The Roller Derby History of Joel Namer
My story starts on a Sunday afternoon in the early 50's. It was a day that started a whole new world of excitement for me. I was living in Manhattan at the time, and was in my mid-teens. That day I ran into a friend and neighbor who was carrying a NY Chiefs banner. I questioned her what the banner was all about, she explained that she had just come back from a Roller Derby game at the armory on Lexington Ave. and 26th St. I responded with "is that the stuff that they go around in circles and beat each others' brains out?" She said that it was a sport with a real meaning as to the going around stuff. She asked me to come to her house on Thursday night when it was broadcasted on WABC-Channel 7, and she would explain it to me. I did and I asked her to get me a ticket to the next game she was going to. She did for that Sunday, and I was hooked. I always did speed skating, and wanted to know how I could get into this. I sent Billy Bogash a letter, and he responded to me telling me I was too young to join the training school. I continued doing flat track skating, as well as skating on the streets of NYC.
I joined Junior Roller Derby and had my first taste of banked track skating. On my team at the time was Genie Pace and Ginny Lynch. We all got involved in the training school run by Buddy Atkinson Sr. I had just been accepted into college and that's where the conflict started in my life. I joined the NY Chiefs for awhile and had my family badgering me to give it up. To quote my mom, "this is no job for a Jewish boy". It was a short lived career, but I never forgot the experience.
I did go on to college and completed my education with an MBA. I traded in my Roller Derby uniform covered in green from the track, for a three piece suit. The color changed, in the big world of business to red. Red for the color that appeared on the back of my shirt from all the back stabbing. My friends who had gone on to stay with Roller Derby were my envy.
I got involved in The American Skating Derby in the early 60's at Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, NY. The organization that I worked for frowned on me doing this because I could be injured. I was once again forced to make a decision and as I think about it, I once again made the wrong decision as Roller Derby always was part of me and would always be there for me. Well, hindsight is 20/20.
I took an early retirement and relocated to Boynton Beach, Florida a year and half ago. By some sheer stroke of luck, I found a roller rink in the area that has skating for speed and/or figure skating. So,the old Chicago skates came out of the garage, and I skate two days a week. I get a natural high whenever I put on those old quads. People in the group I skate with are amazed at the age and condition of my skates. I had to change and adapt the wheels and axles to adapt to the rink's surface. I kid around that my skates look like a woman or man with a face lift. Wheels all new and shiny and the boots all battered. New face-old body.
Thanks to Loretta Behrens Nass, I have now found my old buddies from the good old days. Joe Kosmal, has sent me a list of Old Timers in the state of Florida. The interesting part of this, is that Genie Pace, who I skated Junior Roller Derby with now lives in the same area as I do. We have talked and laughed a lot about "those good old days".
There is no amount of money that could have filled the void that I had after my skating days ended.
Thank You Roller Derby for introducing me to friends that I have made. Where else could a Jewish guy, from the lower east side of NY meet people of all different types of ethnic backgrounds, and really learn that the real person comes from within. In my wildest thoughts I would never have believe I would become friends with Ronnie Robinson, and skaters from Des Moines, Chatanooga and Milwaukee. These were just places on a map.
Joel