...to new members effinadorabell and leahbrownpops.  Thanks for joining!

Hiya Marc & Jim. Just wanted to share this story with you and everyone else.
When I was a kid (la,la,la) everyones heard my story before. LOL! I was a fan of
the SF Bay Bombers. After a game between the NY Chiefs and Bay Bombers some of
the skaters were hanging around. I took a photo of O'Connell and I asked Gammon
if I could take a photo of him. He said "not now." O'Connell said "hey, give the
kid a photo." Mike replied under his breath so I guess he didn't want me to hear
"i'm smoking right now." He did let me take a photo of him. The things we
remember of this sport from yesteryear. Take care.



--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, RollerGamZ@... wrote:
>
>
>  Charlie O'Connell was a professional and skated like a professional.  He was
instrumental in the entire tenure of the game.  He left RollerGames not because
of the game but over money and contract perks.  I had lunch with Charlie O and
Judi McGuire and asked him all about
>
> Marc Stern
> The Chicago Ace
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: james win <recordnut@...>
> To: bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 9:57 pm
> Subject: Re: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] Re: NRDL & IRDL?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hiya Dave; Does anyone know how much Griffith Sr. paid Charlie O to join the
T-Birds. I heard that Mr O HATED Roller Games...........I remember when the
Bombers came to town in the early 70's and skated a Derby Style game against the
Birds. The Bombers dominated the games with hard hard hitting tactics. The Birds
looked shocked and confused ! LOL...............Charlie O POUNDED those Birds
but a few years later became one of them. WTF!? I guess that's showbiz!
>
>
>
>
> From: Dave <dave_marez@...>
> To: bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 6:00:22 PM
> Subject: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] Re: NRDL & IRDL?
>
>
> HIya Gary. Thanx for doing the research. I appreciate it. Take care.
>
> --- In bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com, "gjdodger" <gary.digiuseppe@ ...>
wrote:
> >
> > Wikipedia says 1963. According to Herb Michelson in "A Very Simple Game,"
they changed the name the year they added the Mexico City Diablos.
> >
> > --- In bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com, Dave Marez <dave_marez@ > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hiya everyone. Does anyone know when Jerry Seltzer renamed the National
Roller Derby League to the International Roller Derby League? Ideas? Round and
round and round at the roller derby. WWWwwwEEEeee! !!
> > >
> >
>

As usual, the press tends to get facts confused, takes things out of context and
doesn't fact-check (because, "it's just roller derby"). There's currently 78
WFTDA leagues, that's true enough.

There are actually upwards of 450 legit leagues around the world at present.
Flat track, banked track, women's, men's, co-ed, kids' leagues, whatever. Derby
leagues are actively playing competitively in six countries around the world and
in nine other countries new leagues are forming, training and practicing.

http://www.derbyroster.com

Nice article, outside of that factual error. It's odd the reporter didn't
mention that they skated in last weekend's national championship tournament. I
suspect that the article was "in the can" for a while.

