photo by Nina Rich

Plucky Girls Spark Roller Derby Revival

Roller Derby was a staple of the early television era and was similar in its promotional format to its better known "sports entertainment" cousin, professional wrestling. It was frequently seen in the same bad timeslots on the same low powered UHF TV stations, and it was run by the same loose confederation of Runyanesque promoters and businessmen that characterised the regional territory era of pro wrestling. While I've always been fascinated with the history of professional wrestling, I never really got that nostalgic about "old school" roller derby. There was obviously a serious athletic component to it, but the "angles" and storylines surrounding roller derby made pro wrestling seem like Ibsen by comparison. I've got some familiarity with the history of Roller Derby--I knew that the LA T-Birds were the perennial champions of the era I watched, and I knew that Ann Calvello and Ralphie Valladares had been in the sport forever and were considered legends--it never really stuck in my consciousness like the pre-Hulk Hogan era of pro wrestling.

I never gave roller derby much thought until I caught the A&E reality TV series "Rollergirls". It featured a local, all-girl roller derby league in Austin, Texas and followed the lives of the players on and off the track. While the show was oddly engaging, what really fascinated me was the very existence of such a league in the first place. A sport that was never taken seriously to begin with and that was really living on borrowed time since the 1960's before fading into the lowest level of obscurity had been rediscovered and embraced by an eclectic group of young women. They had kept the same essential format, thrown in a healthy dose of burlesque camp and Varga pin-up inspired glamour and made it into their own vibrant subculture. They changed some of the nomenclature and competitive format--in lieu of regularly scheduled games they renamed the competitions "bouts" a la MMA or boxing. The result was a compelling mixture of glamour, toughness and athleticism driven by a healthy dose of punk rock "do it yourself" mentality.

Eventually, I decided to do a little research on the subject and Googled "roller derby". To my amazement, the same sort of league featured on "Rollergirls" had become a full blown cultural phenomenon. There are now literally dozens of local "roller girl" leagues in the US, many under the auspices of a national organization called the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. Las Vegas has the "Sin City Rollergirls", Portland the "Rose City Rollers" and Seattle the "Rat City Rollergirls". There are now groups in not only the larger and traditionally "hipper" cities but also smaller flyover country environs such as Birmingham, Alabama and Omaha, Nebraska. Most of the local groups similarly play up the campy retro pin-up/hot rod iconography and everyone involved sure looks like they're having a good time. Between teams there's a vibe of good natured competitiveness and camaraderie.

This organic rebirth and growth of roller derby is one of the cooler things I've seen in awhile. These young women have taken what essentially was TV time filler and made it into their own distaff 'action sport'. The community that has sprung up around it bears a striking resemblance to the skateboarding or snowboarding subculture. Granted, there are plenty of talented female skateboarders and snowboarders but they're typically male dominated disciplines. The roller derby circa 2K7 is just the opposite--a living, breathing matriarchal success story. No one is in it for the money, as these local groups are typically run as non-profit organization. The women involved have recreated this sport, and run it, promote it and compete in it on their own terms.

The new generation rollergirls also pay homage to their sports' pioneers much in the same way that skateboarders give props to Duane Peters and Tony Alva. Many of the individual group websites have sections devoted to the history of roller derby, and the late Ann Calvello--regarded as the Queen of the original Roller Derby--is revered as something of a patron saint. The Texas Rollergirl group featured in the A&E series has renamed their championship the Calvello Cup, for example.

Unfortunately, this isn't a mutual admiration society, as I was surprised to learn as my researched turned to some of the roller derby nostalgia sites. That there was a roller derby nostalgia subculture wasn't surprising, though its much smaller than the online community devoted to pro wrestling history. What surprised me was the enmity and bitterness expressed toward the entire "rollergirl" phenomenon. You'd think that they'd be pleased that a younger generation had embraced their sport and that it was spreading like wildfire. That they were doing this not to make money but for the love of the game and the spirit of community and competition should make it all the more heartwarming for the roller derby nostalgics. Guess again--the tone toward the new breed rollergirls expressed on many of the "nostalgia" sites is one of bitterness and enmity.

