THE ROLLER DERBY

Derby

[@timpatten5738]

This was when I decided to move to SF and try to get into the derby. That day in 1973 changed my life forever.

[@lasktdave]

Unfortunately I did the same thing but later than you and the Bombers weren't a team anymore thanks to Griffiths. They kept the training school open for awhile after but with no games I moved back to L.A. and skated with Games.

[@georgegong9291]

Great Roller Derby action from the past. The stuff I fondly remember! Wished video of this era was found! This is the next best thing! When I first started watching Roller Derby. What deep talent all the teams had back then as well!

[@umpinmass]

Sure miss those days. I would love to get some full games from that era. O'Connell, Lazlo and Tucker for Bombers, Monte and Jensen for Cardinals, Groll, Cattell and Calvello and Clay for Pioneers and of course Robinson, Woodberry and Cathy Reed for Braves. Charlie O against Ronnie and Woody were classics.

[@stephengiorgis7072]

Bald Eagle Bob Hein, Sandy Dunn, Mike Gammon, Wife Judi McGuire, Tony Roman, Wife Carol "Peanuts" Meyer, THANKS FOR POSTING! I'm like 12 again!

[@TheTwd1211]

I started watching Roller Derby in 1969 and these are the team lineups I saw at that time. So many amazing and talented skaters. I couldn't wait until Saturday came around and was lucky enough to catch 2 games, one from an Indianapolis station and another out of Louisville. Those were great times!

[@psw4763]

A fan forever of the Bay Bombers. Both teams excellent. They had some great moves to score. Loved when they would block everyone and send the guy in the back right thru. The ladies were pretty powerful Joan Weston and Charlie Connell excellent. Good times

[@georgegong9291]

My overall favorite Skater is Charlie O'Connell. Many great talent back then!

[@georgegong9291]

Nice surprise 2 see this I assume from the movie "Derby". Love the extended footage of Roller Derby action from the past! Thanks 4 posting it! :)

[@USSLKA-116]

Awesome footage here. Thank you!

[@sydIRISH]

I love anything retro, anything from the 60's-70's. I'm an 80's baby, so I'm fascinated by the decades that preceded me. I just started watching Roller Derby. It's fucking hardcore. Love it!!!! The pussies of today couldn't hack this shit.

[@RollerDerbyStars]

Charlie O'Connell The Best Pivot !

[@MrPete60441]

Amazing how the skaters are "interchangeable"... Weston was not skating in this game..... Bombers had Lazlo for this one.. This must be sometime in the late 60's... I do remember seeing Lazlo skating for the Northwest Cardinals..... This is some fantastic skating going on... Miss the stars of Roller Derby...... Thanks for this posting this game....

[@georgegong6813]

From the looks of the jerseys either '69 or '70. Remember one year the Bay Bombers split off into 2 separate teams as well. Weston along with Monte had the Oakland Bombers & I think it was O'Connell & Laszlo has the San Francisco Bombers.

[@spectrumlocalb191]

MrPete60441 Weston and HER husband Nick Scopes went to The Jolters

[@NYRNGR1]

@@spectrumlocalb191 Weston never skated on the Jolters. Nick did, as you stated, but that wasn't until late 1973, right before the original Derby folded.

[@donniehagy970]

@@spectrumlocalb191 Weston and Scopas skated for the Pioneers--never the Jolters.

[@charlesb.6434]

@@georgegong6813 One Bomber team stayed on the west coast and the other went on the cross country road trip. That"s how Seltzer worked it out until 1971 when there were again true home teams like the Chiefs in New York, the Pioneers in Chicago and the Jolters in Cincinnati.

[@brettpatetto6847]

NOW THIS IS ROLLER DERBY!!!!!!

[@bibliobill2530]

The best looking uniforms era for Roller Derby. 1969 thru mid-1971. Their designer had good taste .

[@caribeandude1]

Ahhh the good old days of Roller Derby. I used to love the RD. My team was the Philadelphia Warriors. Good times.

[@cindymar1606]

This is exactly what people need in order to take out their hatred of others and the workd-2023

[@allenrosenblum1611]

The best fake fighting you could ever see. Look at all the roller derby reunions, there were best of friends .

[@lasktdave]

Not all of it was fake. A lot was skaters getting pissed off and not everyone was friends after the game. Like with any other group of people some liked each other and some didn't.

[@billaccord717]

Not all the fights are fake. Also the Roller Derby was just like any other job - you like some co-workers and you hate some co-workers. The skaters had to keep all business on the track.

[@georgegong6813]

Agree with the last 2 replies. Yes some of the fights were staged then some of the players really got a bit unglued if you will & literally lost it. Charlie O'Connell & Bill Groll were 2 examples of that! So was Cal Stephens & John Parker. Yeah you can make an example of the reunions, then how about other sports with bitter rivalries? They are all professional & keep their grudges on the track. As one Skater once said why fight once you are in the locker room they don't pay you for that!

[@lasktdave]

@@georgegong6813 not always true on that one. I was in a game at the San Jose Civic Aud. where it almost came to blows in the locker room at half time and have been told about times when it actually did happen.

[@georgegong6813]

@@lasktdave Not me got that quote from the book Five Strides On The Banked Track from a Skater honest think it was O'Connell that made that quote too.

