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What is the History of Roller Derby?
Roller derby's history dates back to 1884 when interest in organized speed skating races coincided with the growing popularity of roller skating. Over the last three centuries, the sport has seen various transformations, evolving from multi-day endurance races for entertainment to rowdy team competitions that attract top-notch athletes. While roller derby has experienced its fair share of challenges and successes, recent media exposure has propelled it to unprecedented popularity.
In 1934, film publicist Leo Seltzer capitalized on the renewed interest in roller skating by combining it with the excitement of six-day bicycling races, giving rise to the Transcontinental Roller Derby. This unique event simulated a cross-country skating race with 25 male/female (two-person) teams skating around a wooden oval track for a month. Team members skated an impressive 11.5 hours a day, covering a distance of 3,000 miles. The first official derby had nine teams successfully finish the grueling competition.
Following the initial success, roller derby hit the road, touring the US with a portable track. In the late 1930s, the sport became more physical as players were encouraged to use elbows, pushes, and dramatic falls for crowd entertainment. The length of races gradually shortened, leading to the emergence of a two-team concept with five players on each side. These teams would skate together for 15-minute periods, earning points when they lapped others, a scoring system still used in present-day roller derby events.
World War II interrupted the sport's growth as many athletes enlisted, but after the war in 1945, Seltzer successfully revived roller derby. The sport's television debut in 1948 marked a turning point, attracting larger crowds and creating overnight stars like Ken Monte, Bert Wall, and Midge "Toughie" Brashun. The 1949-1950 season saw the establishment of the National Roller Derby League, although the sport and players have always faced skepticism from some fans about its authenticity and entertainment value.
In the 1960s, roller derby introduced changes such as mandatory helmets and player highlights on TV. The creation of the Roller Games, a more comical theatrical race, provided competition to the NRD. Despite attempts to appeal to a wider audience, the sport experienced a decline in attendance during this period.
The sport had its ups and downs until 1999 when Spike TV produced "Roller Jam," a show that shed light on roller derby and reignited interest. The revival of roller derby in 2000 started in Austin, TX, and has since grown to over 135 leagues by 2006. Roller derby has become a global phenomenon, attracting a wide television audience with its thrilling live events filled with drama, roughhousing, and memorable characters.
As history has shown, roller derby's journey has been a roller coaster, and it is likely to continue evolving with new surprises in the future. The sport constantly adapts to modern trends, ensuring that participants have access to the best equipment for an exhilarating experience on the track.
The above column of old photos provided by Life.com
What are some tropes commonly seen in Roller Derby?
Tropes are recurring themes, motifs, or conventions in storytelling, literature, film, television, and other forms of media. They are recognizable and familiar narrative devices or figures of speech that often carry specific meanings or evoke particular emotions. Tropes can be character archetypes, plot devices, settings, or even phrases that have been used repeatedly across various works.
Action Mom: ANY mom who plays roller derby.
Artistic License – Sports: Almost inevitably, in works about the sport not written by skaters. In order of greatest frequency: Fighting is an expulsion, repeated fighting will result in your being asked to leave the league. Elbows are illegal. No, it's not scripted. In flat track roller derby, the track is the floor - that's the whole point of flat track derby. The maximum number of points on a legal scoring pass is 4. And no, there's no ball.
Awesome, but Impractical: Banked track roller derby is faster-paced than flat track, has a more wide-open play style and generally closer scores. But the track is very large and heavy, expensive to maintain, and takes a lot of space both to store and when brought out for practices or games (an entire flat track, including the outside safety lane, can fit within the infield of a banked roller derby track). There is a reason why flat track derby became the dominant form of the sport.
Boring, but Practical: The four-wall and its younger sibling, the braced wall and box formations. A jammer can spend so long grinding against a well-disciplined wall that by the time she breaks free there's not enough time left in the jam for a scoring pass.
