A Lasting Impression

I'll never forget the day I discovered roller derby and the San Francisco Bay Area Bombers. It was a day others from my generation and previous ones would also never forget, but for a very different reason, not because of roller derby.

It was the day of the funeral for Robert F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated during his campaign for president in 1968. Like most kids back then, I shot out of bed and headed for the living room to watch cartoons. Instead of finding any on that morning, the few stations that existed back then were showing the back of the train steadily rolling down what appeared to be endless train tracks, transporting the coffin with Bobby Kennedy's body to the cemetery. I once heard that scene referred to poetically as "the tracks of our tears."

Not all the stations were fixed on that scene, just the ones I normally watched on Saturday mornings. The one station that was not airing the funeral procession was a local channel, KTVU 2. Instead it was showing some wild team sport, with players competing on skates on a large banked track, and every now and then a wild brawl would erupt.

Half of each team consisted of men and the other half women. The men's squad skated and battled the other team's men and likewise for the women. A tall, attractive blonde, Joanie Weston, skated on the home team Bombers and seemed to be everywhere. She was a graceful skater with speed and strength, and it was obvious she was a top star. Later in the game she was unjustly ejected. I knew she was wronged and so did everyone else watching on TV and in person.

The real culprit was some wild and brutally mean woman on the opposing team. She was the one who should have been thrown out! I felt really bad for Joanie as she reluctantly exited the track per the orders of the referee in charge. Once off the track she threw a few wild punches at that no-good meanie Ann Calvello, who was taunting her. The referees quickly put a halt to it and made Joanie leave. I didn't even know her but already missed her.

I looked on, frozen in place, in total amazement. Just then my dad passed through the room and I asked him what this wild thing was called. He told me it was roller derby and that was it - I was hooked! I wanted to grow up and skate for the Bombers.

Over the years my dad took me and my brother to Kezar Pavilion in Golden Gate Park to watch the Bombers live on Sunday afternoons. We'd either be there or glued to our TV set at home, watching them. That's how much Joanie, the team and the sport affected me. Very few are ever able to fulfill their childhood dream but in 1980, late in Joanie's career, I became a member of her Bombers and went on to a lengthy career in the sport, eventually becoming the general manager for my beloved team.

Jim Fitzpatrick, fan extraordinaire

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