SAN FRANCISCO—Bay Area native and 9-11 hero Mark Bingham was honored on Aug. 16, when the city dedicated a Castro gymnasium in his name. The court in the Eureka Valley Recreation Center where Bingham used to play basketball will now be known as the Mark Bingham Gymnasium. The vote to rename the gym, which has undergone extensive renovations, took place over a year ago.

Basketball was just one of the sports Bingham played. He helped the University of California-Berkeley to multiple rugby national championships, founded the San Francisco Fog, the Bay Area’s gay rugby team, and competed with San Francisco’s gay basketball and flag football groups.

The idea to honor Bingham was first brought to the city’s attention by Paul Holm, Bingham’s former partner of five years, and Annemarie Conroy, a former San Francisco supervisor who met her husband through Bingham and Holm. The pair wanted to pay tribute to Bingham in death in much the same way he lived his life.

When city officials first started discussing how they could memorialize Bingham, Mayor Willie Brown invited Bingham’s family to his office to talk about erecting a statue in his honor. Instead of creating a sculpture to resemble Bingham’s athletic 6-foot-5, 220-pound frame, the family opted to have the gym named in his honor.

“We really thought (renaming the gym) was the most appropriate thing the city could do because it combined Mark’s love of sports and because he lived in the Castro with me,” Holm said. “It’s where Mark’s heart was and (where he) got a lot of enjoyment. He met a lot of people from all walks of life there playing in different athletic events.”

Bingham was first and foremost a football and rugby player, but he often played in rec leagues at the gym and he was both a fierce and talented competitor in the sport. His competitive spirit was memorialized following the dedication with a basketball game played by some of Bingham’s old teammates.

Bingham became famous on Sept. 11, 2001, when he joined a small group of passengers on board United Flight 93 who foiled the terrorists who were believed to be targeting the Washington D.C. area. The plane instead crashed in a Pennsylvania field, killing all on board but no one on the ground.

Among the speakers at the gym dedication were San Francisco treasurer and mayoral candidate Susan Leal, Bingham’s mother, Alice Hoglan, Bingham’s former partner, Holm, and members of the Fog rugby team. The ceremony culminated with Hoglan and Holm unveiling the permanent plague above the gymnasium entrance.

“Today is a day of joy,” Hoglan said, “for coming together and celebrating the life of Mark.”

Leal agreed, adding that this was “a wonderful day for San Francisco.”

Hoglan was also presented with a California State Assembly Proclamation authored by San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno and the San Francisco Fog was presented with a $1,500 check for the Mark Bingham Leadership Fund.