Donald Batiste [93] After an organizational meeting and a disputed fundraiser, Policarpo and the women parted ways. WFTDA is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby. Bob Satterfield - Hall of Fame 2012 In the 1930s, he created the Transcontinental Roller Derby. Gary Bickford (January 16, 2017) Mary "Millie" Cooper RollerGames, created in 1989 by two television producers, David Sams and Michael Miller, and Roller Games owner Bill Griffiths, Sr., was a U.S. television show that presented a theatrical version of the sport of roller derby for a national audience. SAN BRUNO Ann Calvello, the "queen of the roller derby," died Tuesday from liver cancer at the Peninsula Medical Center. Butch McCrae Tommy Atkinson - Hall of Fame 1960 For the next decade, with sometimes as few as one game annually, the ASD attempted to keep the traditional game going.[91]. Our Mission. Sid Harnesk - Hall of Fame 2006 Debbie Cho Travelling roller derby show of professional skaters shown in Chicago's Coliseum with skater Vivian Johnson falling after losing control on a corner. [21][31] These races were billed as covering "4,000 miles" even though the simulated route was still about 3,000, covering the distance from San Diego to New York City. Wedding Venues In Harrisburg, Nc, [67], In 1954, the Derby established the most fabled team in the history of the sport, the longtime champion San Francisco Bay Bombers. People who want to learn to referee. Sherry Jackson Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States.. Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (jams) in which both teams designate a jammer (who uniquely wears a star on the helmet) and four blockers to skate counter-clockwise around a track. Softer wheels have a better grip and give you a smoother ride on a rough surface The woman. He also did the same thing with TV wrestling. [40], Transcontinental Roller Derby rapidly grew in popularity as a spectator sport. Women of roller derby on right track in . Annabelle "Slugger" Kealy - Hall of Fame 2004 Flowers. He is a cyclist and a harmonica player, occasionally at the same time. $89.99 - $94.99. Roller derby's roots reach back to 1935, when film publicist Leo Seltzer decided to combine the old dance marathons where desperate people competed for money prizes by dancing for days with roller skating, coming up with the idea of a Transcontinental Roller Derby. Ralph Vogel Roller Derby grew rapidly as a spectator sport which saw the skating team criss-crossing the US and racking up thousands of miles along the way. The Braves became the first international team when a tour of Europe was launched in 1953. Roller Derby thrived in Northern California in the 1960s and 70s. Billy Monte He left the staff in 2009 to teach elementary school and returned to the staff in 2015. With great sadness, the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame announces the sudden death of legendary star, CHARLIE O'CONNELL. Doug Monte After a few months, we often sold out at the Philadelphia Arena.. Private services have been held. Roller skating at this time was considered an upper class activity, complete with men in tuxedos and women in formal dresses. Eddie Williams Nellie Montague (September 2016) Sam Tiapula Frank Vining Annis Jensen (2015) - Hall of Fame 1960 E-mail: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com. In Los Angeles, Roller Derby was broadcast on the radio as early as 1939. Bay Bombers in 1957 and kept skating until 1978. Calvin Taylor We've missed you! In the sport, teams of five players circle a banked oval track, scoring points whenever the jammer on each team manages to skate past opposing players. Herb Elk Marylin Bullock Nelson Cabral (2016) The history of roller derby traces the evolution of roller skating races into a unique sport which has undergone several boom-and-bust cycles throughout most of the 20th century. Carolyn Barton TO WALK UP,SOME DAY, WHEN I REACH THE TOP The National Skating Derby Inc. was established that same year and the Thunderbirds were the flagship team. All times are GMT-6. Edith Branum 9. ", "MRDA Releases MRDA Branded Version of WFTDA's Rules", "Capitol Punishment: Battle on the Bank II: Teams", "Denver Roller Dolls Teams Mile High Club", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_roller_derby&oldid=1132593597, Articles with dead external links from January 2020, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2008, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2008, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 January 2023, at 16:41. Jean Christner If that were the case, you were likely to end up flat on your back or over the padded railing. Ed Dresser Chronicle staff writer Steve Rubenstein first joined The Chronicle reporting staff in 1976. No agreement was reached, and potential sponsors lost interest.