The Toughest Girl In Sports
Diane Syverson
It all began one unforgettable night. The first time I ever saw Roller Derby on good old KTLA out of the Olympic Auditorium. My Mother and I became huge fans. That was in 1965...I was 15 years old. Because I had three older Brothers, I had to gather and save my time for the tube so I could watch the Roller Games. For months I watched religiously every Tuesday night. I can remember saying to myself "I wish I could do that" and then I'd hear my answer "you can't do that". I would have dreams at night that I was out there skating...and it was the "World playoff games". The score was tied and the game sent into overtime. I'd take the helmet and ultimately dump my opponent and dive over the pack for the winning score!!" Then I'd hear the the voice again "you can't do that, you don't even know how to skate". After a few months of this routine I finally found another voice in me saying, "if everyone said this there would be nobody out there to skate". So I saved my money, bought a pair of roller skates, started going to the local skating rink, found out how to get the bus into downtown L.A. and in October of 1965 I took my first solo bus trip to downtown L.A., and the Olympic Auditorium.
Here is something that might tie in with this...an article by Ed Conrad that was in the National Police Gazette, entitled:
The Toughest Girl In Sports
Diane Syverson isn't your average woman professional athlete. True, there are a lot of other dolls in sports today. But Diane is different. She's good looking, damn good-looking, but in her case, those looks are might deceiving. She'd slug you as quick as look at you. That's because Diane Syverson is perhaps the roughest, toughest female in sports. She has enough natural talent to be a star without throwing punches like George Foreman, but does so just the same. "That's what they're paying me to do," explains Diane, softly and sweetly, belying her violent disposition. "Violence is the key part of the sport I'm in, so its understandable that violent I've got to be."
Miss Syverson is the attractive blonde captain of the Fleur De Lys, the only Canadian entry in the new International Skating Conference more commonly known as Roller Derby. Diane is affectionately - and unaffectionately - known to millions of fans across the continent as the "Slugger Queen" of the sport. In Montreal, which her team calls home, they worship her. Miss Syverson, 28, has been creating mayhem at circular tracks from coast to coast for the past nine years. So it stands to reason that she's built up a notorious reputation for fisticuffs ignited by her short fuse. "I don't know if I really am the toughest girl in the league, but I do admit I'm one of them," she said, just above a whisper. "A lot of gals are in the same boat though. Everybody knows our sport is only successful because of the violence. In a way, that's too bad. You sort of wonder about our game because it does preach much about violence. Yet, on the other hand, we're trying to show the people who come out to see us that being evil isn't the best way to be successful in this world."
Diane is certain that without the aggressive action, her sport would be fighting for survival. "Oh, there have been times when we've gone out on the track with the very best intentions of playing a good clean game...just skate, skate, skate," she noted. "There even have been games in which none of our players have thrown a single punch. But afterwards we learned that the fans were terribly displeased. They demand the violence, which is what they're paying to see and what we've got to give them. It's not too hard to give them what they want. After all, you can't participate in a sport with as much contact as we've got without any flare-ups of temper. I really can't blame the visiting team for resorting to violence. Some visiting teams only have to skate onto the track and the fans boo 'em right away. Immediately the visitors feel like they're the villains and naturally behave like villains. The way the fans react to the violence only goes to show the sadistic side of human nature," she sighed. "Hometown fans get so aggravated with the visiting team that they throw things at the players, but home team players often get hit. I've been belted a few times. True, I might have beefs with the opposition and I like to hear fans screaming and yelling at the other team, but when fans start climbing onto the track and try to mix it up with the player, well that's too much. I remember once when Margie Laszlo and I were into it hot and heavy at the rail and this lady fan jumped up and started pulling Margie's hair - granted I don't have any love for Margie, but even though it was one of my fans trying to help me, I swung and clouted this dame. Boy was she shocked! She didn't think I'd belt her, but I did!"
Diane, a brown eyed Libra, recalled how she first got interested in the Roller Derby. I was born in Ontario but my folks moved to Los Angeles when I was very young, she remembered. when I was attending high school the Roller Derby was on TV and I'd actually drool. Then one day I decided to do it for a living. But, shucks, I realized it must be an extremely difficult profession for a girl to get into. Then I thought, "Heck, look at all of the girls playing on all of the teams. How did they get their chance? If all of them felt the same way, there wouldn't be enough players to stock one team." So I paid close attention to the games on television and learned more about the mechanics of the sport.
I knew I'd have to become an excellent skater. I got out and skated as much as I could. I wound up with a lot of bruises from falling so much. Once I felt my skating had improved I decided to save my money to attend the training school for the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, and finally when I was 15 I enrolled at the school hoping for the best! When I got there everyone had the same advice, "work as hard as you can at it because you never can tell." Everyone felt, even if a girl wasn't that good, some team still might find a place for her. I did rather well and learned a lot. I must've been doing ok because I was invited to travel with the Detroit Devils on their tour of Australia one summer. When we returned, I skated on and off with the Devils while finishing my education.
