So where did this derby madness come from? Some will remember
roller derby as a fast, mean, and sometimes over-dramatized sport,
on a banked oval track, that thrived in the 50's and 60's. Roller
derby began as a skating endurance competition decades earlier.
Male and female participants would skate all day, all night, and
sleep on cots in the center of the rink. Soon, promoters realized
that the draw for the audience was skater crashes that took place
during the competition. The lure of hard-hitting contact spurred
the creation of roller derby as a game, incorporating teams and
physical contact into the sport. After decades of popularity and
television exposure, roller derby fell victim to smarmy management,
greedy investors, outrageous production antics, and economic recession.
As the 1970's ended, so did the legacy of a once proud sport that
had graced arenas and living rooms across the United States.
The concept of flat-track roller derby was born in Austin, Texas,
in 2001. On the heels of the Texas Rollergirls, a few leagues
popped up sporadically across the southwest. In the summer of
2004, a couple of local girls founded the Mad Rollin' Dolls, and
brought flat-track roller derby to Madison, Wisconsin. These women
were attracted to the idea of a physical outlet that would allow
them to be brutally aggressive, yet gorgeous. Flat-track roller
derby had the potential to become a sport to inspire other women,
provide little girls with uncompromising role models, and delight
Madisonians with a unique blend of hard-hitting action and campy
entertainment. Mad Rollin' Dolls began bouting publicly in November,
2004, and began their first season in January, 2005.
Since the Mad Rollin' Dolls began skating, flat-track roller
derby has exploded. There are now over one hundred leagues in
North America; there are over 4000 registered skaters. In 2005,
the earliest leagues banded together to form the Women's Flat-Track
Derby Association, a sports association of independent leagues
working together to standardize the sport, and to assist new leagues.
Flat-track roller derby rejects outside management and investors;
the leagues are independently owned and run by the skaters themselves;
they are DIY public works projects controlled by the enthusiastic,
volunteer skaters. Tomorrow The future is clear: World Domination.
Though most leagues maintain a regular home season, inter-league
bouting is quickly becoming a big part of flat-track roller derby.
The established leagues met in their first inter-league tournament
in Tucson, AZ, in February 2006, setting off an explosion of inter-league
play as the leagues scramble to claim North American supremacy.
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