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Introduction to Roller Derby

Roller Derby was not "invented," it evolved. What began as a cross country race with individuals, then multiple teams gradually became an organized game-type competition between two teams. The sport continues to evolve, and is still played on the west coast with a totally new--and still changing-set of rules. ROLLER RUMBLE is patterned after the "golden age" of Roller Derby, between 1960 and 1970, when the sport was at its zenith.

Here's how the classic game of Roller Derby worked back in those golden years. Two teams of five members each skated in a pack around a banked track. Each team had two jammers, two blockers and a pivot skater. The jammers were the point-scorers--much like the skill position players in football--and were positioned at the back of the pack. The object of the game was for the jammers try to work their way through the pack and, once this had been accomplished, to quickly lap the pack and--approaching from the rear again--pass as many opposing players as possible in the sixty-second time allotment. A team scored 1 point for every opponent passed by EITHER jammer during the sixty-second jam. BOTH teams were eligible to score during the jam, not just the team that started the jam--although the team that got the lead jammer nearly always had an advantage, sometimes a BIG advantage. At the end of the jam, the official would indicate how many points were scored, the pack would be re-established with the jammers at the back, and the action would resume.

A full roller derby game consisted of eight (8) twelve-minute periods, alternating men and women skaters, with the women skating the odd periods(1, 3, 5 and 7) and the men skating the even(2, 4, 6. 8). (The co-ed aspect of roller derby has never been duplicated in any major pro sport before or since, and makes the game truly unique.) A typical final roller derby score was 34-31, although scores as low as the teens or as high as the fifties were sometimes seen.

It should be noted that roller derby was always entertainment more than true sport. In this regard, ROLLER RUMBLE allows more legitimacy to the game than it probably deserves. In real life, The Roller Derby was always more of a traveling road show than a legitimate league sport. All the teams were owned by the same guy, and he would move players around from team to team at his own discretion. However, the games themselves were not "rigged," and the skaters on each team skated to win, despite the fact that they worked for the same company. Moreover, the owner always dreamed of the day when roller derby would become a bona-fide major league sport. One of the reasons he took his show on the road was to expose it to potential fans, in hopes that it would catch on. It did catch on--but, for a number of reasons, Roller Derby never became the national pastime he hoped it would.

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