Cool Old Guy: Jerry Seltzer, the second owner/commissioner of Roller Derby (and the son of the inventor of the sport), who blogs about his experiences in the game at rollerderbyjesus.com.
Crossover: In many larger areas, a roller derby league has anywhere from 3 to 6 (most commonly 4) "home teams," which pool their skaters for an All-Star Team which is their primary travel team which competes with teams from other areas for WFTDA ranking. Some leagues, additionally, have a "B Team" which serves both as an intermediate talent pool for the All-Stars and travels and plays in its own right.
Also, "crossover" is the name of an important basic skating skill without which it's more-or-less impossible to skate on the level that roller derby play requires.
Deadpan Snarker: VERY common, both among announcers and players.
Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Every piece of a skater's equipment is chosen for a balance of speed, agility, strength and protection. Most skaters have built at least one set of skates themselves.
Early-Installment Weirdness: The early Transcontinental Roller Derby was extremely different from the form the game would eventually take on. Male-female teams of two skaters would enter, and skate until a member fell down on the track. Hitting was forbidden and skaters would simply skate as long as possible. The word "Transcontinental" referred to the length of the race, 3000 statute miles (the distance, roughly, from New York City to Los Angeles). The rules that would eventually come to define roller derby (two teams with five players each on the track at a time, with one player on the team competing to lap the pack and score points) would evolve in the late 1930s when Americans became bored with the spectacle of simply seeing people skate for a very long time.
Fan Nickname: The sport is sometimes called "Derbs" by fans. This is also a nickname ("dank herbs") for good marijuana. Take of that what you will...
Friendly Enemy: Leagues are close-knit and friendly. The woman you just knocked into the Suicide Seats might be your best friend in the whole world (or at least the whole league).
Good Costume Switch: When your favorite skater switches to your favorite league or team.
Insistent Terminology: Many skaters, despite changes in official terminology in 2014, continue to determinedly refer to a roller derby match as a "bout" rather than a "game."
Also the insistence of using "skater" rather than "player" for a person who plays roller derby. Which becomes slightly confusing considering that referees are also, in the strictest sense, skaters.
Kayfabe: In the TV era, roller derby had complex storylines and "face" and "heel" teams similar to those seen in Professional Wrestling. Today these have gone by the wayside, but Derby Names and a general punky, DIY look to skating garb is common.
Large Ham: An essential trope for derby announcers.
Lightning Bruiser: A large number of taller skaters can be this - they can hit hard and long legs equal great speed on the track.
Mascot: Some leagues have them, many leagues don't. Gnarly the Narwhal (North Star Roller Girls) and Minnie Sorta-Nice (Minnesota RollerGirls) are two examples.
Mirror Match: A bout between two leagues with very similar play styles will look a lot like this, especially if they're teams that have swapped players in the past. Examples include Victorian Roller Derby League vs. Rose City Rollers, or Minnesota Roller Girls vs. Arch Rival Roller Derby.
Of Corsets Sexy: A common costume element before the "serious athletes" era of the derby revival (2010-present). Seldom tightened because an athlete needs to breathe...
Older Than TV: Roller derby was in fact one of the first sports to be televised.
Out-of-Genre Experience: The halftime show. An artifact of derby's entertainment origins and still a mainstay of the sport. Many roller derby leagues feature a rock concert or dance party as entertainment at the halfway point of the game.
Pintsized Powerhouse: Many (most) smaller skaters are this.
Punny Name: VERY common in derby.
Serious Business: Roller Derby IS NOT played on rollerblades and (the brief presence of Rollerjam aside) it never will be. Don't ask.
Many people's choices of equipment can verge on this, especially the ongoing (and somewhat open-ended) question of 10 vs. 45 degree trucks. Also, the question of skateboard-style helmets (like the Triple 8 Brainsaver or S-ONE Lifer) vs. hockey helmets. Expect any given skater to have strong and detailed opinions about her gear and why she has what she has.
Shout-Out: Most derby names that are not simply puns are this.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/RollerDerby
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