50 Fun Facts About Roller Derby

Which 2009 film features Elliot Page as Bliss Cavendar, a Texas teenager who swaps beauty pageants for roller derby?

Whip It was adapted by Shauna Cross from her own novel Derby Girl, and real leagues helped promote it by skating around town in the film's costumes.

In which Texas city did roller derby's modern revival begin in the early 2000s as an all-female amateur sport?

Austin skaters founded their league in 2001, and by August 2006 more than 135 similar leagues had followed.

Which symbol marks the helmet cover of a roller derby jammer, the only skater on a team who can score?

A star makes the jammer easy to spot, which matters because every opposing blocker that jammer laps is worth a point.

The 1989 TV show RollerGames settled tied games with a race around a pit billed as holding which animals?

Alligators were the show's most talked-about gimmick, though a backstage insider told one reporter the pit stayed empty during regular play for safety.

Which future Oscar winner appeared as a child in the 1972 roller derby film Kansas City Bomber?

Jodie Foster was making only her second feature film appearance when MGM released the skating drama.

Which kind of wordplay drives most roller derby skater names, such as Mazel Tov Cocktail and Trauma Queen?

Puns are prized so highly that new skaters are urged to check an international roster first, so no two players share a name.

On what did promoter Leo Seltzer jot his first ideas for Roller Derby while out at a restaurant in 1935?

A tablecloth held the first notes for a show that crossed roller skating with the six-day bicycle races then drawing big crowds.

Which way must roller derby skaters travel around the track, since blocking while moving the other way is banned?

Counterclockwise is the rule for everyone, so referees penalize a skater who blocks or assists while rolling the opposite way.

Which actress directed her first film, a 2009 roller derby comedy, and played skater Smashley Simpson in it?

Drew Barrymore also co-produced the film, casting Kristen Wiig as a teammate and Juliette Lewis as the rival Iron Maven.

Which gesture does a roller derby lead jammer repeat to end a jam before its time runs out?

Hands on hips, tapped again and again, lets the leader end play the moment a rival jammer is about to score.

In which city did 20,000 spectators watch Leo Seltzer's first Transcontinental Roller Derby open in August 1935?

Chicago's Coliseum staged a pretend coast-to-coast race in which pairs of skaters circled a banked track to cover 3,000 miles.

Which item joins the helmet and knee pads among the protective gear that roller derby rules require of every player?

A mouth guard is compulsory, along with wrist protection, because hard falls and body contact come with every jam.

Which baseball term do roller derby fans use when a jammer passes every opposing blocker for four points?

Grand slam is the nickname for lapping the whole opposing pack in one pass, the most a jammer can add on a single trip.

Which Hollywood actress played K.C. Carr, a single mother skating for a new team, in the film Kansas City Bomber?

Raquel Welch broke her right wrist in a speed skating session, which halted shooting for eight weeks.

Which mythical beast names the roller derby trophy awarded to WFTDA champions, honouring the body's first president?

The Hydra trophy carries the derby name of a founding WFTDA member and was first presented to the 2008 champions.

How long can a single roller derby jam last if the lead jammer never calls it off?

At 2 minutes the jam timer ends play, and both sides then get just 30 seconds to line up for the next jam.

Which word, shared with boxing and wrestling, do roller derby players traditionally use for a single game?

Bout is the usual word for a full game, which is split into halves of half an hour each.

Which roller derby blocker wears a striped helmet cover and may take over as the team's jammer mid-jam?

The pivot takes over only when the jammer passes across the scoring helmet cover, perhaps through fatigue, injury or a worse position.

Which Depression-era craze was Leo Seltzer promoting, under the name walkathons, before he created Roller Derby?

Dance marathons were billed as walkathons because the worn-out couples mostly shuffled, and some contests ran for as long as 40 days.

Which writer, whose stories inspired Guys and Dolls, urged Leo Seltzer to add more contact to Roller Derby?

Damon Runyon saw a game in Miami in the late 1930s and pushed for more of the collisions he found so exciting.

Which Canadian city hosted the first Roller Derby World Cup in December 2011, at a venue called The Bunker?

Toronto saw a lopsided final, in which Team USA beat the hosts Canada by 336 points to 33.

Which country is home to the Victorian Roller Derby League, the first non-American WFTDA champions in 2017?

Australia took the title through a Melbourne league that in 2010 had won the largest tournament then held outside the US.

Which famous arena did the National Roller Derby League's playoffs sell out for a week in its 1949–50 debut season?

Madison Square Garden set five-day Roller Derby attendance records of 77,000 in 1950 and then 82,000 in 1951.

Besides hits above the shoulders or below mid-thigh, contact to which part of an opponent is banned in roller derby?

The back is an illegal target, while the chest, the arms and the front and sides of the torso are all fair game for a legal block.

Which roller derby term, echoing ice hockey, describes play while one team's scoring skater sits in the penalty box?

Power jam borrows from ice hockey's power play: while one jammer sits in the penalty box, only the other team can score.

