The Newcastle Falcons (formerly Gosforth FC/Newcastle Gosforth until 1996) is an English rugby union team that has recently returned to the English Premiership as of 29 May 2013 after a season in the RFU Championship. The club was established in 1877 and played under the name of Gosforth Football Club until 1990. The name was then changed to Newcastle Gosforth and the club began to play at Kingston Park stadium in Kingston Park, Newcastle upon Tyne. At the start of the professional era the club adopted its current name of Newcastle Falcons.
The Falcons is currently the only professional rugby club in north east England, with one Premiership and four domestic cups to their name. It also boasted a number of home-grown internationals including Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Noon, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood, Dave Wilson, Geoff Parling, Phil Dowson, Lee Dickson and Kieran Brookes.
The original Gosforth Football Club was founded in 1877 by a group of Old Boys of Durham School, in whose colours of green and white hoops the club played until the mid-1990s. The name Gosforth came from one of the suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1955, the club moved to a new ground at North Road which was to be its home until 1990. During that time and particularly in the late 1970s Gosforth enjoyed tremendous success both on and off the field winning the John Player Cup in seasons 1975/76 and 76/77.
Newcastle Falcons is a defunct basketball team that competed in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL). Based in Newcastle, New South Wales, the team played in the NBL's inaugural season in 1979 but left the league in the late 1990s after new owners based in Albury couldn't resolve the club's ongoing financial problems.
The Falcons hold a special place in the history of league. The club was responsible for the formation of the league, and were the organisers. The other clubs had to pay a fee of around $300 to the Falcons to participate in that first season. The city is regarded as the birthplace of the NBL.
The club's original colours were green and white, being the city's colours, but the club soon changed to black and red, and to red and blue, after the Newcastle Knights' admission to the New South Wales Rugby League. All the national league clubs in Newcastle took on red and blue as their colours at some stage in their existence.
In 1992, the club moved from its original home stadium at the Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium to the new Newcastle Entertainment Centre. The club's downfall began in the mid-1990s when problems with sponsor Topper befell them and the National Soccer League's Newcastle Breakers. Even with the support of new sponsor EnergyAustralia and new owners, the club couldn't get itself out of trouble, and left the league in the late 1990s.