A Short History of the Sport
of Roller Derby Thank you to Ginger Snap,
Feistycrow Designs and the Gotham Girls
Roller Derby league for researching the first 70 years and sharing a lot of
other interesting info included here. 1932 Roller
Derby is created by Leo Seltzer on a napkin at Johnny
Ricketts in Chicago. He coined the term
to describe a long-term endurance race, inspired by the popularity of roller
skating and marrying it to the idea of dance-a-thons that were fashionable at the
time. 1935 First
Trans-continental Roller Derby is played in Chicago. Twenty-five 2-player pairs competed in the contest to
roller skate 3,000 miles, equal to the distance between San Diego and New York
City, around an oval track. Starting on
August 13, the teams raced to cover as much distance as they could each day in
11.5 hour shifts. On Sunday, September
22nd, Clarice Martin and Bernie McKay won the title, one of only nine teams to
finish the 39-day event. 1937 Sportswriter
Damon Runyon suggests more physical contact in a conversation with Leo
Seltzer - and roller derby begins its evolution into what we know today. 1937 Leo
Seltzer creates the International Roller Derby League (IRDL), known for the skaters'
pride in their skating and athletic ability.
Surviving, now-retired skaters insist to this day that the games were
competitive, but also that it was important to be showy to draw fans. 1937 Roller
Games was started as a competing outfit to Seltzer's IRDL. The Roller Games league was known for its antics, showmanship and
disproportionate theatrical violence. A
rivalry was born, that later culminated in a game played in the late 1960s. 1973 IRDL
holds its last official game. Transportation costs during the gas crisis of the 70's were
blamed for low attendance and the ultimate death of this first incarnation of
roller derby. 1977 David
Lipschultz forms the International Roller Skating League is formed, made up of
part-time skaters with day jobs, and folds in 1987. 1980s American
Skating Association, another league of part-time skaters, is born in the
mid-80s. 1984 Roller
Jam is created by Knoxville
television producer, Stephen Land.
In an attempt to capitalize on pro wrestling's popularity with TV
viewers, the co-ed game was re-worked to include a figure-8 track, a pit of
live alligators, and choreographed games performed by in-line skaters. This era was considered to be the Dark Age
of Roller Derby by most - but is also cited as an early source of inspiration
for many of the current generation of skaters, who saw Roller Jam when they
were impressionable young girls. Roller
Jam lasted for 2 years on TNN, which is now Spike TV. 2001 Bad
Girl Good Woman Productions (BGGW) is formed and creates the first all-girl
roller derby game of the new generation. Founders form four teams and, a year later, stage their first
bout during the summer of 2002 in Austin, Texas. Shortly after, the league later suffers a split over business plans. 2002 Texas
Rollergirls are formed from members of the first BGGW teams. The BGGW league (also known as the Lonestar Rollergirls or Texas
Roller Derby) go on to skate banked-track roller derby, while the new Texas
Rollergirls embrace the flat-track format. 2003 Ivanna
S. Pankin founds Arizona Roller Derby in July, and the league
holds its first competitive, flat-track exhibition bout in Tempe, Arizona in
November of 2003, with advice and support from the Texas Rollergirls and guest
skaters from the BGGW Lonestar Rollergirls.
More DIY all-female leagues are created by scrappy women in Los Angeles,
New York, Tucson and North Carolina in the late summer / early fall of 2003,
and the current generation of roller derby skaters start getting to know each
other and sharing notes. The New Renaissance
of Roller Derby is born - and the gospel spreads like wildfire thanks to the
internet and email. 2004 The
United Leagues Coalition (ULC) is created as an online message board
to help other flat-track leagues get started, and foster inter-league games
between established teams. Founders of leagues from Seattle to Philadelphia and
everywhere in between compare notes and begin training. 2004 The
first inter-league games of the new generation commence with an April challenge
issued from Tempe, Arizona to the Texas Rollergirls and accepted in November of
2004. Arizona Roller Derby hosts the
Texas skaters in Tempe on a Saturday, and Tucson Roller Derby hosts another
Texas Rollergirls team in Tucson the following Sunday. Two weeks later the three leagues go against
each other again in a double-header game in Austin. The legendary games are attended by a record-breaking number of
fans, including skaters representing more than 15 DIY all-girl leagues from
every corner of the country. 2005 United
Leagues Coalition is formalized. ULC representatives from over 20 leagues finally meet in person in
Chicago in July of 2005 in a historic, face-to-face conference to determine the
future of the organization as a governing body for all-girl, flat-track roller
derby - after over a year of working closely together online. The girls collaborate on a plan to develop a
cohesive sport with shared rules and requirements for game play. The meetings, led by members of founding
leagues and rookies from newly-formed leagues, result in a democratic voting
structure and a timeline for meeting specific goals to foster inter-league
bouting. Representatives begin
discussing an official name for the coalition - a discussion that persists to
this day. 2005 The
Sin City Rollergirls are founded in Las Vegas the very next weekend.
