Fan Memories
It was 1972 and my grandmother lived on Canal Street just outside the Holland Tunnel. She was a big Derby fan and brought me to a game at Madison Square Garden. I unfortunately don't remember much about it since I was only six years old at the time. I enjoyed it though since I was a sports fanatic. I remember watching the games on WOR Channel 9 on Saturday mornings. I used to sit in my room and use plastic football players as Roller Derby skaters and have games. Generally, it was three on three with my favorite, the Chiefs having Charlie O, Bill Groll and Mike Gammon and the three women were Sandy Dunn, Carolyn Moreland and Judi McGuire. There was just something about this game that really grabbed my interest. One thing that sticks in my mind was my grandmother being upset that Charlie O got suspended for throwing a referee over the rail. I am not quite sure what happened, I guess I got into the other sports and the Derby just faded away.
In the next few years, I saw the New York Dynamite a few times on TV and first learned a little about the T-Birds but there wasn't much in the way of the Derby. I started to play basketball, girls became friends you actually wanted to be with and thoughts of the derby disappeared. Fast forward to college when somehow I learned of a Roller Derby game being skated at Madison Square Garden on February 8, 1987. I coaxed one of my friends at college to go into the city to see the game. This was great. We were in the second row and were able to walk up to the track before the game. Sandy Dunn was returning to the Eastern Express, she was always one of my favorites. Not only that, but Ann Calvello was on the Southern Stars. Although many players had changed, it was the Derby I remembered, or so I thought. There were a couple of other familiar skaters and I thought the derby had just gone on without me. There was one more game later that year, the Express versus the Pioneers. I missed it because I went to a play with my then girlfriend (now wife) and her family. It wasn't that big of a deal since I would catch the Derby the next time around. Little did I know, there wouldn't be a next time.
Fast forward again to 1994 (or whatever the date was that was about 2 months before Craig's website). I was married and working now. There was this new thing called the Internet. It had information on anything you could imagine. I had it at work but didn't really want to use it. I was afraid I would want it at home and had heard stories on getting hooked and being on for hours and the phone bill was incredible. Since I didn't have a lot of money, this didn't sound like a good idea. I resisted for a while but finally broke down. One day at work, I decided to try this Internet thing. But what do I look for? After another half hour of thinking what to look for, I thought, let me look for Roller Derby. I put in my search and lo and behold, it came up empty. Boy, this thing stinks. I checked a few other things and saw it really wasn't too bad but why no Roller Derby?
It is here that you have to understand what kind of person I am. This now became a challenge to me. I was going to start my own website that gave credence to this sport I loved. How hard could it be? I went back to my parent's house and searched the attic. Somewhere, those three programs I had would unlock the key. I found them and started a little Excel spreadsheet with the skaters and the teams they skated with. This would be a fun project. It still didn't hit me that I was watching it in 1972 and it was about 20 years later. Anyway, I would get the answers. After fumbling around for about two months, Astroworf (Craig Buchman) started a website. Finally, someone else in this world knows about the Derby. It was here that I learned this project was just a little bigger than I had originally expected. I was thinking there were six teams that started in the 70's and were still skating. There was only one league and that was it. The project was really going to start taking form.
As I learned more, my Excel file turned into an Access database. The 50+ skaters I was tracking had now turned into hundreds, even thousands. My one league turned into quite a few more and my three programs have blossomed into a pretty decent collection. Today, my project is a four-pronged attack that overlaps at times. They are:
- Skaters - My database has a listing of each skaters and some bio information. I have first and last name, nickname, gender, hometown, birthdate, height and weight. I then list what teams and leagues they skated for with the year, team, league and their number.
- Leagues - I have a listing of League profiles. To date, I have profiles, some well populated and other not so well for about 41 leagues. I tried to gather the league name, executive, dates skated, where skated, years in existence and teams that skated.
- Rosters - I combined information from the two above to try and generate rosters.
- Awards - I have a listing of the awards given out in each league.
The list is hardly complete and there are many gaps. But to me, finding the pieces to this puzzle is a lot of fun. I have had help from many people during my research, too many to mention. I do feel though that I have to give a special mention to five individuals that got me started. First was Craig Buchman, without his website, I may have never have gotten off the ground. Bill Nagy, he was the first to introduce me to Roller Games and was nice enough to let me borrow some annuals so I could make good scans and copies. Mark Olsen, he also sent plenty of copies that helped fill in many pieces. Dave Marez, the first skater to help me fill in some pieces and Joe Panzarino who invited me to his house and shared some of his vast knowledge of what happened in the fast moving turbulent times of the seventies where leagues seem to pop up every other week. These are the first few but as I said, there are many other individuals that have helped fill in pieces by trading copies of memorabilia and sharing their knowledge.
Today, I have accumulated over 1,500 pieces of memorabilia ranging from Roller Derby News to Gazettes to programs to annuals to yearbooks to RolleRages. Not bad and they provide great information but the funny thing there are so many more out I still have to get. My little project has also taken me through tracking a 65+ year old game and I have listed over 2,000 skaters. I must say, that is not what I had in mind those so many years ago. I have all of the pieces in some sections, while others are quite sparse. I thank you all for helping fill in some pieces, every little bit counts.
In closing, I just want to answer a question I surprisingly haven't gotten too often. Why? Why am I doing this? The answer is even easier then you may think. It is a challenge. Sure, I have thought about writing a book from the fans perspective of creating a Roller Sports encyclopedia complete with pictures and bio information and have even thought of some other ideas. I hope to someday deliver something. God knows this has cost me enough already. An encyclopedia is tough because I can't really do that until I get complete information. For example, I only have roughly 45% of the biographical information I need. Besides, I have a 4 year-old and a 6 year-old which limits my time. Maybe someday...
Thanks for the chance to tell my story, if anyone has any questions or has any information you think may be helpful, I can be reached at email JohnnySy@rcn.com.
Thanks, John Seylaz