[88][89][90]. Races routinely featured amateur skaters as well as professionals, some of whom toured as troupes. Jimmy Cullen A handful of leagues, mostly mixed-gender, have origins in earlier incarnations of the sport and heavily promote themselves as professional due to their history, management, membership, style of play and marketing considerations. After skating primarily in Northern California, a Midwest tour was launched in 1984, but flopped due to competition from baseball and football as well as weather-related problems. 3 min read. DeWitt Quarles The overall goal is to provide a safe place to learn, skate, and have fun for roller derby skaters of all skill levels. Riedell R3 Cosmic Superfly Speed Skates. Skaters trained constantly and traveled to games by train. A small plane that slammed into a car after landing on Interstate 15 in Fallbrook on Saturday killed a San Diego roller derby skater sitting in the vehicle's back seat, authorities said. Although it has evolved over the years, roller derby has been around since the early "30s, the creation of Leo Seltzer.It originally started out as a roller skating marathon. Bob Hein - Hall of Fame 2010 It chronicles the sport from its hey day in the 1930s to '50s, when young teens on roller skates would gather . Roller Derby Timeline PFM Roller Derby - Seattle-area Recreational Roller Derby Mr. OConnell is survived by his wife, former Roller Derby star Judy Maguire, and by three children. Howie Raines The growing popularity of roller skating in the United States led to the formation of organized endurance races as early as 1884, when skater Victor W. Clough skated 100 miles over the course of nearly ten hours in Geneseo, Illinois. In a 2005 interview, Ann Calvello mentioned gas shortages during the 1973 oil crisis as a contributing factor because teams could not travel. Judy Pocchiare Not Toni no no no, said long-time friend Jennifer Hubbard. Jump to. Sections of this page. Rodeo City Roller Derby welcomes Lilac City on Skate Patrick's Day The average age was 21. Game play consists of a series of short matchups ("jams") in which both teams designate a scoring player (the "jammer") who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. Evangelina Horne Isabelles death has emotionally crippled the roller derby community and skaters have raised 16,000 dollars on a gofundme campaign to pay for her funeral service. Joyce Young The history of roller derby traces the evolution of roller skating races into a unique sport which underwent several boom-and-bust cycles throughout the 20th century. However, this was not the first time audiences outside the U.S. had seen the game played live. . The views expressed here are the author's own. Aubrey Willis [60] In this period, Seltzer also sold the Jolters to an outside syndicate. (See the link https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/stories/peak-years-arena for more details about the Philadelphia Arena.) Abel Gonzalez I first saw Buddy, Jr. on TV in the fall of '67 when the Warriors moved to the Delaware Valley from Hawaii, said Gary Powers, Executive Director and Curator of the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame (HOF). Lombard Roller Rink closing later this spring, owners say Ted Mullen He never yelled at us, instead he helped us. Cons. Gerry Murray, an aggressive and durable roller derby star who began her career in the late 1930s and, after retiring, resumed it in the 1970s and whose teammates included her two husbands. Being on the team with Buddy was wonderful, said Dru Atkinson. Isabelle was killed Saturday while she and her friends were on their way to a roller derby event in the San Fernando Valley. Jerry Hickson Bill Driggers RollerJam games were televised out of "RollerJam Arena," on the grounds of Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. To prevent this from happening, players often become visibly enraged and perform dastardly acts that involve the throwing of a tantrum, a fist or a folding chair at an opponent, or otherwise behaving like a professional wrestler in tights. Long before the craze rolled into 2020, roller skating has held deep ties to Austin. [24] Skaters in these races only had to skate 8 hours nightly,[24] but were encouraged to engage in "jams"[23] and, at specific times, 5-minute sprints referred to in event programs as "open house". Only a few of the 23 passengers escaped the