Maureen O'Brien
Maureen was born on May 10, 1941, in German Town, Manhattan, NY. When she was a kid, Maureen, enjoyed skating in her neighborhood. She use to skate on those metal skate wheels where you had to lock the plate onto your shoe and tighten them with a key. Maureen enjoyed skating so much that she eventually won a trophy in 1962 from the senior ladies' (RSROA), an amateur speed skating league.
Maureen became interested in Roller Derby in the late 1950's, along with two of her cousins (Dot & Fran) from Long Island, NY. They signed up for the training school in Manhattan. The training school was held at the 14th Street Armory and Buddy Atkinson Sr. was the trainer. Unfortunately her cousins did not continue with the training and therefore did not get onto a team. Maureen however did complete the training and eventually got picked up by a Roller Derby team.
Maureen started her training in the late fifties when she was still in high school. In 1959, upon graduating high school she continued to train until 1961 when she was picked for a team. Maureen mentioned that her first trainer was Gerry Murray, then Gene Gammon and then Buddy Atkinson Sr. Maureen skated for several different teams. As near as she can remember, chronologically her teams were: the first year,(1961) the NY Chiefs, her team captain was Cathy Read. The Chiefs mainly skated at the Sunnyside Gardens. She believes she was on that team for about one year before moving out to California in 1963 where she was picked up by the SF Bay Area Bombers. Her captain was Annis "Big Red" Jensen. She really liked skating for both captains,(Read and Jensen). While skating on the Bombers for a couple of years, Maureen found out she had a tumor on her thigh which caused her to leave Roller Derby for a while.
When she returned to the Bombers Joan Weston became captain in 1965. There was so much talent on the team, that she felt out of place. A lot of the skaters wanted to exhibit so much showmanship, some of that showmanship included fights and other crazy stunts. Maureen just wanted to skate and not be part of a lot of the shenanigans. Once she was feeling better regarding her thigh she was put on the Midwest Pioneers with Ann Calvello was the captain. Mo remained on with the Pioneers for approximately two years. In 1970 Maureen got to skate for the New England Braves with her original captain, Cathy Read. She was excited to be back skating for Cathy. She became more involved with this team. Cathy would allow her to do just about anything skate wise for the team. Not only did she have a bigger role on this team, she got to skate in a manner that was her first love! Maureen left the Braves to sign with the NY Chiefs once again, this time it was 1972. This time her captain was Sandy Dunn and the lead jammer was Judi McGuire. Judi, was Sandy's right hand "woman". This team was was also very loaded with talent. She skated for the NY Chiefs for only one season. This was considered the home team on the East coast. Once again, there was so much talent on the team that she did not feel she fit in.
Jerry Seltzer decided to take her off the Chiefs once the team got to the West coast. Maureen skated for another team once she left the Chiefs, she even became captain of this team, but she cannot remember the name of this team as it only lasted for approximately three months. Maureen said that she remembers skating against a rival team with their captain, Jan Vallow. Maureen said,..."Jan Vallow was incredibly tough and strong. She seemed to know what our team's plays were going to be. Whenever, we tried to do a certain play, Jan was right there! This was Maureen's last team. Jerry Seltzer closed the doors on his Roller Derby. Since there was no more Roller Derby in the bay area, that was it for her!
When asked, if she was involved with the Roller Derby strike back in 1972, Maureen replied "yes." She said the reason why they had the strike was that they paid the top skaters who displayed heavy showmanship lots of money. They didn't want to pay for the other professional skaters, such as herself who just wanted to skate and knew the game. They brought these young skaters from the training school who barely could stand or skate on the track, and paid them to skate on a team. Meanwhile, the rest of us were kicked off our teams, thanks to Jerry Seltzer. That's what the strike was all about.
Maureen said in her skating days her toughest competitors were Ann Calvello, Jan Vallow, Gerry Murray, Annis Jensen and of course Shirley Hardman. Most of these skaters were from Roller Derby. Some skaters went on to skate for Roller Games.
One skater she remembers was Ann Calvello. Annie use to take off her helmet and hit her from behind and smack her in the back of her neck, and back. Mo said, "I just felt at that point that all I wanted to do was lie down and die". She remembers she was hit so hard that she ended up having broken blood vessels on the back of her neck and back.
Maureen continued to look at her past and said, ..."I loved skating derby in the 1960's. The arenas back then were always pretty much packed or sold out. The crowds felt so alive"! One of her favorite arena's to skate in was Madison Square Garden in New York. She also enjoyed skating at the Cow Palace in South San Francisco, and the new coliseum in Oakland, California.
One of the things that I miss about Roller Derby was getting to see a lot of sights. In the 1960's we got to travel all over the United States. This was really when we were in our traveling years. We would get some days off during the week, to sight see. When we traveled to Mississippi, I got to see where the slave dungeons were. We saw so many other sights such as when we were in Florida, New York and other historical states. However, there were some places in the South, that I would really like to forget. Therer was so much prejudice at this time that she remembered African Americans could not stay in the same room with Caucasians.
When Maureen retired from the game back in 1972, she took another career working for the U.S. Post Office. She worked for the Post Office for 30 years and 2 weeks! She just bought a motor home so she can enjoy her camping and even go jet skiing. Her motor home is called the Discovery.
Maureen has commented on the newer Roller Derby games that are skating presently. She does not like the direction that is going on with the games today. She has seen some of the roller girls on TV and feels there is too much "showmanship" once again. She does not like how they are skating on the track. If I were their trainer I would teach them how to skate and then teach them how to take the rail.
written by
Steven Springs