Rollergirls: The Story of Flat Track Derby

By Felicia Graham, Melissa Joulwan and Dennis Darling

Flat track roller derby is one of the country’s fastest growing sports. What started as a single league in Austin, Texas, a couple of decades ago has grown into an international phenomenon, with nearly two thousand leagues around the world.

Rollergirls captures the spirit of the game, which is poised to become an Olympic sport, and highlights the women who have become known as the godmothers of modern-day roller derby. Documentary photographer Felicia Graham takes readers on a visual tour of more than 160 black-and-white images, showcasing the confidence it takes to become a rollergirl and the camaraderie that develops among the players. Focusing on the Texas League, where it all began, Graham celebrates the culture and personality of flat track derby everywhere.

Despite their different reasons for joining the sport, women of varying professions, ages, and lifestyles have made roller derby uniquely their own. With tongue-in-cheek team names like the Hotrod Honeys and personas like Sparkle Plenty and Buckshot Betty, the players use their brains and brawn to master the strategic game while also expanding the sport internationally. It’s all done with bravado and a brash sense of humor unique to full-contact sports.

Graham has been photographing the Texas Rollergirls on and off the track, in Texas and on the international circuit, for more than a decade. Spending untold hours with the league and collecting thousands of photographs of pivots and blockers, adoring crowds, and the sweat of the bench, she has created a visual narrative of women who embody the freedom of flying around the track. In these pages, readers learn how regular girls become rollergirls--determined, athletic, intimidating, and powerful, all on their own terms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trinity University Press
• Release date: Jul 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781595348838

Felicia Graham

Felicia Graham is a documentary photographer whose clients have included ABC, Disney, Warner Brothers, and NBC. She received her master’s degree in photojournalism. She has been the official photographer of the Texas Rollergirls since 2005, and she lives in Austin. For more information, see feliciagraham.format.com.

Book preview

ROLLERGIRLS

THE STORY OF FLAT TRACK DERBY

ROLLERGIRLS

THE STORY OF FLAT TRACK DERBY

Photographs by FELICIA GRAHAM

Foreword by MELISSA JOULWAN

Afterword by DENNIS DARLING

Trinity University Press

San Antonio, Texas

Published by Trinity University Press

San Antonio, Texas 78212

Copyright © 2018 by Felicia Graham

Warrior Women on Wheels copyright © 2017 Melissa Joulwan

Afterword copyright © 2017 Dennis Darling

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.

All photography by Felicia Graham, with the exception of pages 14 and 17 courtesy Chicago Tribune Archives, and page 13 courtesy kathyathy.com

Book design by Julie Savasky and Jeffrey Wolverton

Pentagram Design, Austin, Texas

Design modification by BookMatters, Berkeley

Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-59534-882-1 hardcover

ISBN 978-1-59534-883-8 ebook

Trinity University Press strives to produce its books using methods and materials in an environmentally sensitive manner. We favor working with manufacturers that practice sustainable management of all natural resources, produce paper using recycled stock, and manage forests with the best possible practices for people, biodiversity, and sustainability. The press is a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit program dedicated to supporting publishers in their efforts to reduce their impacts on endangered forests, climate change, and forest-dependent communities.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 39.48–1992.

CIP data on file at the Library of Congress

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THIS BOOK IS FOR ALL THE TEXAS ROLLERGIRLS, PAST AND PRESENT. YOU LET AN OUTSIDER IN AND MADE ME ONE OF YOUR OWN. I WILL ALWAYS BE EXTREMELY GRATEFUL. THIS ESPECIALLY GOES OUT TO THE BEAUTIFUL SKATERS WE’VE LOST: SIC SHOOTER AND PIXIE TOURETTE. Y’ALL WILL ALWAYS BE WITH US.

TO MY FAMILY AND