Red Knights International History

During the summer of 1982,[1] several firefighters met in "Randy's Cycle Shop" in Boylston Massachusetts ( USA ). They discussed the fact that police officers had established their own motorcycle club, the "Blue Knights", but there was still no motorcycle club for firefighters. During this discussion, business owner Randy Wilson said to Ed Wright, a firefighter from Northboro (Massachusetts), that he should stop talking about it and establish a motorcycle club. The idea excited Ed Wright and he went home and made some hand-made cards to invite fire fighters from the region. He planned to organize a meeting to determine whether there was enough interest to start a motorcycle club. On August 17, 1982, Fire Chief Jack Pierce allowed a small group of avid motorcycle riding firefighters to meet in the headquarters of the Fire Department for the purpose of starting a motorcycle club.

On October 19, 1982, firefighters Colin Mackey, Bob Bourassa, Ed Wright, Roger Wentzell, Dave Hamilton, Bob Goulet, David Hunt, Jon Tripp, Don Parker, Norm Beausoleil and Fire Chief Jack Pierce met again. It was decided that the club would be called the "Red Knights Motorcycle Club" and the first Chapter would be Massachusetts 1.

In July 1983, a Chapter was founded in Connecticut. In October of that year, a second chapter in Massachusetts was founded. Soon there were startups in remote locations, such as Nevada and Louisiana. In August 1983, the founding members realized that the organization had quickly exceeded their original expectations. To properly handle this growth they elected a board of directors, the "National Board of Directors" . With the founding of chapters in Ontario and Saskatchewan, the club was the renamed the "Red Knights International Firefighters Motorcycle Club".

There are now 350 chapters and over 9,500 members worldwide.