roller derby

The tough love sport of Roller Derby

By: Greg Makarov, Sports Writer  Roller derby creator Leo Seltzer described his attempt to draw in crowds of people during the Great Depression as a sport full of “noise, color, and body contact.” This was in comparison to the subdued walkathons he previously ran that weren’t nearly as profitable. The change from walkathon to roller derby was inspired by Seltzer reading that 90% of Americans had previously tried roller skating. For its first two years, roller derby still operated similar to a marathon. Teams of two, traditionally made up of  of a man and a woman, would “skate 57,000 laps…

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