burning wreckage, and two of them died later from their injuries, bringing the total fatalities to 19 or 20 (sources vary). A final team, the Northern Knights, representing Canada, was announced in 1986 but never competed. [35] Points were accumulated on behalf of three "factions", each named for a color (Black, White, or Green) and consisting of five two-person teams skating in 15-minute shifts. Gerry Murray - Wikipedia USA Roller Sports Roller Derby - Team USA Roller Derby Candi Sabina Roller Skate - Black/Rose. A separate organization, International Roller Speedway, known in some countries as Roller-Catch, formed in 1937 and toured Europe, where they played at the Harringay Arena in London, and the Philippines. OConnell cant contain himself! hollered the TV announcer. Nov. 15, 1998 12 AM PT. In 1935, the savvy entrepreneur Leo Seltzer was tasked with creating and hosting events at the . No products in the cart. Although the team briefly moved to El Paso for its 1963-1964 season, it was based mainly in California. Betty Jo Harris Sixteen teams dropped out due to injuries or exhaustion, but nine teams finished, and the winning team, Clarice Martin and Bernie McKay, held the lead for the last 11 days of the event. [68], In 1958, weary of Roller Derby's off-air struggle by this time, crowds at San Francisco's Cow Palace had dwindled to two hundred or less Leo transferred Roller Derby to his son Jerry. District Court, S.D. Roller derby has come a long way since Raquel Welch knocked women off the track with a well-timed hit from a well-shaped hip in the 1972 movie, "Kansas City Bomber." Jack Wilson Yolanda "Baby Rocco" Roacho Lowell Shephard Retired skaters who want to ease back in. [65][66] Madison Square Garden no longer wanted to host matches, fan clubs disbanded, and Seltzer returned to pursuing real estate interests. The Bay Bombers, formed in 1954, became the team of choice, and the rest is history. Roller Derby, was built like a refrigerator with a head and did not take kindly to opponents who had the foolish notion of slipping past him. One major rule difference between previous leagues was the legalisation of in-line skates, which the WSL required for younger players in an attempt to push the league to younger players, more familiar with the in-line game, allowing for more precision skating over the traditional quads[citation needed], allowing faster skaters to participate. This is absolutely fantastic! Adele Hocker Alpha 110mm 3-wheel Inline Skates. Marlene Perales (2016) $55.99. Unfortunately, in-lines unlike quads, afforded little lateral mobility thus hampering the skaters ability to block effectively. The Jolters played at Armories in Newark, Jersey City, Teaneck, and Paterson. Visiting teams were always the villains and were the red shirts, while the home teams were always the heroic white shirts. Leo Seltzer - Hall of Fame 2005 [42][43], At 8:30 P.M. on November 29, 1948, Roller Derby debuted on New York television, beginning a 13-week run on the CBS-TV network, broadcasting at a time well before television was in widespread use. $119.99. When RollerJam was cancelled, many of the skaters found smaller leagues in which to skate. On Sale Now! Emily Thomas Many of you may have watched these Roller Derby shows on TV in the late 1960's & 70's and some rare classic 16mm prints are up on E Bay at times. Lou Sanchez, pictured here with the 1961 Texas Outlaws (back row, second from the left), was a professional roller derby skater from El Paso. Tony Smith (September 2016) Memorial held for roller derby skater killed in freak accident A skater from the Stockholm Roller Derby (C) leads players from the Kallio Rolling Rainbow during their women's flat track roller derby bout in Huddinge, Sweden on June 11, 2011. . [7][8], The popularity of roller skate racing, including endurance events, continued in the early 20th century. Give this article The roller. The petite Ms. Porter, who has died at 90, was a dervish on the professional circuit's banked wooden ovals. Aug. 15, 2019 Gerry Murray, an aggressive and durable roller derby star who began her career in the late 1930s and, after retiring, resumed it in the 1970s and whose teammates included her two husbands and her only son, died on Aug. 9 in Des Moines. A more theatrical imitation called Roller Games was started in 1961 in Los Angeles featuring retired Roller Derby skaters who chose not to make the move to San Francisco. Skate Parts RD Elite. Roller Derby Cruze XR Hightop Men's Roller Skate. Wes Aronson - Hall of Fame 1953. Frank Dill Knbr Obituary, Gene Vizena - Hall of Fame 2005 Bill Reynolds - Hall of Fame 