Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
The 1965 season has to go down as one of the most unpredictable seasons for two of the top skating leagues, Roller Derby and Roller Games.
The previous November, the stage was set. The National Skating Derby would come to San Francisco and Northern California and would stage a series of All Star Games at Winterland. The California All Stars would take on the Texas Outlaws in most of the matchups. Other games would have the Devils instead of the Outlaws taking on the all star team.
The IRDL, knowing of this, would have a series of games at Kezar Pavillion at the same time. Winterland and Kezar were about three miles apart from each other. Anyway, the Bombers skated against the IRDL All Stars.
Early in January 1965, after a couple of preseason games, the newly formed San Francisco Bay Shamrocks of the National Skating Derby, opened their season on January 9th. Their opponent would be NSD's 1964 World Champion, Los Angeles Thunderbirds. The Shamrocks were victorious, 69-65 at Winterland. They would go on to win the series, five games to zero, and their season was underway!
The IRDL Bombers would open their season a lot earlier than in past years on the West Coast. They would open in San Jose against the New York Chiefs, a victorious one.
From the newspaper clippings, both teams did well on the scoreboard with series wins. However, over the six-plus months of the Shamrocks, there were numerous obstacles that they weren't able to overcome.
Often, the two teams played on the same day in the same city, like Sunday nights in San Francisco! One team would draw fans, the Bombers, and one wouldn't, the Shamrocks.
By June, you would see less and less appearances by the newly formed team. Eventually, by the middle of July, it was decided by management that the Shamrocks would be a "road" only team. In August, the team traveled to Hawaii to face another NSD team. In 1963, they were the Honolulu Hawaiians. The team would switch from the IRSL to NSD sometime late in 1964. That team would be the Hawaiian Warriors. More on this under Roller Games.
If Roller Games was having issues, Roller Derby wasn't perfect either. Most of the Bay Bombers' series were long series of two to three weeks. A couple of exceptions were the Honolulu Hawaiians and the Los Angeles Braves.
In the case of the Hawaiians, there was one - four game series in June that really seemed unusual. After that series, we never heard from the Hawaiians again except for a doubleheader game at the Cow Palace.
Regarding the Los Angeles Braves, this was interesting too. There would be a game here in the Bay Area. Then, there would be a game in Los Angeles. Later, roller skating fans learned that the Braves were a part of an outlaw league called American Roller Races. The league was formed by Braves' skater, George Copeland in 1964.
There would be an addition of one team, the Texas Mustangs that appeared in a the same doubleheader in June at the Cow Palace. From what this blogger saw, just one game only. The Mustangs were also a team that was part of American Roller Races. Interesting!
It appeared that the remaining four teams in the Bombers, Cardinals, Pioneers and Chiefs would be active. For example, if the Bombers and Cardinals were playing a series in Northern California, the Pioneers and Chiefs would skate somewhere in the Midwest. So, for the skaters, that was good news.
Besides this, the season provided a lot of Roller Derby and Games action in the Northern California. The season would end with the Championship Playoffs at the Cow Palace. This would be the final year that the Cow Palace would hold two games each night. More on this with the 1966 Season post.
The two day Cow Palace totals drew over 27,000 fans with 15,122 at the second night of action. It was the second largest crowd to the 1963 Championship Game.
The Bombers would make it two straight championships with a 47-42 triumph over a good Cardinals team. The Pioneers edged the Chiefs in the third place game.
Now, on to the National Skating Derby. The season was definitely complex as was the IRDL. The NSD was working on adding three teams, to my knowledge. They were the Arizona Chargers, a team that played some home games in the Phoenix area, the Shamrocks in Northern California and the Hawaiian Warriors.
The Warriors, apparently formed in 1963, came into their own in 1965. They would skate in the mainland whether in Northern or Southern California. They would become the only skating team in Hawaii when the Honolulu Hawaiians disbanded late in 1965 in the IRDL. Eventually, of the three teams mentioned, the Warriors were the only ones to make it until the National Skating Derby ended in December 1973. The Warriors would also finish third in the consolation game at the end of the season.
The Los Angeles T-Birds did well in capturing the NSD Championship and the President's Cup in mid season. The T-Birds defeated the New York Bombers 115-111 at the Sports Arena.
The one unfortunate situation with the National Skating Derby was some postponements in the Los Angeles area in August due to the Watts riots. There were postponements of Roller Games and Pro Wrestling as a result. However, it appeared that in early September, there would be skating once again.
The off season for both the International Roller Derby League and the National Skating Derby would prove to be a short one.
Both leagues would have games in January. There would be a few surprises! Would there be inter league play? Would there be a mid season tournament in the IRDL? Also, would the IRDL be possibly be skating in a new arena?
Please check out the 1966 Season to be posted soon!
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