*~[

--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, "gjdodger" <gary.digiuseppe@...> wrote:
>
>
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091121/METRO01/911210365/Derby-girls-let-good-t\
imes-roll
>
> Derby girls let good times roll
> Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News
> Detroit -- When jazz musician George Benson performed at the Masonic Temple
recently, a less sedate form of entertainment unfurled several floors above.
>
> Women with tattoos and ripped stockings, sporting names like Karma Shootya and
Lady Macdeath, jostled each other as they roller skated around a track, sending
each other sprawling to the floor.
>
> Officiating the game were men in short shorts and one in a hot dog costume.
The crowd of 500 donned their own outfits: flowing capes, short Catholic school
skirts, devil's horns.
>
>
>  Roller derby, a refugee of 1960s' Saturday morning television, is back in a
big way, proponents say, with the number of leagues more than doubling in the
past five years.
>
> "You can't beat girls on roller skates in fishnet stockings trying to knock
each other down," said player Leah Giordano, 30, a Grosse Pointe Park librarian
whose nickname is Muffy Mafioso.
>
> That appears to be a sentiment shared by Detroiters and others:
>
> • The Detroit league has been selling out its monthly games for the past few
years, officials said.
>
> • Across the U.S. and Canada, the number of leagues has jumped from 30 in 2004
to 78 today.
>
> • And the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, which oversees the 78 leagues,
hired its first full-time workers last month: an executive director and
insurance administrator.
>
> Add to that the recent opening of the movie "Whip It," starring Drew Barrymore
as a roller derby player, and you have a surge in interest in the sport that's
climbing as fast as a jammer being flung past her opponents.
>
> "It's girl power," said Dorothy Robbins, 24, of Detroit, who attended the
Masonic Temple game. "They're sexy and they're tough."
>
> Birth of a league
> It was during a drunken haze at a New Year's Eve party in 2004 that Detroit
roller derby was conceived.
>
> Several area women read a story on the Internet about a roller derby league in
Austin, Texas, and they thought about doing something similar here.
>
> After the party ended and they sobered up, the idea lingered.
>
> A year later, the Detroit Derby Girls league was born.
>
> It's the latest incarnation of a sport that was so popular during the 1960s
that matches sold out Madison Square Garden. But interest dwindled by the early
'70s.
>
> Its rejuvenation seems to be sprouting from the alternative music scene. Both
enterprises share the same fans.
>
> "It's cool," said Rob Miller, 31, of Ferndale, who watched matches at the
Temple. "It's definitely not your typical Saturday night entertainment."
>
> In the sport, two teams of five women race around a 90-foot oval track,
scoring points when a designated player, the jammer, passes an opponent. The
other team tries to block the jammer while her teammates open gaps for her to
skate through.
>
> Like alternative music, roller derby has its own subculture.
>
> Players have dyed hair, body piercings and lots of makeup. They wear
everything from miniskirts to hot pants, from bustiers to tank tops, from tutus
to plaid skirts.
>
> And they have different reasons for joining. They like the exercise. They want
to skate again. They like being watched. They get to play a character. They flat
out want to hit someone.
>
> One of the players' favorite tasks is coming up with their nicknames and many
play off pop culture with a healthy dose of sex and violence.
>
> There's Elle McFearsome, Malice Cooper, Sophonda Payne and Sista Slitchya,
whose jersey number is "5" blade."
>
> "Derby allows you to be whoever you want," said Tracy Toepfer, alias Summers
Eve-l, a nickname she even uses on her voice mail.
>
> Toepfer, 41, creative director for an Internet development firm in Ann Arbor,
gets into character by wearing red-and-black makeup, red hair extensions and
sometimes a smattering of fake blood.
>
> What unnerves new opponents most, however, are her red eye contacts. "It gets
me into my game mindset," she said. "I am evil, Summers Eve-l."
>
> A player's life
> Away from the spectacle surrounding the sport, denizens of the Detroit roller
derby league lead quiet lives. They're librarians, social workers, teachers,
opticians, lawyers, a beekeeper, doctors and women with doctorates.
>
> Unlike roller derby from the 1960s, today's players aren't paid. They own and
operate the leagues. If their team isn't playing, they're collecting tickets,
selling merchandise or cleaning up afterward.
>
> "I've met a lot of great people," said Tina Iulianelli, 32, a Borders
bookstore manager from Ferndale whose nickname is Tiny Ninja. "We share a common
thread. It builds a great sisterhood."
>
> The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a mix of spectacle and competition.
>
> The four Detroit teams play each other just once a year with matches held
monthly. They also play teams from other areas and take four months off.
>
> In the old roller derby, the matches were scripted and fights staged.
>
> In today's version, the falls are real and so are the injuries. Players have
suffered cuts, concussions, torn tendons, dislocated shoulders and fractured
collarbones.
>
> "I'm pretty much sore every day," said Toepfer, who played in the 2007
national tournament for two minutes before pulling her hamstring. "It's physical
enough where I question my sanity every day as to why I do it."
>
> The injuries are lovingly listed on the Detroit league Web site, replete with
photos, jokes and X-rays. Injuries are also given nicknames, like the "Purple
Majesty" bruise suffered by Lady Macdeath.
>
> Fatal Femme suffered a trifecta of triage: a sprained knee, sprained ankle and
torn medial collateral ligament of the knee.
>
> The players are proud of their afflictions. It's proof, they said, that their
sport is the real deal.
>
> fdonnelly@... (313) 223-4186
>

Nah.  That was Midge Brasuhn.  :)

