The Reliance Athletic Club was an athletic club and gentlemen's club in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, United States. Founded in 1885, the organization grew rapidly as it added other sports and social activities, reaching its peak in the mid-1890s before financial troubles led to its bankruptcy and disestablishment in 1910.

History and activities

The club was founded as a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

club in 1885 in downtown Oakland. The club's focus was on developing physical fitness for its members in its gymnasium, including sports such as

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

and

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

. Football teams representing the club competed with other west coast athletic clubs, including the Olympic Club of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and the

Multnomah Athletic Club The Multnomah Athletic Club is a private social and athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. Located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood, it was originally founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club. It has expanded to fill ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, and also played college teams, most commonly those of Stanford and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. The club was one of several in the Bay Area that trained young boxers, and the club staged regular boxing events at its facilities. In 1905, the club organized and sponsored an outdoor

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

meet. In addition to sports, club members played billiards and card games and hosted social events to which women were also invited.

Growth

The club moved several times to various locations around Oakland as it grew. The club was incorporated in 1892 with a membership of 300, and by 1893, had 350 members and held a gala affair as it moved into a three-story building at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and 17th Street. The club remained in this facility into the first decade of the 20th century, but after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was forced to relocate to accommodate San Francisco businesses that moved to Oakland when their buildings were destroyed. The new location was renovated in early 1907, but by the summer of 1907, the club had moved again near the Piedmont Baths.

Demise and legacy

By 1910, the club had moved several more times but was apparently facing financial difficulties; in August 1910, a contractor sued the members for $2,300 owed to him. With no money in the treasury, the club declared bankruptcy and dissolved the organization. The building at 17th and San Pablo in which the club was at its peak was converted to the Reliance Theater in 1916. The theater was later known as the American Theater and finally the Esquire Theater. The building was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a

Mel's Drive-In Mel's Drive-In is a term referring to two American restaurant chains, successors of a restaurant founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. It is closely associated with the film ''American Graffiti''. Locations ...

References

{{Coord, 37.807288, -122.272441, type:landmark_region:US-CA, format=dms, display=title 1885 establishments in California 1910 disestablishments in California Athletics clubs in the United States Gentlemen's clubs in the United States Sports clubs and teams in Oakland, California Organizations based in Oakland, California