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If you're looking for a little roller rink excitement Chicago-style, go check out the Windy City Rollers, the city's premier all-female roller derby league. For just 14 bucks, this Groupon gets you into an action-packed battle between the Windy City Rollers and the Philly Roller Girls at the UIC Pavilion on Saturday, July 25, 7 p.m.
Roller derby is a contact female sport that originated right here in the Windy City (hence the name of the league). During the competition, packs of five players from two teams skate around a thin track, jamming and blocking each other to stop the other team from scoring. The sport had all but disappeared from Chicago until Elizabeth "Juanna Rumbel" Gomez and Kelly "Sister Sledgehammer" Simmons decided to bring the derby back to its birthplace in 2004 (after a visit to derby-revival capital Austin, Texas). Nowadays, the Windy City Rollers have skyrocketed to an impressive national presence: #2 nationally in 2008 and top in their division this season.
Roller derby, the contact sport based on formation roller skating around an oval track, emerged from skating races in the late 1800s. During the Depression, unemployed folks increasingly participated in prolonged dance marathons. The Depression-era spectators' appetite for preposterous endurance gradually became more and more vulgar, and they eventually put on roller skates, which ultimately became roller derby. See the evolved version of this highly entertaining sport with today's Groupon.
Reviews
10BEST and fans rave about the excitement, intensity, and sportsmanship of the Windy City Rollers:
- The girls have fun nicknames like Val Capone and aren't afraid to get bruised and battered for the love of sportswomanship. – 10BEST
- I'm pretty sure this is about a pure of sport as you get nowadays... A painful, tiring, punishing, blood thirsty, sweat dripping performance that is breathtaking til the end. – Matty O., Yelp