1965 Ernie Lopez In 2003, Austin made waves as the site for the first-ever professional flat track roller derby league in the world. Just as many are channeling the 70s, many traditional roller derby athletes are moving back to the streets to stay on wheels at a safe distance. "I've always heard you shouldn't . California, Central Division. Roberto "El Fabuloso" Juarez Roller Derby Tracer Adjustable Kids' Inline Skate - Green - Target Dan Ferrari (December 14, 2016) Modern day roller derby began in Texas in 2000, when a hippy musician named Daniel Eduardo "Devil Dan" Policarpo held an impromptu meeting with a bunch of women in an Austin bar. Julie Atkinson (2016) ESPN dropped the contract in its pursuit of the more lucrative professional football market, and although talks were underway to broadcast IRSL matchups on USA Network, the IRSL was unable to survive without television support. WestSide Roller Derby. Mr. OConnell, the fearsome leader of the famed San Francisco Bay Bombers and a 1967 inductee into the Roller Derby Hall of Fame, died Feb. 9 in Oakdale (Stanislaus County) at the age of 79. Myrna Vandenberg (2014) Dolly Hansen The contests were emceed by celebrities like Frankie Laine and Red Skelton, and grossed $6 million[20] in three years. In the Spirit of Giving, there's no charge. Whirl Gray (2016) Julie Atkinson (2016) List of Famous Roller Skaters - No Coast Derby Girls 7. NSD was acquired by Bill Griffiths and Jerry Hill in late 1961. Ed Silver Otto Jones (2016) And you don't even need to skate. "We might soccer-mom on the side, but we skate derby," she said. [23] Contestants were the winners of elimination races in Seltzer's Transcontinental Roller Derby Association, which in September 1935 already had 3,000 members, paying $2 each,[32] at 1,600 rinks. The Warriors skated in Philadelphia from 1967 to 1976 and then again for several months in 1981. Freddie Cohen Roller Speedway was a modified version of the sport and normally featured two teams, representing Europe (the "home" team) and USA. Mr. OConnell, who was said to have skated in more than 3,000 Roller Derby games, was a native of New York, where he discovered skating because his grandmother was a fan. FALLBROOK A small plane landed on northbound Interstate 15 in Fallbrook Saturday morning and slammed into the back of a car carrying San Diego roller derby members, killing a woman in the back. Carol "Flip" Phillips Jack Cummings The public loved it, and demanded more. Crazy Skates Retro Roller Skates - Classic Style Quad Skates For Women And Girls. Sowinski began her roller derby career in 1959 with the San Francisco Bay Bombers, where she was Rookie-of-the-Year in 1960. Hall of Fame 2010, Dave PoundMay 5, 2000 Riverside Public Utilities Assistance Program, He added two more teams, the Northeast Braves and Southern Jolters (later renamed the Southern Stars), and renamed the Chiefs as the New York Dynamite and, eventually, the Eastern Express. Tony Marzano Delores Roberson Forty episodes of Roller Jam have been reversioned for UK television after successful broadcasts in other countries. This post was contributed by a community member. It was founded in 2007 under the name Men's Derby Coalition (renamed to Men's Roller Derby Association in 2011[97]), and currently has 64 men's leagues under its jurisdiction. Joanie Weston, 62, a Big Star In the World of Roller Derbies The only reasonably successful of these was the International Roller Skating League (IRSL), operational from April 24, 1977 to December 12, 1987. [28] Later that year, Transcontinental Roller Derby debuted in New York at the New York Hippodrome, simulating a 21-day "short course" from Salt Lake City to New York. Mickey Milane Bob Pancioli Joel "Doc" Rabin Ken Willis To Top of Page Roller Derby Candi Carlin Roller Skate - Green/Blue. Stars on this team eventually included Charlie O'Connell, Joanie Weston, and Ann Calvello. The first Transcontinental Roller Derby was held at the air-conditioned Chicago Coliseum on August 14, 1935, in front of 20,000 enthused fans. LEXIS 2240. It's one of America's fastest growing sports. Bus Gesser Sports league. The term derby, meaning a race or multi-race event, appeared in the press as early as 1922, when the Chicago Tribune announced and reported on the results of two "roller derby" events held that year. Hall of Fame 2004, Ralph ValladaresNovember 13, 1998 Sam Marchese (2013) [70] Several years later, UHF TV stations, mostly independent and desperate to compete with older, network-dominated VHF counterparts, snatched up broadcasting rights for their areas. Looking at two of the most prominent skaters of the time, Ann Calvello and Joan Weston, and how they were portrayed, may give us some insight. Add to Compare. The Rose City Rollers, Portland's all-female roller-derby troupe, begins its 2016 season on Saturday.The skaters, with their showy tats and playful nicknames (Va Va Boom, Push La Tush, etc . 