--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, james win <recordnut@...> wrote:
>
> You are very correct. He was the Babe Ruth of the sport.  
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: "RollerGamZ@..." <RollerGamZ@...>
> To: bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 11:17:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] Re: NRDL & IRDL?
>
>  
> Charlie O'Connell was a professional and skated like a professional.  He was
instrumental in the entire tenure of the game.  He left RollerGames not because
of the game but over money and contract perks.  I had lunch with Charlie O and
Judi McGuire and asked him all about
>
> Marc Stern
> The Chicago Ace
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: james win <recordnut@yahoo. com>
> To: bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com
> Sent: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 9:57 pm
> Subject: Re: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] Re: NRDL & IRDL?
>
>
>  
> Hiya Dave; Does anyone know how much Griffith Sr. paid Charlie O to join the
T-Birds. I heard that Mr O HATED Roller Games....... ....I remember when the
Bombers came to town in the early 70's and skated a Derby Style game against the
Birds. The Bombers dominated the games with hard hard hitting tactics. The
Birds looked shocked and confused ! LOL......... ......Charlie O POUNDED those
Birds but a few years later became one of them. WTF!? I guess that's showbiz! 
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dave <dave_marez@yahoo. com>
> To: bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com
> Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 6:00:22 PM
> Subject: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] Re: NRDL & IRDL?
>
>  
> HIya Gary. Thanx for doing the research. I appreciate it. Take care.
>
> --- In bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com, "gjdodger" <gary.digiuseppe@ ...>
wrote:
> >
> > Wikipedia says 1963. According to Herb Michelson in "A Very Simple Game,"
they changed the name the year they added the Mexico City Diablos.
> >
> > --- In bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com, Dave Marez <dave_marez@ > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hiya everyone. Does anyone know when Jerry Seltzer renamed the National
Roller Derby League to the International Roller Derby League? Ideas? Round and
round and round at the roller derby. WWWwwwEEEeee! !!
> > >
> >
>

Hiya James. Nope O'Connell and Weston skated for the TBird Organization during
1974. I'm not sure about Charlie because I don't know him but I do know why
Weston left Roller Games in 1974. She said she had bills to pay so thats why she
stood as long as she did. Which I believe it was all of 3-4 months. The style of
game being played was something she wasn't accustomed to. On the other hand
Alohalinda "Pineapple" Villanueva stood the whole time with Roller Games. She
was the Womens Capt of the Tokyo Bombers and was quite popular. Take care.







--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, james win <recordnut@...> wrote:
>
> Was'nt Charlie O still on the T-Birds during the 1978-79 season???  
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dave <dave_marez@...>
> To: bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 5:59:47 PM
> Subject: Re: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] NRDL & IRDL?
>
>  
> Hiya James. 1977 was the year it came back as International Roller Skating
League. Not sure if Dave Lipschultz was the sole owner or if Mike Gammon and
Charlie O'Connell were also owners then. Take care.
>
> --- In bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com, james win <recordnut@ ..> wrote:
> >
> > 1977?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ____________ _________ _________ __
> > From: Dave Marez <dave_marez@ ...>
> > To: CRDF <ClassicRollerDerby@ yahoogroups. com>; RC2 <RollerChat2@
yahoogroups. com>; BTN <bankedtracknews@ yahoogroups. com>
> > Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 8:57:39 AM
> > Subject: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] NRDL & IRDL?
> >
> >  
> > Hiya everyone. Does anyone know when Jerry Seltzer renamed the National
Roller Derby League to the International Roller Derby League? Ideas? Round and
round and round at the roller derby. WWWwwwEEEeee! !!
> >
>

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091121/METRO01/911210365/Derby-girls-let-good-t\
imes-roll

Derby girls let good times roll
Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News
Detroit -- When jazz musician George Benson performed at the Masonic Temple
recently, a less sedate form of entertainment unfurled several floors above.

Women with tattoos and ripped stockings, sporting names like Karma Shootya and
Lady Macdeath, jostled each other as they roller skated around a track, sending
each other sprawling to the floor.

Officiating the game were men in short shorts and one in a hot dog costume. The
crowd of 500 donned their own outfits: flowing capes, short Catholic school
skirts, devil's horns.


  Roller derby, a refugee of 1960s' Saturday morning television, is back in a big
way, proponents say, with the number of leagues more than doubling in the past
five years.

"You can't beat girls on roller skates in fishnet stockings trying to knock each
other down," said player Leah Giordano, 30, a Grosse Pointe Park librarian whose
nickname is Muffy Mafioso.

That appears to be a sentiment shared by Detroiters and others:

• The Detroit league has been selling out its monthly games for the past few
years, officials said.

