I wrote a letter to a derby-ignorant British friend this morning describing the history of the sport. I’m sure it reflects a few biases I have, but I think it’s correct for the most part. So if you don’t know much about derby and are curious (i.e., “what the hell is Stacey constantly prattling on about and why should I care?”), read on:

Program from a 1935 Transcontinental Roller Derby competition

Roller derby was an unmistakably American “sport” that first grew to popularity during the Great Depression when folks were hard up for entertainment: it began as an offshoot of “dance marathons,” but in this case groups of men and women would rollerskate endlessly on a banked track until 16-odd hours later when the one who had not dropped from exhaustion was declared the winner.

Players from derby’s first wave–check out the kneepads sewn into the tights!

Gradually more structure was added and roller derby became a sport in which two teams faced each other (again on the banked masonite track): one racer, or “jammer,” from each team entered a rolling “pack” made up of 8 “blockers,” four from each team, whose goal it was to stop the “jammers” from advancing and scoring points, one for each opposing “blocker” they passed. These “blocks” could take the form of hits, jabs, trips, pushes, tackles, or hurling one’s opponent over the track rails. There were mens’ squads and womens’ squads and although the men’s game was usualy more brutal, the women’s became more popular with the dawn of the television era: viewers loved to see tough broads in tight outfits beat each other up.

Joanie Weston and Ann Calvello, two legends from the height of roller derby’s popularity

Roller derby was a television entertainment that satisfied the same lower-middle-class demographic that would come to love professional wrestling in later years, and soon the sport developed players with similarly outsized personalities, and the on-the-track antics devolved into an amalgam that was more showmanship than sport, with pre-planned fights and crashes.

Viki Steppe dumps Judi Mcguire in 1973

Eventually television time became more expensive and American tastes moved on, and the investors (from the sport’s beginnings, mainly a father and son named Seltzer) pulled out the money and tackled other ventures. The players, who were part of a “stable” who not only played the games, but moved the equipment from venue to venue, constructed the track, and slept
in dormitories, were left with broken bodies and few options for livelihoods, and many met rather depressing ends.

Hot chix in froot boots=Rollerjam

Every few years, someone somewhere would attempt to revive the sport (one version featured a pit of alligators in the center track; another, briefly broadcast on cable’s TNN, put skaters resembling Hooters waitresses in neon spandex and on rollerblades) but these revivals were always short-lived, due mainly to the short-lived interest of the investors.

Sister Mary Jane of the TXRD “cuts through the pack like a hot knife through butter,” in a bout filmed for the Rollergirls cable tv show

The latest revival of roller derby began in Austin TX several years ago and has grown to include hundreds of leagues in the US, Canada, Mexico, and even a new one in London. There are several key differences that distinguish modern roller derby from its historic counterpart(s), the main one being a “punk rock” “DIY” ethos that encompasses not only the looks of most of the players (dyed hair, fishnets, short skirts and spikes abound), but also, and most crucially, the business profile: the leagues are almost all owned by players and administered democratically; most operate with not-for-profit status, the money earned from bouts going back into funding the league itself and any extra receipts being donated to charity. Modern roller derby is played almost exclusively by women, all amateurs who may also referee or serve on various administrative committees (I am on my league’s Creative committee). The set up is kept as do-it-yourself as possible, because we are all aware that as soon as some investor wrests control from the skaters, the new roller derby will end just as abruptly as old-school derby did.

Another difference is in the track: only two leagues (Austin and Los Angeles) use the classic banked track, which is expensive to build and hard to move. All others play flat-track roller derby, which allows them to hold their bouts in venues ranging from roller rinks, to basketball gyms, to outdoor skate parks. This keeps overhead low. An umbrella organization, the WFTDA (Womens Flat Track Derby Association) has formed to promote interleague bouting and rules standardization, and to help new leagues get their footing. One thing that has stayed the same is that we skate on old-style roller skates, not rollerblades. And we still knock the hell out of each other.

Mad Rollin’ Dolls motivational sentiment

My team, WCR’s Double Crossers, take home the 2007 Ivy King Cup

This entry was posted on Friday, August 18th, 2006 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Derby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.