May 26, 2011
Growing up in the 60′s and 70′s one could have been exposed to at least one of a number of true American-invented contact sports who’s roots were in entertainment. Roller Derby and Wrestling being the two leading examples. Roller Derby is based on formation roller skating around an oval track by two teams. Points are scored when the designated scoring player (the “jammer”) of a given team laps members of the opposing team; hence offense and defense typically occur simultaneously.
Roller “derbies” were originally straightforward amateur or professional (aka paid) endurance races on roller skates, which were popular from the 1880s into the 1920s. In the 1950s skaters occasionally staged theatrical plays, but by the 1960s and into the 1970s the sport increasingly became a form of sports entertainment akin to World Wrestling Entertainment, in which the theatrical elements typically overshadowed the athletic and sporting aspects. Contemporary derby is international and predominantly female, maintaining many of the sports-entertainment qualities such as pseudonyms and colorful uniforms, but eschewing “staged” events with pre-determined winners. Contemporary roller derby is an international sport with over 600 women’s leagues in more than 20 countries (as well as a growing number of male, co-ed, and junior exposition teams). Granted, all this may be “showmanship” but i’m still holding onto the belief that Roller Derby, Professional Wrestling and Politicians are believable!