27, at Vitas Hospice at Methodist Hospital. 19 or 20 people died (sources vary), and Seltzer had to scramble to hire more skaters. Jefferson County Tn Noise Ordinance, Initial teams, each consisting of seven men and seven women, were the New York Enforcers, the California Quakes, the Florida Sundogs, the Nevada Hot Dice, the Texas Rustlers and the Illinois Riot (Original names of the latter three teams were the Las Vegas High Rollers, Texas Twisters, and Illinois Inferno. Hi friends! mass effect 2 best armor; pusha t daytona album sales; franklin middle school staff website Al Stewart This roller derby was young with skaters ages starting at 15 years old and peaking at just 26. The Roller derby discussed here has no relationship to todays roller derby.) Bobby Campbell The math is a bit fuzzy, given that there are a lot of possible paths, but according to this thread on Reddit, 27 laps is vanishingly close to a mile. Roller Derby thrived in Northern California in the 1960s and 70s. Denver Roller Derby is made up of over 100 people, each doing their part to support the league. [56], Also in 1949, when the CBS contract expired, broadcasting was taken over by ABC,[42][57] and games were televised live throughout the United States. In 2000, Daniel Eduardo "Devil Dan" Policarpo, then an Austin, Texas musician, recruited women to skate in what he envisioned would be a raucous, rockabilly, circus-like roller derby spectacle. Modern roller derby is played in two 30-minute periods, where two teams of 15 each send five skaters onto the track at a time four blockers, one jammer competing with the goal of sending their jammer (the scoring player) around the track and through the line of shoving skater for a complete lap good for a score, as many times as possible before the end of the two-minute jam. The National Museum of Roller Skating says San Diego, not Los Angeles. Refusing the entries of all except skilled roller skaters", "Local skaters in long grind. They are still trying to solve the crime. [14][15][16] The New York Times noted that the crowd at Madison Square Garden enjoyed the sudden sprints and spills during the event's preliminary races. Hundreds of unemployed people participated, hoping to win cash prizes. which phrase signals a contrast between ideals about marriage 304-539-8172; one level homes in clemmons, nc casadeglo3@gmail.com T-Bird History. Deby Thompson Elmer "Elbows" Anderson - Hall of Fame 2004 This did not go over well with many skaters or die-hard roller derby fans. [3][4] Two deaths resulted from the six-day race: both the winner, William Donovan, and skater Joseph Cohen died shortly after the race was completed. Norma Rossner - Hall of Fame 2016 Herb Roberts Mr. O'Connell, the fearsome leader of the famed San Francisco Bay Bombers and a 1967 inductee into the Roller Derby Hall of Fame, died Feb. 9 in Oakdale (Stanislaus County) at the age of 79. Betty McTague He famously said, if 'one can make someone fear them on the track, they've won the battle.' Joanie Weston, a strapping power hitter who passed up a promising and respectable future in softball to become the gum-chewing, power-skating, hip-bumping golden girl of Roller Derby, died. Chicago Women's Rink Roller Skates. The 1950 film The Fireball, starring Mickey Rooney, was based on the life of one of the league's stars, Eddie Poore, who skated under the name Eddie Cazar. roller derby skaters who have died - travisag.com [77] Seltzer remained fond of the idea of regionalization, however, and envisioned his organization eventually becoming more like other sports leagues, with teams being independently owned and operated, and with the teams being associated with regions (South, Northeast, Mideast, Midwest, Central South, Southwest Plains, and West) rather than individual cities. This, too, was short-lived. Twenty years later, he trained a new generation of skaters in Orlando, Florida to compete in Roller Jam, TNNs roller derby revival, which only lasted for two years, 1998-2000. By mid-2009, there were 425 amateur leagues,[96] including 79 in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium and Sweden combined. [78], Two other developments in 1960s Roller Derby were profit sharing and annual contracts for skaters; many skaters previously held day jobs to supplement their income, or were only