The day after graduation I started to travel exclusively with the Texas Outlaws and remained with them for about a year. I was a freelancer, available to play for whatever team needed an extra player. Diane must've impressed quite a few influential observers because not too long after joining the Devils permanently, she was named captain. "I was the first captain Detroit ever had, and since I was only 19, I became the youngest girl ever to captain a Roller Derby team. That was quite an honor. My record was later broken, though when the Chicago Hawks named Betty Brown (since retired) captain. She was only 18 at the time."
What are the responsibilities of being captain?
"Well, you've got to understand all of the members of your team," responded Diane. "You have got to know what each gal on your team is best at, and how you can best use them. You've also got to recognize how to inject the necessary appeal into your club. That's the color that draws fans."
Just how much dough can a girl earn?
"Really, there's no limit once she has experience," said Diane. "Some of us make 50 to 75 grand a year. In my own case, my owner is no fool, and has been paying me well. I've got no complaints. It's a strange situation, when the younger girls join the Roller Derby most of them would probably skate for nothing just to get a start at doing something they enjoy. Younger kids just starting out earn only about $100 a week. They are between 16 and 19 with no families to support, so really don't need a big salary."
Diane admits the gruelling schedule gets her down. "We play about 300 games a year, about five or six games a week. "We might skate on as many as 10 straight nights before getting a night off. When you're on the go that much you need a long vacation after a while, the pace really drains you physically. Then too, the constant grind cuts into my personal life. I'm always missing out on good entertainment - shows and stuff - because we're playing in the evening and thus, a conflict. Personally I've had it up to here (pulling a hand across her pretty neck). I've been skating close to nine years, eight of them solid traveling. I can really use a break."
Diane, 5-8 and 140 pounds, isn't worried about injuries. She has never broken a bone even though constantly flirting with that distinct possibility when free-wheeling and dealing on the track. "The secret of avoiding injuries is learning how to fall properly, It comes with experience", she said. "When a girl first starts out, she's more prone to injury. As time goes by, she learns how to fall and how to handle herself."
How does Diane feel about being the Roller Derby slugger queen?
"Oh, it's pretty nice, I guess," she grins. "There's one problem, though, not too many guys are chasing you because it seems they're afraid of you. Some members of the Roller Derby get married, but I feel there's much too much travelling, and so it's better to stay single as I am, unless you like to go into the divorce courts. It takes quite a man to understand a woman with a profession that probably makes her salary larger than his. It's an impossible way to keep a romance flourishing. The way I see it, if a girl in the Roller Derby marries someone who doesn't skate, she'll hardly ever see him. At the same time, if she marries someone who does, she sees too much of him."
Naturally, Diane is constantly asked if she'd like to switch to skates with blades and try to make it in the National Hockey league - a place no woman has ever been. Imagine the box office draw! Diane and the Philadelphia Flyers' tough guy Dave Schultz going eye to eye and fist to fist. "Forget it!" Diane smiles. "It'll never happen. I used to ice skate as a kid, but when I got into Roller Derby I had to learn a new way to skate. Now can you believe it, I can't even ice skate. It's really weird. I can ice skate backward okay, but I can't skate forward. For some stupid reason my knees just won't let me."
National Police Gazette - January 1975
Diane Syverson, a roller derby queen decided to try her hand at boxing in 1977. She was a 26-year-old, 5' 7" weighing 147 lbs. Syverson had a good reach and used that advantage when fighting her opponents. Syverson was very popular in California due to her looking more like a double for television star, Dinah Shore, than a boxer. Syverson quickly became one of the top attractions among female boxers in California. The same promoters that were pessimistic about female boxing just a year earlier were quickly starting to sing praises for the newly found athletics. Although Syverson enjoyed boxing, she was a versatile woman who not only boxed, but was also interested in law enforcement and attended criminal justice classes at an East Los Angeles College while working as a bricklayer. In her first Los Angeles ring appearance in 1977, Syverson scored a close four-round decision over Theresa "Princess Red Star" Kibby -- the two had boxed a draw in Fresno just three weeks prior to that bout. Syverson's most impressive win in her brief pro career was a fourth-round knockout over Kim Maybee in Fresno, as Diane spotted her middleweight opponent almost 20 pounds.
Diane's highlights: She has also fought (WBAN has numerous photos, one video of Syverson when she was doing some real amateur - type boxing for Judell Long, in a makeshift ring, that were sent in by fans.) Syverson didn't box that long, but the time she did, she became known by many.)