• Across the U.S. and Canada, the number of leagues has jumped from 30 in 2004
to 78 today.

• And the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, which oversees the 78 leagues,
hired its first full-time workers last month: an executive director and
insurance administrator.

Add to that the recent opening of the movie "Whip It," starring Drew Barrymore
as a roller derby player, and you have a surge in interest in the sport that's
climbing as fast as a jammer being flung past her opponents.

"It's girl power," said Dorothy Robbins, 24, of Detroit, who attended the
Masonic Temple game. "They're sexy and they're tough."

Birth of a league
It was during a drunken haze at a New Year's Eve party in 2004 that Detroit
roller derby was conceived.

Several area women read a story on the Internet about a roller derby league in
Austin, Texas, and they thought about doing something similar here.

After the party ended and they sobered up, the idea lingered.

A year later, the Detroit Derby Girls league was born.

It's the latest incarnation of a sport that was so popular during the 1960s that
matches sold out Madison Square Garden. But interest dwindled by the early '70s.

Its rejuvenation seems to be sprouting from the alternative music scene. Both
enterprises share the same fans.

"It's cool," said Rob Miller, 31, of Ferndale, who watched matches at the
Temple. "It's definitely not your typical Saturday night entertainment."

In the sport, two teams of five women race around a 90-foot oval track, scoring
points when a designated player, the jammer, passes an opponent. The other team
tries to block the jammer while her teammates open gaps for her to skate
through.

Like alternative music, roller derby has its own subculture.

Players have dyed hair, body piercings and lots of makeup. They wear everything
from miniskirts to hot pants, from bustiers to tank tops, from tutus to plaid
skirts.

And they have different reasons for joining. They like the exercise. They want
to skate again. They like being watched. They get to play a character. They flat
out want to hit someone.

One of the players' favorite tasks is coming up with their nicknames and many
play off pop culture with a healthy dose of sex and violence.

There's Elle McFearsome, Malice Cooper, Sophonda Payne and Sista Slitchya, whose
jersey number is "5" blade."

"Derby allows you to be whoever you want," said Tracy Toepfer, alias Summers
Eve-l, a nickname she even uses on her voice mail.

Toepfer, 41, creative director for an Internet development firm in Ann Arbor,
gets into character by wearing red-and-black makeup, red hair extensions and
sometimes a smattering of fake blood.

What unnerves new opponents most, however, are her red eye contacts. "It gets me
into my game mindset," she said. "I am evil, Summers Eve-l."

A player's life
Away from the spectacle surrounding the sport, denizens of the Detroit roller
derby league lead quiet lives. They're librarians, social workers, teachers,
opticians, lawyers, a beekeeper, doctors and women with doctorates.

Unlike roller derby from the 1960s, today's players aren't paid. They own and
operate the leagues. If their team isn't playing, they're collecting tickets,
selling merchandise or cleaning up afterward.

"I've met a lot of great people," said Tina Iulianelli, 32, a Borders bookstore
manager from Ferndale whose nickname is Tiny Ninja. "We share a common thread.
It builds a great sisterhood."

The Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a mix of spectacle and competition.

The four Detroit teams play each other just once a year with matches held
monthly. They also play teams from other areas and take four months off.

In the old roller derby, the matches were scripted and fights staged.

In today's version, the falls are real and so are the injuries. Players have
suffered cuts, concussions, torn tendons, dislocated shoulders and fractured
collarbones.

"I'm pretty much sore every day," said Toepfer, who played in the 2007 national
tournament for two minutes before pulling her hamstring. "It's physical enough
where I question my sanity every day as to why I do it."

The injuries are lovingly listed on the Detroit league Web site, replete with
photos, jokes and X-rays. Injuries are also given nicknames, like the "Purple
Majesty" bruise suffered by Lady Macdeath.

Fatal Femme suffered a trifecta of triage: a sprained knee, sprained ankle and
torn medial collateral ligament of the knee.

The players are proud of their afflictions. It's proof, they said, that their
sport is the real deal.

fdonnelly@... (313) 223-4186

HIya Gary. Thanx for doing the research. I appreciate it. Take care.





