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[citation needed] Ratings for the series were actually quite high, even beating the popular American Gladiators. [4][5], On September 15, 1972, an interleague match between the Los Angeles Thunderbirds of Roller Games (National Skating Derby) and the Midwest Pioneers of Roller Derby (International Roller Derby League) set a roller derby attendance record of 50,118 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. In 1975, Griffiths shut down Roller Games operations in the face of dwindling popularity, which some attributed to the organization's increasing emphasis on theatrics and entertainment. ganbattesisyphus: A photograph from the 60s of... la thunderbirds roller derby 1960 team photo - Google Search. She appeared on 19 consecutive all-star teams in that sport, and was the highest-paid female athlete in the 1960s[2] and 1970s.
BRD is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is completely volunteer-run. Below are six decades of local roller derby history, with at least one photo each from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. National Skating Derby, Inc. was founded in 1960 by former Roller Derby skater Herb Roberts along with its flagship team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (The L.A. T-Birds). (In recent years, the new Bombers have also appeared on KOFY.) Games were skated at the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, with the exception of Eastern War-Chiefs games which were played at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut. 1956: That’s “Specs” Saunders and Buddy Atkinson in the striped shirts, part of a roller derby show playing “nightly except Sundays at Winterland,” according to the caption. After her Roller Derby career, she regularly played softball in San Francisco Bay Area leagues. Browse previous blog posts by month and year of entry.
Bay Area roller derby stars Ann Calvello and Joanie Weston. Boston Roller Derby, Inc., a non profit corporation is the successor to Boston Roller Derby LLC. It looks like they’re in an outdoor arena. 1970’s Thunderbirds Teams - Check out the group photographs of Los Angeles Thunderbirds Roller Derby teams from 1970 to 1979 here. You can watch the 2011 version of the SF Bay Bombers this weekend on March 19 at Kezar Pavilion. Men’s and women’s teams (five skaters constitute a team… 1980: A Bay Bomber (I think) delivers an elbow to a competitor. To generations of fans, they aren’t a gimmick.
Her long-time rivals on the track included Ann Calvello (August 1, 1929 – March 14, 2006), Cathie Read (b. August 17, 1940), Sandy Dunn (b. January 8, 1945), Jan Vallow (b. September 21, 1940), and Margie Laszlo (b. November 8, 1942). [1] The first match was skated in 1961. It was broadcast for one season (1989–1990) before its distributor, Quintex Media, went bankrupt. UPDATED! Super-Crafty Halloween Costume Contest – entries are here! (She died in 2006.) [1] Roller Games and its flagship team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds) has endured several boom and bust cycles, including a roller derby attendance record in 1972, a major reorganization in 1975, appearances on ESPN in 1986, a TV series called RollerGames in 1989–1990 (and its corresponding arcade game by Konami and its video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System; there was also a pinball machine based on the show), and a small number of untelevised exhibition matches in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, and the early and mid-2000s. Ann Calvello would be proud. Joan usually skated as the distaff heroine of the sport, no matter what team she appeared with. Her fame increased markedly when in 1965 she was appointed captain of the San Francisco Bay Bombers. Your roller derby thoughts in the comments. [1], In 1960, after Roller Derby had settled into its new home in the San Francisco Bay Area, former Roller Derby skater Herb Roberts founded the Los Angeles-based National Skating Derby, Inc., and its flagship Los Angeles Thunderbirds team. [6], In 1973, Jerry Seltzer shut down Roller Derby and sold the promotional rights to Bill Griffiths, who immediately disbanded Roller Derby's IRDL and his own NRL, but recruited some of IRDL's star skaters to skate in an NRL successor league, the International Skating Conference (ISC), which was to focus on the Los Angeles Thunderbirds. R.I.P.