Arch-rival captains on the track, and business partners for AZRD
behind-the-scenes, Trish the Dish and Ivanna S. Pankin hand over management of
Arizona Roller Derby to the next generation of skaters, and move to Las Vegas
to speed planning of a convention for late summer. They start recruiting skaters for SCRG upon arrival in Vegas in
late July of 2005. 2005 RollerCon
'05, the first All-Girl Roller Derby convention, takes Las Vegas by storm in late August of 2005. More than 400 skaters from over 50 leagues
descend on Las Vegas. Flat- and
banked-track leagues are represented, including retired skaters from historic
teams of the 1950s and 60s. Even descendants of Leo Seltzer attend the
weekend-long party, which includes dinners, live bands, and a now-infamous
two-hour, multi-league scrimmage in 107-degree heat outdoors on Saturday at
noon. Flat- and banked-track skaters
find that in spite of their differences, they are equally susceptible to heat stroke.
Survivors practice the story they'll tell their grandchildren over drinks the
rest of the weekend. 2005 The
Sin City Rollergirls play their first game, an inter-league match
against Arizona Roller Derby's rookie team, the Smash Squad, on October 22nd of
2005, qualifying as a Division 2 league just in time to be invited to a planned
tournament in 2006. The SCRG Neander
Dolls win by over 20 points, and create an aggressive season schedule unlike
any seen by the new generation of skaters, most of whom play once at month at
the most. SCRG schedules free games for
nearly every weekend, and issues challenges to nearby leagues for public,
ticketed games once a month. The
Neander Dolls current schedule can be seen at http://sincityrollergirls.com/schedule.html. THE FUTURE 2006 The
Dust Devil Tucson International Tournament - the first tournament of
the all-girl, flat-track, skater-owned DIY leagues is scheduled for February
24th - 26th, 2006 and hosted by Tucson Roller Derby at Blade World in Tucson,
Arizona. Eighteen leagues, including
the Sin City Rollergirls, have registered for the tournament. Only one league will earn the title of best
in the country. Will it be the Neander
Dolls? INTERESTING FACTOIDS ABOUT ROLLER DERBY
Loretta "Lil' Iodine" Behrens Loretta
is a 5 foot tall, red-headed, loud-mouthed living legend and very close friend
of the Sin City Rollergirls. An
outspoken and formidable blocker in her day, she's now just as formidable among
the fan groups and "roller derby has-beens" (her affectionate name
for her generation of skaters) on the web.
She joins us regularly at practices and on the sideline during games,
skating with her walker and letting everyone know exactly what's on her
mind. Frankie Macedo Frankie captained many teams and
coached all over the world during the first generation of roller derby, then
finally retired in Las Vegas, to our delight.
He's an unofficial coach's advisor to our trainers and one of our
favorite male skaters of all times. Anne Calvello The "Demon of the Derby,"
Anne is a legendary roller derby villain who skated in seven decades of the
sport. With her multi-colored hair,
wild glasses and Leo-the-Lion uniform flare, screaming obscenities at the
crowd, she was the Dennis Rodman of the derby.
She was sometimes called "Banana Nose Calvello" because she
broke her nose so many times during games.
Charlie O'Connell One of the all-time stars
of the first generation of roller derby, Charlie played Pivot and was a
notorious ladies man on and off the track.
He had so many breaks in his arms that toward the end of his career,
doctors forced him to skate with braces, insisting he would be faced with loss
of movement if he broke them one more time. Mike Gammon Mike skated on the New York Chiefs
with his mother and father, Gene Gammon and Gerry Murray, then married another
skater, Judy McGuire. He helped the
Seltzers publicly rejuvenate derby many times. Joanie Weston "The Blonde Bomber" was
known as a kick-ass pivot, but she was more famous for her athleticism and
adorable pigtails. She's the subject of
an upcoming book by Andrew Epstein, a former skater and amateur roller derby
historian. Leo Seltzer Leo created roller derby and
founded the IRDL, and his family has been involved ever since. Oliver Seltzer Oliver is Leo's uncle; he
formed/owned the Roller Derby Skate Corporation. Jerry Seltzer Jerry is Leo's son - he took
over the IRDL for his dad in 1950. Roller Derby Mania Promo
film for the 1970s Bombers DERBY Slow
but interesting late 70s documentary about a super-fan desperate to join roller
derby Kansas City Bomber 70's
banked track masterpiece featuring Raquel Welch Unholy Rollers 70's
B-movie featuring the trials and tribulations of a short-tempered factory
worker-turned-roller-derby queen, played with maximum attitude by a Playboy
Bunny. The main character famously
sports the winged-skate-with-dagger tattoo that was drilled into countless
numbers of this generation of rollergirls during RollerCon '05. Demon of the Derby Relatively
recent documentary available online about Anne Calvello Lipstick and Dynamite 2005 documentary about women's pro wrestling with incidental
tie-ins to wrestlers who skated for roller derby teams. Highly recommended for an inside view on the
history of women's sports. GREAT BOOKS Five Strides
on the Banked Track
by Frank DeFord Roller Derby
to RollerJam - the Authorized Story of an Unauthorized Sport - by Keith Coppage |