

Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...

 tournaments, ending each season with the famous '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.

The Mercury Cup has proven successful due to the club's prestige, corporate sponsorship, and the event's extraordinarily high-level of competition.

Mercury Cup Champions

Season	Épée	Sabre
2005–2006	Alexander Abend
2006–2007	Alexander Abend
2007–2008	Alexander Abend	Sergey Isayenko
2008–2009	Jon Normile	Ben Igoe

Individual Event Champions

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

Soren Thompson

Soren Thompson is an American right-handed epee fencer.Thompson attended Torrey Pines High School and Princeton University .-Fencing career:...

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

Other notable events

In November 2003, the club was the site of a four game chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 match between Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 and the computer program X3D Fritz

X3D Fritz

X3D Fritz was a version of the Fritz chess program, which in November 2003 played a four-game Human-computer chess match against world number one Grandmaster Garry Kasparov...

. In November 2005, the Saturday morning program, the children's program run by the club gathered nearly $17,000 dollars for the Ronald McDonald House run, an event which the program has participated in for several years.

Teams

The NYAC currently fields 22 different teams for the following sports:

• Basketball
• Boxing
• Cycling
• Fencing
• Gymnastics
• Handball
• Judo
• Lacrosse
• Platform Tennis
• Rowing
• Rugby
• Running
• Soccer (Men's • Women's)
• Squash
• Swimming
• Table Tennis
• Team Handball
• Tennis
• Track and Field
• Triathlon
• Water Polo
• Wrestling

External links

• The New York Athletic Club (official website)