Roller Games was the name of a
sports entertainment
Sports entertainment is a type of spectacle which presents an ostensibly competitive event using a high level of theatrical flourish and extravagant presentation, with the purpose of entertaining an audience. Unlike typical sports and games, whi ...
spectacle created in the early 1960s in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
[ — This source is detailed but not neutral; better sources are needed for all of its claims.] as a rival to the
Jerry Seltzer
Gerald Edwin "Jerry" Seltzer (June 3, 1932 – July 1, 2019) was the second and final owner of the original Roller Derby league. The league and the sport of roller derby were created in 1935 in Chicago by Leo Seltzer, Jerry's father. Jerry as ...
-owned Roller Derby league, which had enjoyed a monopoly on the sport of
roller derby — and its name — since its inception in 1935. Roller Games provided a mostly televised, increasingly theatrical version of the sport.
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
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
in 1986, a TV series called ''
RollerGames'' in 1989–1990 (and its corresponding
arcade game by
Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...
and its video game for the
Nintendo Entertainment System; there was also a
pinball machine
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...
based on the show), and a small number of untelevised exhibition matches in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, and the early and mid-2000s.
History
1960s and 1970s
In 1960, after Roller Derby had settled into its new home in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
, former Roller Derby skater Herb Roberts founded the Los Angeles-based National Skating Derby, Inc., and its flagship Los Angeles Thunderbirds team.
The first match was skated in 1961. In late 1961, the company was acquired by
Bill Griffiths Sr. and Jerry Hill.
In the 1960s, Roller Games experienced rapid growth, and established teams in Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Florida, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan. Roller Games eventually encompassed several separate leagues: National Roller Derby (NRD), which was renamed to National Roller League (NRL); Canadian National Roller League (CNRL); and Japanese National Roller League (JNRL). Aside from the L.A. Thunderbirds, NRD/NRL teams over the years included the Chicago Hawks, Detroit Devils, New York Bombers, Texas Outlaws, Philadelphia Warriors, and Brooklyn Red Devils. Many matches were broadcast live on
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
television affiliate
KTLA, with
Dick Lane calling the play-by-play.
He was famous for saying "Whoaaaa, Nelly" (predating
Keith Jackson) when fights broke out between the players.
Lane's play-by-play was often assisted in the press box and on the infield by Bill "Hoppy" Haupt. The
Olympic Auditorium
The Grand Olympic Auditorium is a former sports venue in southern Downtown Los Angeles, California. The venue was built in 1924 at 1801 South Grand Avenue, now just south of the Santa Monica Freeway. The grand opening of the Olympic Auditorium ...
was the league's primary venue.
Eventually, the flagship station for Thunderbirds games was changed to
KCOP
KCOP-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet KTTV (channel 11). Both station ...
, with taped repeats appearing in prime time on
KBSC.
In order to compete with Roller Games' international flair, Seltzer's Roller Derby also formed its own International Roller Derby League (IRDL), which included Roller Derby's most famous teams, the Bay Bombers, Midwest Pioneers, and Jolters, among others.
Some former Roller Derby stars found new fame in the Roller Games, and a handful of skaters simply went back and forth between the two organizations. After 1968, however, the Roller Derby to Roller Games defections were quite few; instead, a handful of Roller Games skaters returned to their roots and began skating for the Derby again.
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
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
.
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. Teams in the ISC included the L.A. T-Birds, the Eastern Warriors, and several international teams: Team Canada, the Tokyo Bombers, and the Latin Libertadores.
The league also featured the San Francisco Bay Bombers in certain games, in which the storylines were built around the Thunderbirds claiming the Bombers were infringing on their territory; the Bombers continued to skate in spite of this. (This incarnation of the Bombers was also unique in that three notable veterans,
Ann Calvello
Ann Theresa Calvello (August 1, 1929 – March 14, 2006) was an American athlete and notable personality in the sport of roller derby.
Ann Calvello graduated from Presentation High School in San Francisco in June 1947.
Calvello competed in rolle ...
,
Joan Weston
Joan Weston or Joanie Weston (January 20, 1935 – May 10, 1997), known as the "Blonde Bomber", "Blonde Amazon", "Golden Girl", and "Roller Derby Queen", was an American athlete and was the most famous personality in the original Roller Derby.
B ...
, and
Annis Jensen
Annis "Big Red" Jensen (September 20, 1921 – January 10, 2015) was an American roller derby skater. In 1954, she was the first women's captain of the San Francisco Bay Bombers in the IRDL professional roller derby league. At the time of ret ...
all skated on the same team. Jensen's daughter,
Barbara Baker, also skated for the Bombers.)
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.
However, skaters quickly organized a new version of the club, and a new training center opened.
Thunderbirds games were locally broadcast on
KBSC Channel 52, the
Kaiser Broadcasting
The Kaiser Broadcasting Corp. was an American broadcast media company that owned and operated television and radio stations in the United States from 1957 to 1977.
History Creating a broadcast chain
Kaiser's involvement in broadcasting began ...
station for the Los Angeles market, allowing for distribution to other Kaiser stations like San Francisco's
KBHK, Chicago's
WFLD
WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV ...
and Detroit's
WKBD
WKBD-TV (channel 50) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS owned-and-operated station WWJ-TV (channel 62). Both stations share studios o ...