[@利坊]

😃ローラーゲームはこの時期は本当に迫力満点だたですね

[@THXOPS]

Pretty rare footage; very little is left before the 1973 season, so this came most likely from the very early 70's with the Pioneer and Brave uniforms before they changed later on. The Bombers stayed the same

[@donniehagy970]

This is actually taken from the movie "Derby," which was released at the height of Roller Derby's popularity.

[@spectrumlocalb191]

THXOPS This was 1975

[@1979cl1]

@@spectrumlocalb191 This was from 1970 or 1971, i remember seeing the TV ad in the spring of 1971.

[@NYRNGR1]

@@spectrumlocalb191 This was from 1970. The Braves and Cardinals were gone by the fall of 1971, replaced by the NY Chiefs and the Red Devils.

[@franksavage8031]

Clip was from the docudrama movie "Derby" from 1970 about Matt Snell's quest to join Roller Derby.

[@georgegong6813]

Mike Snell. Skated briefly too till I read someplace many of the veteran skaters didn't like Snell in the limelight so quickly in his career. Didn't skate long & many veteran skaters deliberately singled him out!

[@charlesb.6434]

Sandy Dunn of the New York Chiefs said in an interview with the New York Times that the skaters hated the movie because " it made it seem like we are from low class families ".@@georgegong6813

[@nymet2454]

I liked Charlie O'Connell

[@carloscross6686]

nymet2454.

[@craigegan2074]

My mother knew Tony weston.they skated together she,said Tony was wonderfully. Gladys S SHE is now 92 and I'm her son and caretaker. I would,love to find some pictures of her to show her grandchild.noing my mother all my life it's hard to imagine she participated in this sport.

[@NYRNGR1]

Who's Tony Weston?? Did you mean Joanie Weston?

[@richardim6272]

O'connell and ralphie

[@handsomeclem208]

The Cards should have also skated the Pioneers when they did that short home series against the Braves in the PNW back in '70......

[@利坊]

殴る蹴る有りで大好きでしたね現在もこうして見られも嬉しいですね

[@stephengiorgis7072]

Don't remember Margie Laszlo replacing Joanie Weston?

[@NYRNGR1]

Back in 1970, the Bay Bombers were split into 2 squads: The San Francisco Bay Bombers with Charlie O and Margie Laszlo and then the Oakland Bay Bombers with Ken Monte and Joan Weston.

[@spectrumlocalb191]

Stephen Giorgis Yes read my statement above

[@利坊]

やっぱり殴る蹴るぶつかり合いがすごい本場のローラーゲームはこうでなきゃ凄みがあり大好きスポーツですね

[@spectrumlocalb191]

LYDIA CLAY AND MARGIE LAZLO WERE DRIVING PARTNERS AND HERE THEY ARE BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF EACH OTHER.

[@gooberclown]

This is great 70's roller derby action, but why won't anybody post some action with Earlene Brown, jersey number 747? That's like misplacing a battleship!

[@lasktdave]

There is a little footage in a couple videos posted here with Earlene in it but it's Roller Games not Derby.

[@hilbertsandifer1998]

She was an awesome skater. This piece is when Roller Derby was "real roller derby", not that fake shit you see today. Most of those young women would stand a chance today!

[@NYRNGR1]

This is from the original Roller Derby league. Earlene skated in Roller Games, an offshoot league, which was mostly theatrics and showmanship. I hated Games. What you see here is the REAL Roller Derby.

[@1979cl1]

@@NYRNGR1 Most Derby skaters did not like Roller Games when they skated with the ISC or the merger which was short lived all because Bill Griffith thought it would blend well but it didn't turn out well and worse he broke up many of the teams which was a big mistake. Bill should have used his common sense to leave the teams the way they were and for Roller Games to make it more like the Derby than the silly comedy theatrical stunts, then it would have been a better with the Northern league(Derby Teams) and the Southern league(Roller Games) and have some interleague games and play off games to the championships may the best derby or games team win, but no, Bill Griffith made in a way thinking he could please everybody and the fans which it didn't. It's no wonder why alot of the Derby skaters left the ISC so soon because it was not the same as they were with the original Derby. I like both leagues Roller Derby and Roller Games but the original Derby is tops.

[@NYRNGR1]

@@1979cl1 I agree with most of what you said but I hated Roller Games. I was and always will be a Derby fan. As far as I'm concerned, Griffiths ruined everything when the Derby league shut down and he took on the Derby skaters. You would think he had half a brain and changed the way he thought about how the game should be skated. Just because the fans in L.A. liked that shit, it didn't mean fans in the Derby areas would put up with that garbage and they showed him.

[@amywinston666]

Is this footage available for licensing?

[@spectrumlocalb191]

The announcer sounds like Ed Darrian

[@georgegong6813]

Wasn't Ed Darrian. Ken Kunzelman

[@NYRNGR1]

God forbid! Ed Derian was an announcer in Roller Games not Derby.

[@georgegong6813]

@@NYRNGR1 Agree someone might had been spectrunocalb191 believes Ken Kunzelman was Ed Darrian as well on another Derby related video. No both sound alike however for overall professionalism & knowledge of the game it was Ken Kunzelman hands down. Ed Darrian too often just repeated his pitch never really commented differently. He may had been much more suited as a PA vs television announcer. Ken Kunzelman did both pretty sell!

[@kevinm6790]

As a Games fan, Ed Derrian was the worst announcer. It was as if he couldn’t keep up with what was going on or what the players’ names were.