Memphis Roller Derby!

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About Memphis Roller Derby!

Post all of your MRD related stuff here!



MRD History (I took this stuff right from the site.)

In January 2006, Sam Red's coworker brought her a tape with six episodes of A&E's reality television show Rollergirls. Red, who had just bought a pair of quad skates on a whim, stared at the screen and said, "Oh God, this is my destiny?"

Knowing she couldn't start a league on her own, Red immediately called the most organized person she knew, Jen Hughes, a librarian. "No way am I skating, but I'll help you with the business aspect," Hughes said.

Next Red called Vicki Lassiter, the drummer from their former all girl band, Pistol Whipped. Red hadn't talked to Lassiter in over a year, but knew she'd be perfect for the derby. You're joking, right?" Lassiter said before hanging up.

A week later Lassiter called back. She had talked to some of her skateboarding friends and local bands and could see it all coming together in her mind. "I can't sleep because all I can think about is Roller Derby," she said. "Let's do it."

The three women decided to set up a Myspace account and plaster every bar, restaurant, and record store in midtown Memphis with flyers to spark interest in the derby. Their plan worked and three weeks later, a mob of ferocious women in fishnets and short skirts gathered at Skateland Raleigh to lace up their skates and see if they still had the skills they had carefully honed at birthday parties in the seventies and eighties.

Luckily, they did.

About MRD

That smell of burnt rubber around town? It isn't from high-speed hot rods, but high-speed hot quads.

Since February 2006, about 40 Memphis-area women have been racing their quads, the four-wheeled roller skates that pre-date inline skates, in preparation for the newly formed Memphis Roller Derby (MRD). Of course, the wheels are actually made of polyurethane now rather than rubber, but when youÂ’r'e burning wheels, it all smells the same.

MRD is the region's only all-female, flat-track derby league. The skaters, women 21 years and older, practice speed, stopping, weaving, and jumping drills each week at various area roller rinks.

http://www.memphisrollerderby.com