--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, "gjdodger" <gary.digiuseppe@...> wrote:
>
> Wikipedia says 1963.  According to Herb Michelson in "A Very Simple Game,"
they changed the name the year they added the Mexico City Diablos.
>
> --- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, Dave Marez <dave_marez@> wrote:
> >
> > Hiya everyone. Does anyone know when Jerry Seltzer renamed the National
Roller Derby League to the International Roller Derby League? Ideas? Round and
round and round at the roller derby. WWWwwwEEEeee!!!
> >
>

Hiya James. 1977 was the year it came back as International Roller Skating
League. Not sure if Dave Lipschultz was the sole owner or if Mike Gammon and
Charlie O'Connell were also owners then. Take care.



--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, james win <recordnut@...> wrote:
>
> 1977?
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dave Marez <dave_marez@...>
> To: CRDF <ClassicRollerDerby@yahoogroups.com>; RC2
<RollerChat2@yahoogroups.com>; BTN <bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 8:57:39 AM
> Subject: [BANKED TRACK NEWS] NRDL & IRDL?
>
>  
> Hiya everyone. Does anyone know when Jerry Seltzer renamed the National Roller
Derby League to the International Roller Derby League? Ideas? Round and round
and round at the roller derby. WWWwwwEEEeee! !!
>

Wikipedia says 1963.  According to Herb Michelson in "A Very Simple Game," they
changed the name the year they added the Mexico City Diablos.

--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, Dave Marez <dave_marez@...> wrote:
>
> Hiya everyone. Does anyone know when Jerry Seltzer renamed the National Roller
Derby League to the International Roller Derby League? Ideas? Round and round
and round at the roller derby. WWWwwwEEEeee!!!
>

I am looking for an old Deby Helmet anyone know were I can get it......

HIya Gary. Nope she skated with the National Skating Derby. My question was
which IRDL skater nicknamed her Sugar? Take care.




--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, "gjdodger" <gary.digiuseppe@...> wrote:
>
> Carmen Thompson was called Sugar, but she was in NSD when I saw her.  There
was an IRDL skater nicked Sugar?
>
> --- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, Dave Marez <dave_marez@> wrote:
> >
> > Hiya everyone.
> >  
> > Who was nicknamed Sugar?
> >  
> > And which International Roller Derby League Skater nicknamed her Sugar?
> >  
> > C'mon, share your answers. ROund and round and round at the roller derby!
WWWwwwEEEeee!!!
> >
>

Carmen Thompson was called Sugar, but she was in NSD when I saw her.  There was
an IRDL skater nicked Sugar?

--- In bankedtracknews@yahoogroups.com, Dave Marez <dave_marez@...> wrote:
>
> Hiya everyone.
>  
> Who was nicknamed Sugar?
>  
> And which International Roller Derby League Skater nicknamed her Sugar?
>  
> C'mon, share your answers. ROund and round and round at the roller derby!
WWWwwwEEEeee!!!
>

Click here: Roller Derby's History - With the Bombers - Factual & Unbiased

http://www.baycitybombers.com/history.html

Click here: Roller Derby's History - With the Bombers - Factual & Unbiased


The 2010 Northern California Roller Derby Reunion" on Saturday, January 30 at
6:30pm.

Event: The 2010 Northern California Roller Derby Reunion
What: Reunion
Start Time: Saturday, January 30 at 6:30pm
End Time: Sunday, January 31 at 12:00am
Where: Fiorillo's Restaurant in Santa Clara, Ca.
==========================================================
Skating Family.......................

The 2009 was such a big

success that we will be having another Reunion next year. The 2010

Northern California Roller Derby Reunion will be held on January 30th

starting @ 6:30 pm at the beautiful Italian restaurant Fiorillo's

Restaurant in Santa Clara, Ca. www.fiorillos.com . There will be a

sit down dinner with choice of London Broil - Veal Parmigiana or

Vegetarian. I have been told they have the best Veal Parmigiana in the

world......... In a few days will be sending out all the information

on how to purchase tickets and what hotel will be our guest hotel.

The cost for the Reunion and wonderful dinner/dance is going to be $60

in advanced. Pencil in the date.............

More to come........

...to new members conmanusmvmc9 and gretagroundnpound.  Thanks for joining!

Got off the phone with a legendary friend of mine and I don't know if it has
been posted elsewhere... Dominick Copeland succumbed to a heart attack over the
weekend in Yucca Valley.  Bless him, I personally met him but forgive me if it's
Dominic or Dominick, but he is Bertha Ruiz' first-born and George's son too. 
May God Bless the Roller Derby family.  Our hearts are heavy for Bertha in this
time of grief.

tino