Alice Hoagland, the mother of gay 9/11 hero and rugby player Mark Bingham, died last month at the age of 71 but the news of her death broke this week.
The AP reports: “Hoagland, a former flight attendant who became a safety activist while carrying on her son's athletic legacy, died Dec. 22 in her sleep at her home in Los Gallos, California, after battling Addison's disease, according to longtime family friend Amanda Mark. International Gay Rugby – an organisational that traces its roots to one team in London in 1995 and now consists of about 90 clubs in more than 20 countries (including New Zealand) on five continents – held Hoagland in such esteem that one of the prizes at its biennial Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament, or the Bingham Cup, is called the Hoagland Cup.”
The San Francisco Fog rugby football club posted a message on Facebook: “It is with great sadness and shock that we share the news that Mark Bingham's mother, Alice Hoagland, passed away on Dec 22, 2020 after an illness. Her family was private about this, and there was no formal funeral ceremony. Word escape us now, but Alice has always been a very important member of the Fog. Not only was she a mom to Mark, but a rugby mom to so many of us on the Fog and in the entire IGR community.At every Bingham Cup, she made it a point to visit the Fog as we were her club no matter how big the festivities or how many IGR clubs were there. She is now with Mark in heaven.”
