Austin’s very own Texecutioners of the Texas Rollergirls are playing an interleague WFTDA game for international ranking this Saturday, May 19th. This all-star team is challenging the Rose City Rollers’ Wheels of Justice from Portland, OR. This is more than just a game between two teams, but a hipster city show down. Roller derby bragging rights are on the line! Not only is this a huge game for the Texecutioners, but the Texas Rollergirls are introducing the league’s newly formed B-team, the Firing Squad, who will play the Rose City Rollers’ B-team, the Axles of Annihilation in Bout 1.
The All-Star Game is a big deal and shows how much flat track roller derby has grown as a sport. If you read Do512’s last blog about the Texas Rollergirls, then you already know the basic rules of the game and the role of the jammer, pivot, and blocker. Roller derby has a rich history too, so here’s a little background….The term “roller derby” was first used to describe roller skate races in the 1920s. A man named Leo Seltzer saw potential in the skate races to become a physical sport. In the late 1930s, Seltzer began to tour with teams consisting of five skaters. He emphasized the role of falls and collisions, and created a raised track to serve as the athletes’ arena. Roller derby acquired such an avid fan base that it began to be televised in the 1940s. Leo Seltzer’s son, Jerry, took over the business in the 1960s, but when the sport lost popularity, he closed the organization in 1973. A roller derby renaissance occurred in Austin when the Texas Rollergirls started a women’s league. Before the sport has been co-ed, but the Texas Rollergirls decided that women were more suited to such a tough sport, and they were right.
Now that you’re a roller derby connoisseur, you should head to the Austin Convention Center at 5:15pm this Saturday to cheer on the Texas Rollergirls’ Texecutioners and the city of Austin. The stakes are high, so there will be plenty of hip checking, booty blocking, collisions, and falls. So, come support these babes on speed skates by clicking here to buy tickets in advance or here for a chance to win one of five pairs of tickets!
