Interested in Your Own Personally Branded Magazine? Click Here!

Want to customize this content for your business?

Learn More

Categories

  • Home
  • Decor
  • Real Estate
  • Life & Culture
  • Food & Recipes
  • Holiday & Entertaining

  • Printables
  • Videos


General

  • About the Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Careers


Editorial

  • Editorial Calendar
  • Issue Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Pitch an Idea

American Lifestyle Magazine Logo
  • Home
  • Decor
  • Real Estate
  • Life & Culture
  • Food & Recipes
  • Holiday & Entertaining
  • Search
  • Follow
  • 0 Heart
  • |
  • Food & Recipes Categories
    • All Recipes (763)
    • Appetizers (139)
    • Breakfast (63)
    • Cooking Tips (41)
    • Desserts (219)
    • Dinner (229)
    • Drinks (59)
    • Gluten Free (9)
    • Healthy (68)
    • Lunch (7)
    • Quick & Easy (60)
    • Vegan (35)
    • Vegetarian (53)
Dinner | Mar 20, 2023

Kimchi Grain Bowl

  • Holiday & Entertaining Categories
    • Celebrate (2)
    • Christmas (83)
    • Easter (14)
    • Entertaining (40)
    • Fall (11)
    • Father’s Day (6)
    • Halloween (29)
    • Hanukkah (17)
    • July 4th (34)
    • Mother’s Day (8)
    • New Year’s (23)
    • Spring (2)
    • St. Patrick's Day (11)
    • Summer (1)
    • Thanksgiving (36)
    • Valentine’s Day (5)
    • Winter (12)
Family & Pets | Dec 14, 2022

Customize Your New Year’s Eve Celebration

  • Decor Categories
    • Crafts & DIY Projects (279)
    • Curb Appeal (6)
    • Decorate (73)
    • Interior Design (87)
Interior Design | Mar 17, 2023

How to Celebrate Spring with the Pantone Color of the Year

Interior Design | Mar 8, 2023

The Wonder of Woodworking

Interior Design | Feb 1, 2023

Houston, We Have a Rebuild

  • Real Estate Categories
    • Buying & Selling (203)
    • Home Trends (23)
    • Staging (21)
    • Your First House (34)
Staging | Feb 13, 2023

Put Your Best House Forward

Decor | Nov 14, 2022

Design Trends to Follow in 2023

Real Estate | Sep 23, 2022

How to Shop for a Home Loan

  • Life & Culture Categories
    • Editorial (314)
    • Family & Pets (206)
    • Finances (34)
    • Health (159)
    • Travel (253)
Editorial | Mar 17, 2023

The Magic of Moonbows

Travel | Mar 14, 2023

Blazing a Golf Trail

Cleaning | Feb 28, 2023

Detail Your Car like a Pro

  • Home Categories
    • Cleaning (44)
    • Organizing (48)
    • Home Improvement (124)
    • Outdoors & Gardening (90)
Outdoors & Gardening | Mar 2, 2023

Prepping Your Home for Spring

Cleaning | Feb 28, 2023

Detail Your Car like a Pro

Home Improvement | Jan 18, 2023

4-Week Home-Improvement Challenge

Follow us on social media today!

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Roller Derby Celebrates a Milestone

Editorial | 3 Likes
SHARE
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More

On August 13, 1935, fifty men and women laced up their roller skates to participate in a brand-new sport born out of a Depression-era tradition. This first ever Transcontinental Roller Derby, the brainchild of Chicago sports promoter Leo Seltzer, marked the beginning of a new sport that was exclusively American—one of only three in history.

That warm August day, more than 20,000 Chicagoan’s packed the city’s famous Coliseum building to watch the beginnings of a month-long race. Skaters would travel about 3,000 miles per pair of skaters, about the distance from coast to coast of the US. Whichever team managed to skate the distance around the track in the shortest time would win.

By the time the competition was over, Roller Derby became a city-wide phenomenon, and because of its success, Seltzer continued to hold more derbies across the country for the next few years. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, competitors began to trade in their skates for military uniforms, and the sport slowly faded out.