employed as athletes for part of the year. This roller derby was young with skaters ages starting at 15 years old and peaking at just 26. After two mostly dormant years during the pandemic . Roller Derby Roller Star Women's Quad Skate - White/Mint. KTVU FOX 2. Art Kids! The 62-year-old pilot was rushed to the hospital for facial surgery. Kenny Brien Jack "Toddy" Geffinger (2016) - Hall of Fame 2005 It's a banked oval track. Rita Bush (2015) Airing from October 2, 2006, on Challenge TV much of the narrative has been removed with sex and violence toned down for a family audience. Hall of Fame 1953, Russ MassroJuly 6, 2006 Kim Becker Terry Lewis (2013) Roller DerbyRoller Derby is a team sport of fast, furious, and often violent action that first appeared in the mid-1930s. [62] Skater salaries, negotiated by an informal players' union, were around $250 a week, with $35 and $60 bonuses for captains and player-coaches. [23][24] By early 1936, Seltzer had selected a group of teams who competed in Chicago, Miami, Louisville, and Detroit. BUT THOSE BELOVED ONES Unlike the intense, dangerous, and sometimes violent, sport we often think of as roller derby, it originated as a long-distance skating spectacle that looked more like the endurance crazes of the 1920s and 1930s than its more modern counterparts. Attend a derby bout and it's unlikely you'll see any player sporting a "1" on their jersey. Roller Derby News. Mitch Donock Under Seltzer, the Roller Derby survived until its last official game in 1973. Jo Jo Stafford Ann Calvello Obituary (2006) - San Jose, CA - Mercury News - Legacy.com By 1949, roller derby had become a national sensation, with skaters like Billy Bogash, Gerry Murray and Midge "Toughie" Brasuhn becoming well-known names. They donned helmets, kneepads and neon wheels as they readied for an evening of high-octane contact skating. Jim Ciota Roller Derby Candi Carlin Roller Skate - Green/blue : Target It featured a steeply banked figure-eight track, an alligator pit, and a number of skaters who had been in the Roller Games league, as well as younger participants. Corlus "Leo" Quigley (July 25, 2017) Bruce Eshner Where else does that happen in life?. The fledgling medium allowed underwhelming audience sizes to be made to look like they had packed venues to capacity, leading spectators to turn out in droves for subsequent matches. Jack Walker In 1979, one of the league owners, former San Francisco television producer Dave Lipschultz, bought and restructured it. Although this revival of roller derby was initially all-female, some leagues later introduced all-male teams. Facebook. [46] Armory crowds began in the low hundreds, but were soon in the five to seven thousand range. [75][76], In 1962, Jerry, in partnership with his uncle Oscar Seltzer (who had founded the Roller Derby Skate Corporation in 1936), created the Dixie Devils, a "home" team for the Southern United States cities of Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Orlando. Ducky Duckworth For the first time, skaters were required to wear helmets, and, at the behest of KTVU television announcer Walt Harris, he made the game more TV-friendly by making jammers' helmets easier to spot. Brad Lemkuhl Roller Skate Fit Club. Cal Stephens Josephine "Ma" Bogash - Hall of Fame 1952 Sonny Rimatello [81][82][83], At this point, the Bay Bombers home-team concept was duplicated with the New York Chiefs representing the Eastern U.S. and the Pioneers based in Chicago (but really everything west of Pennsylvania). Powers remembered that Atkinson would skate for other teams if one of their skaters were injured. The history of roller derby traces the evolution of roller skating races into a unique sport which underwent several boom-and-bust cycles throughout the 20th century. Hall of Fame 1968, Leroy GonzalesOctober 9, 2001 [77] Ronnie Robinson, son of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, was designated the team's star player. George Adams The Roller Derby Elite series is made for serious skaters and built to perform. Ralphie Valladares, longtime roller derby legend who skated and coached for the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, has died of cancer, it was announced Saturday. He was the best skater on the track he was the kingpin and he was what people were buying tickets for, said Gary Powers, director of the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame in Brooklyn, N.Y. And Charlie knew it. Although it was a form of sports entertainment for much of its existence, a grassroots, early 21st century revival spearheaded by women has restored an emphasis on athleticism.