Roller Derby found a home in the San Francisco Bay Area following its Depression-era Chicago origins. An early television sensation, it faded to a modest existence in Los Angeles during the 1950s. Creator Leo Seltzer turned the game over to his son Jerry, who repositioned the traveling Bay Bombers from their home terrain of San Francisco to Fresno and everywhere in-between...However, economic and cultural changes closed the Roller Derby in 1973. Passionate fans clung tenaciously to its memory. In the 21st century, the game made an astonishing return not only in Northern California but also worldwide -- Publisher's description.

San Francisco Bay Area Sports brings together fifteen essays covering the issues, controversies, and personalities that have emerged as northern Californians recreated and competed over the last 150 years. The area’s diversity, anti-establishment leanings, and unique and beautiful natural surroundings are explored in the context of a dynamic sporting past that includes events broadcast to millions or activities engaged in by just a few. Professional and college events are covered along with lesser-known entities such as Oakland’s public parks, tennis player and Bay Area native Rosie Casals, environmentalism and hiking in Marin County, and the origins of the Gay Games. Taken as a whole, this book clarifies how sport is connected to identities based on sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity. Just as crucial, the stories here illuminate how sport and recreation can potentially create transgressive spaces, particularity in a place known for its nonconformity.

Since 1935, roller derby has thrilled fans and skaters with its constant action, hard hits, and edgy attitude. However, though its participants’ athleticism is undeniable, roller derby has never been accepted as a “real” sport. Michella M. Marino, herself a former skater, tackles the history of a sport that has long been a cultural mainstay for one reason both utterly simple and infinitely complex: roller derby has always been coed. Richly illustrated and drawing on oral histories, archival materials, media coverage, and personal experiences, Roller Derby is the first comprehensive history of this cultural phenomenon, one enjoyed by millions yet spurned by mainstream gatekeepers. Amid the social constraints of the mid-twentieth century, roller derby’s emphasis on gender equality attracted male and female athletes alike, producing gender relations and gender politics unlike those of traditional sex-segregated sports. In an enlightening feminist critique, Marino considers how the promotion of pregnancy and motherhood by roller derby management has simultaneously challenged and conformed to social norms. Finally, Marino assesses the sport’s present and future after its resurgence in the 2000s.

Roller derby first appeared in Chicago during the Depression. With the advent of television, this dynamic, sometimes violent sport became a national favorite. In Roller Derby to RollerJam, Keith Coppage takes a fond look at the origins, history, and players of the game who made it successful, from promoters to superstars.

A complete introduction to the exciting world of roller derby including how to play the game, strategy, training, fitness and nutrition. Roller derby is a unique, fast-paced, female-dominated sport that is taking the world by storm. It originated in the USA in the 1930s but it is the revival that began in 2001 that has inspired this new book. Roller derby has become one of the world's fastest-growing new sports and there are now more than 1000 leagues worldwide - in the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America and Asia - with new adherents coming to the sport all the time. As the popularity of roller derby has grown, the demand for information about the sport and how to play it has grown too. As leagues become more experienced, and players more advance, tactics and game play have grown in sophistication. There are many online forums and social networking sites devoted to training, tactics, fitness and nutrition, but up till now, no single source which gathered all the information together. Chapters include: - An introduction to the game, its history and rules - How to play the game - strategy and tactics - Fitness requirements - strength, endurance, and plyometric exercises for balance - Training - practical training programmes both on and off skates - Nutrition - what to eat before and after training, meal suggestions and supplement - The female athlete - specific training advice for women - Profiles of well-known roller derby players who share their top tips in all the above categories The introduction has been written by Suzy Hotrod, one of roller derby's most renowned players and there is plentiful advice from many of the sports leading players.

Larry Smith got some strange looks as a boy when he told everyone he wanted to join the Roller Derby, but he’d go on to have the time of his life living out his dream. As a member of the International Roller Derby League, he engaged in a style of play that gave the fans what they wanted: fights, hard skating, and great athletic ability combined with a fast-paced game. As a member of Roller Derby, he and his teammates welcomed minorities in the 1960s when racial tension was at its peak. Whites and blacks skated together, roomed together, and stuck together like brothers and sisters. Smith and his teammates sold out everywhere they played: Madison Square Garden, the Chicago Coliseum, San Francisco’s Cow Palace, White Sox Park, the Montreal Forum, and hundreds of smaller venues. While the quality of the game ultimately declined, Smith was there for its glory years, and he remembers it all as if it were yesterday. He looks back on his many adventures—some of them almost unbelievable—in The Last “True” Roller Derby.

The Bay Area is home to multiple popular franchises in all four major sports - the 49ers and Raiders (NFL), Giants and A's (MLB), Kings and Warriors (NBA), and Sharks (NHL). With such diversity in rooting interest, area fans have much to debate all year long, and prominent Bay Area sports-radio host Damon Bruce is just the man to get the debate going with this entertaining book of original sports and entertainment lists. Bruce also enlists the help of such notable local stars to contribute their own lists, including Orlando Cepeda, Brent Jones, Gary Radnich, Drew Remeda, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, and more.