The Delaware Valley Mantarays were a semi-professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

football team based in the Delaware Valley area of the U.S. state of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The team played for seven seasons in the

American National Rugby League The American National Rugby League (AMNRL) was a rugby league organization in the United States that operated from 1997 to 2014. The country's first domestic rugby league competition, it hosted an annual league from 1998 through 2013. Throughout it ...

(AMNRL) from 2000–2006. At the conclusion of the 2006 season they merged with another AMNRL team in the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

area, the

Philadelphia Fight The Philadelphia Fight are a semi professional rugby league team based in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area. They currently compete in the USA Rugby League, having formerly competed in the now defunct American National Rugby Le ...

. The team was organized in 2000 and joined the AMNRL the following season. Originally known as the Media Mantarays, they were initially based in the

suburb of

Media, Pennsylvania Media is a borough in and the county seat of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It is located about west of Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation with 1.6 million residents as 2020. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolita ...

. In 2004 they relocated to nearby

Ridley Park, Pennsylvania Ridley Park is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 7,002 at the 2010 census. Ridley Park is the home of The Boeing Company's CH-47 Chinook helicopter division. History Native American The Lenape inhabited the Del ...

, adopting the name Delaware Valley Mantarays. After the 2006 season the Mantarays and the Philadelphia Fight announced the two clubs would merge in order to build a more competitive team for the future.

History

The team, then known as the Media Mantarays, was organized in 2000. They started play in the newly organized

(AMNRL) the following year, replacing the Pennsylvania Raiders, another Philadelphia-based team that did not make the transition from the United States Rugby League. The team was based in the suburb of

, and had an affiliation with the Media Rugby Football Club, a local

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club. Like the other clubs, in 2001 they started a team partnership with a club from Australia's

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

(NRL), in this case the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and their ...

. With their members drawn from Media RFC, the team found some success on the field. In 2001 they played for the AMNRL championship, ultimately losing to the Glen Mills Bulls; this would be the club's only championship game. For the 2004 season they relocated to nearby

Ridley Park Ridley Park is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 7,002 at the 2010 census. Ridley Park is the home of The Boeing Company's CH-47 Chinook helicopter division. History Native American The Lenape inhabited the Dela ...

to play at Catania Park, and changed their name to the Delaware Valley Mantarays after the Delaware Valley, the area surrounding Philadelphia. After the conclusion of the 2006 season, the Mantarays and the

announced they would be merging to establish a more competitive club the following year. In 2015, a new Delaware club, the Delaware Black Foxes, were formed as an expansion team for the

USA Rugby League The USA Rugby League (USARL) is the official governing body for rugby league, a code of rugby football, in the United States. The organization also runs the national amateur competition for club teams in the US. The league consists of six te ...

Uniform and colors

For their 2000

season in 2000 the club adopted the colors of Media Rugby Football Club (white, gold and blue) but the uniforms were predominantly white and similar in style to the

side the Parramatta Eels, with whom the club had an affiliate partnership.

Honors

* AMNRL Championship titles: 0 ::

References

External links

;Official websites
Delaware Valley Mantarays at Amnrl.com

Media Rugby Football Club
{{Defunct Philadelphia sports teams American National Rugby League teams Defunct rugby league teams in the United States Rugby clubs established in 2000 Defunct sports teams in Pennsylvania Rugby league in Pennsylvania 2000 establishments in Pennsylvania 2006 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Sports clubs disestablished in 2006 Delaware County, Pennsylvania

History

Uniform and colors

Honors

See also

References

External links