Roller Derby's History - With the Bombers

Roller Derby first appeared as a marathon in Chicago, 1935, invented and promoted by Leo Seltzer.

Men and women skaters simulated a cross-country marathon race by circling thousands of times on a banked surface. The contestants competed against time like the monster marathon dance competitions of the 1930's.

Whirring in endless ovals, resting in the infield, depleted players collapsed from fatigue. A Doctor and nurse monitored contestants health. Winners of the grueling race won fictitious prizes. Some roller marathon events weathered for months to completion. Marathon skaters and staff were paid to work full-time for the new fangled attraction. For the millions of depression-era jobless, derby was a life saver offering work, food and shelter.

Following the 1935 derby debut, the transcontinental roller marathon rambled "on the road" holing up in cities, constructing a bulky track and racing for weeks at a time. Like a traveling carnival, the track was dismantled and the entire outfit embarked to the next town. Players were fed and slept in quarters like coveted pedigree horses. Everyone built faithful ties; becoming an intense culture of brothers and sisters bound together by a deep passion for skating roller derby.

The spectacle accommodated a touch of vaudeville and escapism for the audiences in desperate financial times and a close-knit home for the players like a second family.

After two years, the marathon contest undertook an overhaul into a team sport; with two co-ed teams of five skaters circling the banks in a pack, each team sent out an offensive "jammer" who rounded the field and lapped opponents; scoring a point. Teams consisted of alternating women's and men's squads accumulating points into a final winning score. Roller Derby was proclaimed the first team sport where women played to the same rules as men. The monster sized track had high forty-five degree banks with kick and guard rails to protect the players.

The 1940's and 50s

By the mid 1940s, roller derby games became fashionable. Skaters traveled extensively bringing the family bond closer. Some players dated, found love and married one another taking the derby-family to another level of intensity.

Roller Derby encountered live television in late 1946 and in 1948 a live NY game telecast generated an overnight sensation that sold out the arena the very next day. Roller Derby soared. Television birthed the derby's first exposure to national fame; initiating a long love affair between derby and Television audiences. Along came the pop-term Roller Derby star. Players developed followings; adulation rocketed, six teams and two skating units barnstormed the Nation.

Throngs of fans attend live games in the 1950s. The traveling Derby troupes canvassed America, renting arena's, Armories and outdoor stadiums. A single live bout brought in 20 thousand middle class followers and more. Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Monroe made a derby movie titled the Fireball. Live TV over-saturated the sport dwindling it's popularity.

Baby Boomers Derby - 1960 to 1972

In the 1960's, San Francisco became the "hotbed" for roller derby when Leo's son Jerry took over the helm of the Derby. The players improvised bone-crushing body contact; incorporating Football-like strategies. Most high impact games featured the Bay Bombers, America's favorite team. Women players aggressive maneuvers became role models representing high paying careers for independent women.

By lowering the tracks' banks and sizing down to a basketball court capacity; Roller Derby qualified for demanding one night stands. The globe trotting adventures dispatched the game to exotic international venues. Back in the Bay Area, live games sold out big sports buildings like Sacramento Auditorium, San Jose Civic, Oakland Arena, Stockton Auditorium and San Francisco Cow Palace. Games played a stringent five times a week schedule. Local newspapers reported league standings. San Francisco's historic Kezar Pavilion was the Sunday afternoon TV home for the Bombers in the burgeoning Hippie culture's Haight and Ashbury district.

The Bombers live telecasts blanketed Bay Area televisions. Video syndication aired the game-tapes to over 120 cities across America. Full time wandering units performed exhibitions in hundreds of sports halls across America. Roller Derby's syndicated TV shows garnered immense popularity from 1960 to 1973. Skaters became household names; including Joan Weston, Charlie O'Connell and Ann Calvello. The sport reached major league status.

1973 Roller Derby Closes

The sport fired on all pistons. Then like a sudden jolt, Roller Derby left Television screens and closed all operations. Startling everyone, Roller Derby went bankrupt. For the first time in decades, deserted skaters and staff were jobless and instead of racing to pass an opponent skater, they raced to unemployment lines. Skaters struggled with few work skills but skating to fall back on.

