Marion Gunderson Art (and the Farmer's Daughter)

Please scroll down to view video of a roller derby bout that took place in the RAMS Event Center.

Saturday night sister Peggy and I sat on the stage of the RAMS Event Center…the same venue where we played basketball in high school in (Peggy) the late ’60s and (me) the early ’70s. As we watched the roller derby bout taking place on the gym floor, we mused, “Who would have ever thought when we played basketball in high school that one day there’d be a roller derby bout in that same gym?!”

Saturday night, October 29, 2011, the RAMS Event Center (formerly the Rolfe School District’s gym) in Rolfe, Iowa, hosted the Dakota City (Iowa) Demolition Crew and the River City (Mason City, Iowa) Dames of Anarchy. With Halloween only two days away and the Oak Street location of the bout, the bout was billed as “A Nightmare on Oak Street.”

Not including the derby teams, officials, vendors, etc., I’m guessing there were somewhere between 140 and 175 in attendance. The admission fee* was $10 and well worth it for a night out with family.

Photos from the bout are here.

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This late 1960s photo is taken from almost the same vantage point as Peggy’s and mine when we watched the roller derby bout Saturday night.( I.e., almost the same vantage point as the video above.) As the clipping caption says, Peggy is at the far right shooting a free throw. I assume the year is either 1967-68 or 1968-69. Does anyone know who the other white-uniformed player is? (Click on photo to enlarge.)

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*The admission fee was charged by the home team…Dakota City Demolition Crew. The same team paid a flat rental fee for use of the RAMS Event Center.

(Click here to go to Louise Gunderson Shimon’s blog’s home page.)

This entry was posted on October 31, 2011 at 10:22 am and is filed under Iowa, Rolfe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.