Which TV series brought roller derby to The Nashville Network from 1999 to 2001, with many skaters on inline wheels?

RollerJam was taped at Universal Studios in Orlando, with the son of roller derby's creator hired as its on-screen commissioner.

Which skater, nicknamed the Blonde Bomber, was a premier attraction of the original Roller Derby for 19 seasons?

Joan Weston also played softball in college, and kept at it in Bay Area leagues after she hung up her skates.

Which ballpark drew a record roller derby crowd of 50,118 in September 1972 to watch the Midwest Pioneers win?

Comiskey Park staged a rare meeting of two rival leagues that day, and the Midwest Pioneers won it 82 to 79.

Which 1970s singer of character-driven story songs recorded Roller Derby Queen for his album Life and Times?

Jim Croce wrote every track on the 1973 album, which also gave him the only number-one hit of his lifetime, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.

Which book award went to Roller Girl, Victoria Jamieson's graphic novel about a girl who takes up roller derby?

A Newbery Honor came in 2016 for the story of Astrid, which the author both wrote and illustrated.

Which US city is home to the Rose City Rollers, who won the WFTDA Championships in both 2015 and 2016?

Portland is nicknamed the Rose City, and the league's travel team, the Wheels of Justice, won the title again in 2018 and 2019.

Which roller derby league won four WFTDA Championships in a row from 2011 to 2014, after a first title in 2008?

Gotham, New York City's league, names its home teams after boroughs, among them the Bronx Gridlock and the Queens of Pain.

Which farm animal names the opposing blocker a roller derby team surrounds and slows to take control of the pack?

A goat is trapped so that the captors become the pack, which leaves the goat's teammates ahead out of play and unable to block.

Which roller derby move has a jammer leap across the inside of a curve, briefly leaving the track to pass opponents?

An apex jump is legal only if the skater takes off and lands in bounds, clearing the corner entirely through the air.

Which jersey did Roller Derby retire for every team after a 1937 bus crash killed 21 of its touring party?

Number 1 was withdrawn for good as a tribute, after the chartered bus blew a tire on a hill near Salem, Illinois.

Which cable network aired Rollergirls, a 2006 reality series about the banked-track skaters of TXRD?

A&E made 13 episodes around the 2005 season, and the exposure helped carry the women's revival around the world.

Which derby name does Elliot Page's character adopt in a 2009 film after lying about her age to join the Hurl Scouts?

Babe Ruthless plays on baseball's Babe Ruth, and her teammates in the film skate as Maggie Mayhem, Bloody Holly and Smashley Simpson.

Which Los Angeles team was the flagship of Roller Games, the more theatrical rival to the original Roller Derby?

The Thunderbirds, known as the T-Birds, were launched by a former Roller Derby skater once the older league had settled in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Under which name did roller derby's WFTDA begin in April 2004, as an informal message board for comparing notes?

The United Leagues Coalition was renamed in November 2005, when 22 member groups relaunched it as the WFTDA.

Which roller derby skater, known for dyed hair and a fiery temper, competed in seven decades from the 1940s onward?

Ann Calvello had a career long enough to inspire a 2001 documentary about her, Demon of the Derby.

Which US network gave Roller Derby its television debut in November 1948, with a 13-week run from New York?

CBS let the deal lapse in 1949, and ABC stepped in to televise games live across the country.

Under WFTDA rules, a roller derby skater may block with the arms only above which joint?

The elbow marks the limit: legal blocks come from the upper arms, the torso and the legs above mid-thigh, so a forearm shove is illegal.

What do the initials NSO stand for among the volunteers who time jams and track penalties at a roller derby game?

A non-skating official might keep score, time the jams or run the penalty box, working alongside as many as seven referees on skates.

Which roller derby penalty punishes a skater who leaves the bounds and comes in again ahead of an upright opponent?

Cutting the track means using the out-of-bounds area to gain position, though passing just one teammate that way is too minor to penalize.

Which European capital's league became the first outside North America to join the WFTDA, as apprentices in 2009?

London's league signed up months after Montreal became the WFTDA's first Canadian member, and earned full membership in 2010.

Which name is given to the area 20 feet ahead of and behind the pack, where roller derby blockers may legally hit?

The engagement zone moves with the pack, and a blocker who drifts beyond it is out of play and may not hit anyone until returning.

Which rubber part of a quad roller skate do roller derby skaters use for braking or pushing off?

Toe stops are fitted to quad skates, which steer much like a skateboard: tilting the boot to one side turns the axles.

Which jammer, once a synchronized skater at Syracuse, have writers called the LeBron James of roller derby?

Bonnie Thunders was named most valuable player at the 2008 WFTDA Championships, two years after her first tryout.

What happens to a roller derby skater who is sent to the penalty box for the seventh time in one game?

The skater fouls out once seven penalties are recorded, a count that includes penalties a captain or blocker takes on behalf of the team.

The roller derby name Sandra Day O'Clobber plays on a woman famous for holding which American office?

Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor joins Hello Kitty, Princess Leia and Guinevere of Camelot among the targets of derby wordplay.