In the Los Angeles area competing leagues NSD and RGI, Roller Games flourished using the same derby-business model as in Northern California. Southern California TV featured the T-Birds. The Los Angeles Thunderbirds are another of the most popular and well known teams in Derby's history. The legendary team was founded in 1960 by Herb Roberts and later acquired by Bill Griffiths and Jerry Hill in late 1961. Within a few years, the T-Birds popularity rivaled that of the other major sports teams in Los Angeles. Roller Games remained as such until Sept 1974 when National Skating Derby ended. In 1989, David Sams brought back a Rock and Rollergames TV show. Roller Games closed doors in 1975. All TV Derby was dead.

For millions Roller Derby ceased to exist, but in 1974 the first of many part-time leagues was organized by the skaters. Some leagues and teams maintained limited TV markets like David Lipshultz's IRSL; who in 1975 transformed the sport into a skater-paid weekend attraction that marched forward another eleven years. Players could work in nine to five jobs while bashing heads Roller Derby on weekends and vacations.

For David Lipshultz's IRSL, the big crowds followed his Bombers. David employed famous skaters from derby's history and his games appeared on a hand full of local TV networks, reaching a few million new viewers.

In 1989 another league appeared on 10-weeks of TV called the World Roller Federation (WRF) bringing together Roller Games and Roller Derby players as a historical first. WRF distributed their fast action derby tapes to select UHF stations in Cincinnati, Dallas, Florida and other cities.

At this same time a touring league, the ARSD, an outgrowth from Joan Weston's Hayward California training center. The ARSD, lead by Weston, Tim Patten, Deloris Holmes, Ken Prince and Dee Dee Medina, skating charity events around Northern California for over four years. The name of the event was coined; Rollerjam! Tim Patten also registered the Bay City Bombers in 1988.

Roller Derby appeared to dissolve into oblivion ... BUT ... it thrived in California supported by loyal fans and skaters.

The Rollerjam TV Revival

After Joan Weston passed in 1997, an inspired TV producer, Stephen Land, raised ten million dollars to launch the biggest production of his TV career. He called his new show RollerJam and styled it as a modern inline version of Seltzer's original Roller Derby. It became professional wrestling on skates and appeared weekly on the TNN network (now SpikeTV)

The RollerJam mark was sold by Tim Patten to CBS/TNN for a sizable sum. The weekly RollerJam TV show ran successfully for two years in America; reaching the highest viewed audience in the networks history. After the run, the show was syndicated to seventeen foreign countries. In 2006 the show was sold to United Kingdom, re-edited where it aired every week.

Enter the Rollergirls

Early 2001, the sport roared full speed ahead when another rebirth was ignited; notability decentralized flat track girl leagues.

In 2001, the SHE-CEO pioneers; a rowdy group of Austin women visited this web site (Bay City Bombers) and read the rules to the game and innovated a roller rink version. The first game was a skating party. the Austin girls envisioned a kitsch rock and theater show that over time, migrated into more of a sport. Austin unleashed a roller derby revolution and the Bay City Bombers assisted with business advice and a banked track for one Austin league.

The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) formed in 2004, consisted of a handful of flat track roller derby leagues, each owned and operated by skaters who share the singular, driving compulsion to re-imagine roller derby as a sport. The organization has expanded since it's humble 2004 beginnings.

WFTDA is a cooperative effort to advance women’s flat track roller derby worldwide; providing guidance, regulations, sisterhood, and opportunities to compete legitimately with rink-roller derby athletes country-wide. WFTDA is a big success; organizing inter-league bouts, regional, National meets and conventions.

The Current Roller Derby Scene

Today, Roller Derby is played by professional and amateur skaters under an intensifying scene. Derby Athletes reach higher and further than ever before. The professional teams, the BOMBERS from the ARSD and ARDL, have competed on the banked track since 1995. Amateur leagues are volunteers who skate roller rink style and pay dues to fund their sports activities.

Hundreds of amateur, many all-girl leagues and teams are active at local roller rinks and associate with cooperatives like WFTDA/OSDA. Some leagues operate on their own. Skaters practice and bout on teams while the rules and style of play broadens. Roller Derby has become big league.