. Jerry Hill headed up the
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
-based team, the Warriors, whose games were broadcast on Kaiser-owned
WKBS
WKBS-TV (channel 47) is a religious television station in Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States, owned and operated by Cornerstone Television. The station's transmitter is located in Logan Township.
WKBS-TV operates as a full-time satellite of ...
with announcer Elmer Anderson.
The revitalized league prospered in the late 1970s and early 1980s: its home venue, the Olympic Auditorium, was sold out for matches on Saturday nights; games were aired on TV (as ''Roller Superstars''); and skaters "Psycho" Ronnie Rains and
Ralphie Valladares became minor celebrities in Los Angeles.
In 1985, the "International Roller Derby League" name was reactivated (although it was still in the Roller Games format), retaining many skaters from ''Roller Superstars'' (renamed ''Championship Roller Derby'') and recruiting new skaters. Along with the Los Angeles T-Birds, the other teams were now known as the Northern Devils, Western Outlaws, Golden State Bombers, Hollywood Hawks and Eastern War-Chiefs. Games were skated at the Showboat Sports Pavilion in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
, with the exception of Eastern War-Chiefs games which were played at the
Hartford Civic Center
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
in
Hartford, Connecticut. This version of the IRDL was broadcast on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
and hosted by Los Angeles radio personality Paul Greenwood with play-by-play analysis by former roller derby skaters Ted Marolf and Jess Adams. Despite having a number of games skated from 1985–1986, the club again fell into decline, with its aging skaters having no place to practice after the closure of the training facility.
Griffiths retained the rights to the Roller Games name, however, and organized several matches in 1987 and 1988.
RollerGames
In 1989, television producers David Sams and Mike Miller worked with Griffiths to produce ''RollerGames'', a U.S. television show that presented an even more theatrical variant of the sport for a national audience. It featured a steeply banked figure-eight track, an alligator pit, and a number of skaters who had been in the Roller Games league, as well as younger participants. It was broadcast for one season (1989–1990) before its distributor, Quintex Media, went
bankrupt
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
. The bankruptcy was not related to the popularity of ''RollerGames''. Ratings for the series were actually quite high, even beating the popular ''
American Gladiators''.
Sams provided color commentary while
Chuck Underwood handled the play-by-play, and was famous for saying "That was absolutely DEV-A-STAT-ING!"
Shelley Jamison served as the "on-the-track" commentator while the late
Wally George
Wally George (born George Walter Pearch; December 4, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American conservative radio and television commentator. Calling himself the "Father of Combat TV," he was a fixture on Southern California television for ...
did halftime commentary.
The show currently airs in reruns on
Fox Sports 2
Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in the Century Cit ...
and
Fox Sports 1
Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports ...
.
Roller Games International
Following the cancellation of ''RollerGames'', Griffiths organized three untelevised Roller Games International (RGI) events:
* August 8, 1990 in
Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...
(Canada)
* August 9, 1990 in
Calgary, Alberta
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
(Canada)
* February 6, 1993 in
Auburn Hills, Michigan (USA)
All three matches were T-Birds vs. RGI All-Stars.
The organization remained dormant for the rest of the 1990s, although the six teams from ''RollerGames'' still performed for the public in the Super Roller Dome with the same rules.
2000s
Griffiths' son, Bill Griffiths Jr., relaunched Roller Games International in 2000.
In 2003, former Roller Games skater Lou Sanchez used the T'Birds name in a one-off match,
National Roller Derby League.
In 2004, Bob Sedillo purchased the T-Birds name for use in a disastrous exposition match in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...
against a team of young female skaters associated with the modern revival of the sport.
As of December 2004, the Bob Sedillo-owned Roller Games International (RGI) league still operates a single team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds). A match between the ARSD's San Francisco Bay Bombers and RGI's Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds) took place on July 29, 2006 at
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It is the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders (first AFL s ...
in San Francisco. The Bay Bombers defeated the T-Birds 81-79.
Los Angeles Thunderbirds
/ref>
The T-Birds' last home was at the Pomona Fairplex. Several games were skated there in 2007 and 2008. Promotions ceased once trademark owner Bill Griffiths sued Sedillo's Pegasus Media Group. Bob Sedillo died in December 2009.
See also
* '' RollerGames'' — the 1989–1990 television show
* ''RollerJam
''RollerJam'' is an American television series featuring roller derby that aired on The Nashville Network (TNN, now Paramount Network) from 1999 to 2001. It was the first attempt to bring roller derby to TV since '' RollerGames''.
''RollerJam' ...
'' — the Roller Derby revival TV show (1999–2001)
* Georgia Hase
Georgia Ann Siedenberg Hase (December 31, 1938 - July 31, 2015) - also known as "Mizz" Georgia Hase - was best known as a heel manager of two prominent roller games teams, the Detroit Devils of the original Roller Games league and Bad Attitude of ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Los Angeles Thunderbirds
(unofficial website)
Sports entertainment
Roller derby in the United States
Defunct professional sports leagues in the United States