The Derby Rises Again
Seltzer’s son, Jerry, who took over the league after his father’s retirement in 1959, helped promote an invigorated national love for the sport in the 1960s and 1970s. As television was becoming more prevalent, the opportunity to broadcast roller derby games to other cities across the country became a great avenue to reach more Americans.

Among the most famous games of the decade was an attendance record-breaking face-off between the Chicago Midwest Pioneers and the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, held at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1972; more than 50,000 fans attended.

Though rules were adapted over the years to include plays like jamming (a scoring play when select players are able to pull away to pass the pack), and blocking (stopping other skaters from passing), fans craved the aggressive nature of the players—something some leagues attempted to market the sport on.

With local clubs forming again during the 1990s and early 2000s, roller derby has seen an uptick in national interest in recent years. Nowadays the sport is played predominately by women, and there are currently about 200 teams nationwide, not including junior leagues.

World Roller Derby Week
To celebrate the 82nd anniversary of the founding of roller derby, the city of Chicago, in partnership with Brown Paper Tickets, will be hosting World Roller Derby Week.

The commemorative occasion appropriately begins on August 13, with a public birthday celebration held at Centennial Park—the original home of the Chicago Coliseum. Visitors can enjoy a slice of “roller derby cake,” participate in a public skate, and even meet with professional skaters from across the country.

The week concludes with a retro derby game, dubbed the “2017 Time Hop,” on August 19. Dozens of skaters from across the city will compete in a game played under the 1970s rule book, which is slightly less dense and not as stringent as the modern version. Competitors will sport 70s-style uniforms, too.

In addition to the birthday celebration, the American Red Cross of Chicago and Northern Illinois will be accepting pledges throughout the week for an October 29 blood drive, “First Blood”—part of a national roller derby blood drive called “Make ‘em Bleed”.

Visit the USA Roller Derby team website for information on the anniversary event and more.

2047 Views

This article is tagged in:

AthleticsChicagoEditorialHistoryRoller DerbyRoller SkatingSports

Related Posts

Life & Culture | Feb 9, 2023

Leaves in the Stream

Life & Culture | Nov 28, 2022

Beyond the Frame

Decor | Nov 24, 2022

Curated Happiness

Life & Culture | Nov 16, 2022

More Than Chocolate

Home | Nov 11, 2022

A Guide to Post Holiday Cleanup

Popular Posts

can-planters-card
Decor | Mar 25, 2020

Make Your Own Can Planters

Home | Jul 8, 2021

Tips for Redesigning Your Patio Space

Life & Culture | Feb 17, 2020

Trash vs. Recycle: Do You Know When to Trash it?

spring-cleaning-countdown
Home | Mar 23, 2021

Spring-Cleaning Countdown

Real Estate | Dec 14, 2017

House Selling Checklist


You may also like:

can-planters-card
Crafts & DIY Projects | Mar 25, 2020

Make Your Own Can Planters

Outdoors & Gardening | Jul 8, 2021

Tips for Redesigning Your Patio Space

Health | Feb 17, 2020

Trash vs. Recycle: Do You Know When to Trash it?

spring-cleaning-countdown
Cleaning | Mar 23, 2021

Spring-Cleaning Countdown

Buying & Selling | Dec 14, 2017

House Selling Checklist

home office with white furniture
Health | Mar 30, 2020

Everyone Is Working From Home—Here’s How to Do It Effectively

decorating-basics
Interior Design | Jun 9, 2020

These Tips Are Your North Star For Home Decorating

Share on Social Media

Our mission is to deliver entertainment that inspires and motivates our readers, encouraging them to follow their passions as they explore new horizons.

© 2023 American Lifestyle Magazine

General
  • About the Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Careers
Editorial
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Issue Archive
  • Contact Us
  • Pitch an Idea
Categories
  • Home
  • Decor
  • Real Estate
  • Life & Culture
  • Food & Recipes
  • Holiday & Entertaining
Follow Us
Facebook Pinterest Instagram Youtube

Customize this content for your business!

Learn More

,