By all accounts the aforementioned Calvello thought that the resurgence of interest sparked by the "rollergirl" phenomenon was pretty cool. Her view is apparently the minority opinion of "old school" roller derby fans. Check out this nasty diatribe from one roller derby site:

"OUR VIEW ON ROLLERGIRLS - Sorry girls! While we love all you Rollergirls to death for starting leagues and playing a sport, this page is for the grand old traditional sport of banked track Roller Derby with men's and women's mixed teams and traditional rules...not flat track or Rollergirls banked track with silly names, slutty costumes, "bouts" and massive rule changes. Rollergirls is no more Roller Derby than a sport with five bases, six outfielders and a square ball could be called baseball"

There's a lot of anger and bitterness in that little statement--from the sound of it the writer's gripe is more that many of the girls who participate in the sport are, for lack of a better term, alternative types. There's not much logic in the writer's "anti-rollergirl" sentiment, but harboring that much resentment that your "sport" has evolved and changed is pretty sad. It's like a skateboard nostalgia site suggesting that we need to quit watching Tony Hawk blast 900's on the half pipe and get back to good old fashioned slalom competitions. This sites' venomous hatred of the new era roller derby borders on the pathological, even going so far as to sell t shirts that read "I (heart) REAL Roller Derby (emphasis added). Ironically enough, the guy behind this site never competed in roller derby as he details his first effort to hit the bank track after 30 years of following the sport. Perhaps some of his disdain comes from the fact that these young women have the guts to participate in the sport in the first place, where he presumably didn't.

And consider these takes from a nostalgia posting forum that another roller derby site considered...uh..."insightful" enough to reprint on his own. The misspellings and rants of lunacy are the writers' own which I left uncorrected:

"What is happening to ROLLER DERBY? What is happening to one of Americas greatest sports/games? What is happening to those individuals who continuously disgrace a sport that has so much meaning to many of us? I really don't know, but What I do know is that I must separate myself from what is not ROLLER DERBY. I also must continue to support and love everything that is truly ROLLER DERBY. What is and what isn't ROLLER DERBY? To me, ROLLER DERBY is the greatest American sport played by both sexes without bending the rules. Men and women on equal terms skating seperate periods and providing action unseen in any other sport. It is an unforgetable adventure full of action, spills and thrills".

At this point the writer goes into a *poem* entitled "Life, Time and Precious Moments" and somehow ties it in with roller derby. I'm not kidding. I wish I was, but I'm not. The words "roller derby" are actually in the poem. As a student of Literature I have too much respect for serious poets to reprint it here. The rant continues and, again, I've left the grammatical errors uncorrected including the improper capitalization of WEB:

"What is nor ROLLER DERBY? Five months ago I venture into the world wide WEB. The internet guided me into the world of ROLLER DERBY groups. Although I found some excellent Roller Derby sites, I also found sits that were more distructive than contructive. What a disappointment, What a let down, What a disgrace. Those site are definitely not ROLLER DERBY but more like Jerry Springer. Some moderators are allowing a selective group of distructive individuals to destroy the unforgetable legacy that skaters and fans worked so hard to establish. It is so unfortunate but yet so true. I will say no more about the negativity because our goal must be to remain positive and set a good example. Hopefully, someday I may be able to introduce ROLLER DERBY To my grandchildren or will it be RISTRICTED or PG 13?"

This sounds frightfully like what inspired an earlier article debunking the myth that old school pro wrestling was somehow "pure". Honestly, I don't even know where to start with this. I will point out that the "unforgetable legacy" of the original roller derby was *completely forgotten* until the sports' recent revival. Other than that, I'll let this crazed rant speak for itself.

Hopefully the rollergirl phenomenon will continue to grow and prosper. Its hard to dislike anything that involves pretty girls and makes heavy use of vintage pin-up imagery for promotion. Support your local rollergirl team, and we may look into doing some sponsorships with various local rollergirl groups to promote the ProphetsPlace down the road.

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