Rollery derby league plays first game

TEXAS CITY — Frisky Bidness. Cyndi BopHer. Trauma Queen. TX SlamHer. Riot. Molotov Blocktail.

The girls dressed in leg warmers, stockings tights and skirts, skated onto the banked track for the first time to a sea of fans standing shoulder to shoulder. Some drank beer; others ate pizza and pickles. Everyone roared.

The South Side Roller Derby brought the once-desolate Kmart to life Saturday. The standing-room-only crowd of 375 people filled 3502 Palmer Highway in Texas City to watch the league christen its new building — House of Derby.

The fans could have easily swelled to more than 500, but the city set the preliminary building capacity at 375. It could increase as soon as next week.

“This is great,” co-owner Esther S. Connolly said. “We want this to be a place to be an exclusive event where tickets can be hard to come by.”

Pink played Black in a veterans exhibition game. Though the score and the stats didn’t count toward league play, the contest meant the world to the South Side Roller Derby’s 100 members and eight teams.

Founded in 2006, the league finally has a place to call its own. It used to play at Pear-wood Skate.

No more birthdays canceling league games. No more limits on practice time. No more hassles.

And don’t forget the $15,000 banked track. It took a year to raise funds to buy the special surface that only four other leagues have.

“This is such a long time coming,” co-owner Mary Jo Gould said. “We’ve worked really hard for this.”

Though there was no air conditioning — the league is looking for sponsors to help with the $4,000 unit to cool the 25,000-square-foot building — or bleachers, people came out to see it. In droves.

It gave new meaning to the “Field of Dreams” adage, “if you build it, they will come.” When the doors opened at 6 p.m., 200 people stood in line.

Some never had seen a roller derby game in their lives.

“I just wanted to check it out; it seemed pretty cool,” Cathy Hunter, of Texas City, said. “Plus, what else is there to do on a Saturday night in Texas City?”

Others had attended a contest before. Clinton Cobb, of League City, saw a game in Dallas a few years ago.

When he discovered South Side, he helped with a fundraiser and made sure to get tickets to the grand opening.

“It’s girls competing and grabbing each other,” Cobb said. “What’s not to like?”

The game is like a rugby scrum on skates. Two skaters on each team, called the jammers, try to get past the blockers on an oval track. The first one to do so successfully gets points.

There are gimmicks and entertainment. Dick Tater did a pirouette in leather pants after scoring to the delight of the crowd.

There’s a penalty wheel, which can include tug-of-war among other things, for fewer or more points. The game also includes ring girls, announcers and referees with names like Referential Treatment and Rob Noxious.

“It’s exciting and entertaining,” Christy Lala, of Webster, who came to see a friend, said. “I think the fights are the best part.”

Connolly said the crowd was one of the best ever for South side — certainly the most attendance for an exhibition game. If she could have let everyone in, it might have set a record.

Which made the grand opening in Galveston County — for players, fans and the league — a smash hit.