The 1963 Season

The 1963 Roller Skating Season will always be the one that I will remember likely the most.  It was the first for this blogger as a fan.

 

Both Roller Derby with several years and the National Skating Derby (or Roller Games) with one full year under their belt had expansion of sports entertainment in mind.

 

I believe it was Leo Seltzer who said that Roller Derby was planning on expanding first.  He was talking about the network of television stations across the United States that was now getting Roller Derby games on a taped and delayed basis. The NRDL was planning on moving the San Francisco Bay Bombers to the East Bay and Oakland.  San Francisco would get a new team and it would be called the Seals.  This never materialized at the time.  However, the seeds were planted for what would happen in the future.

 

The National Skating Derby had plans too.  Going into the 1963 season, the NSD would begin the season with six teams.  The T-Birds, Devils and Outlaws were established.  However, there would be three teams added.  The New York "Bombers", the Chicago Hawks and the third team, the San Francisco Clippers were added.  Also, there the Long Beach Falcons that were added in June 1963 making it seven teams. 

 

In the time of the Clippers, they were basically a "road" team.  However, the Clippers skated a couple of "home" games in Bakersfield, not exactly San Francisco.

 

The New York Bombers and Chicago Hawks would continue to skate in Roller Games until the end of 1973.  Interesting!

 

This would eventually set up two additional franchises that would end up in NRDL/IRDL territories down the road.  Will share more of that later in another post.

 

Moving on to the National Roller Derby League, it would now be called the International Roller Derby League.  The Brooklyn Red Devils would actually be replaced with the Mexico City Cardenales.  Personally, this blogger doesn't know if the team ever skated there.  However, the team skated in a town in Mexico known as Pecantonica, Mexico in April 1964.

 

The Cardenales were a very good team under Coach Ken Monte, women's captain Ann Calvello and two good jammers in Geri Abbatello and Tony Roman.  Though a road team, they skated several games in the San Joaquin Valley such as Tulare and Fresno.  They were definitely recognized as the home team in the two cities mentioned.

 

The Chicago Westerners were in a very interesting situation as well.  With the Western Season starting early in March, the Westerners skated much of the first month as the "road" team against the Bombers.  Then in April, the Westerners went back to the Midwest.  They would skate "home" games, not in Chicago at the Coliseum, but in St. Louis at the Armory.  This lasted until June.

 

That was when the Westerners began skating in the Pacific Northwest and as the home team once again.  The team would skate games in Seattle, Yakima and Spokane for example in Washington state.  Also, they would skate in Oregon in Portland and Salem.  The Chicago Westerners were now called the Portland-Seattle Westerners!

 

Finally, in Hawaii, the Honolulu Hawaiians were skating more frequently in Hawaii during the months of May and June.  It became obvious in 1963 anyway that the Bay Bombers were NOT the only home team for Roller Derby.  

 

Some people thought that this did not happen until after the 1971 Western Season when the Bombers were broken up.  However, seeing results in numerous papers around the country proved otherwise.

 

Moving on to the 1963 Roller Derby Playoffs, the Bombers rebounded from a injury plagued 1962 season and won the league pennant that year.  The Westerners, Cardenales and the New York Chiefs would round out the top four teams.  Just missing out were the Hawaiians and the Los Angeles Braves.  The Chiefs, improved, would return to the post season after missing the playoffs in 1962.

 

The Cardenales defeated the Westerners, 32-26 and the Bombers edged the Chiefs, 32-28 before 10,118 at the Cow Palace on September 20.

 

The next night, on September 21st before a, then record Western Season attendance of 15,284, the Westerners edged out the Chiefs for third place, 25-24.

 

In the Championship Game, Gerri Abbatello, a former Bomber skater early in the season, would score the winning point in the first overtime.  The Cardenales would win their first and only NRDL/IRDL Championship, 26-25.  Ironically, in a game early in the season, Abbatello when skating with the Bombers scored the winning point in overtime.  Definitely, lightning struck twice that season!

 

Following the regular season, the Bombers and Westerners would go on a nationwide tour.  The Westerners would now be called the Midwesterners and appeared to be the home team in the tour against the Bombers.  They skated in St. Louis and Chicago primarily.  Early in 1964, the Midwesterners would be replaced with the Midwest Pioneers.  The Pioneers would remain as one of the steady franchise until just before the end of Roller Derby in the fall of 1973.

 

The Cardenales wouls skate two All Star Games, to this blogger's knowledge, in October against the IRDL All Stars.  The two games were in Fresno.

 

Now, to Roller Games.  The Los Angeles Thunderbirds, definitely a good team in 1963, took home quite a bit of hardware.  

 

In the President's Cup in mid season, the T-Birds defeated Dave Pound, Julie Patrick and the Chicago Hawks, seven games to five.  The final game was won by the T-Birds, 50-47 in what was likely a thriller!

 

In the Roller Games World Series held late in the year, the T-Birds, behind Ralphie Valladares, Red Smartt and Terri Lynch would defeat the Texas Outlaws, four games to three in another tight and exciting series.  The Outlaws, am sure, were tough on the T-Birds all season long.  The team was led by Lou Sanchez and Shirley Hardman.

 

There isn't much this blogger can share with the American/Eastern Skating Derby for 1963 though the leagues still existed.  However, in 1964, there would be two more leagues that would be added to the fray, though they were short in existence.  The leagues were the American Roller Races and Roller Rama.  I will share more about the two new leagues and all of the, then existing ones, in the next yearly post.

 

Before closing, Ken Monte, who coached the Cardenales in the 1963 season, was elected to the Roller Derby Hall Of Fame by the Roller Derby News.