{"id":3030,"date":"2021-08-20T14:18:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T18:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2021-08-20T14:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T18:18:16","slug":"my-friend-bill-hill-has-roller-derby-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2021\/08\/20\/my-friend-bill-hill-has-roller-derby-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"My Friend Bill Hill Has Roller Derby Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Bill Hill and I go way back.\u00a0 We arrived at UNC Charlotte\u00a0within two years\u00a0of each other.\u00a0 Bill came in 1982 as a communications studies professor and debate coach, and I came in 1984 as an English professor with a specialty in children\u2019s literature.\u00a0 Shortly after we met, we discovered that we both liked to play ping pong.\u00a0 Nearly every week we played fast-and-furious ping pong games during our lunch breaks, and we\u2019ve been friends ever since.\u00a0 Over the years, our careers followed along similar paths.\u00a0 We both served as program directors, department chairs, and associate deans. \u00a0Bill retired a few years ago, but we still stay in touch on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another point Bill and I have in common is that we both pursued unusual careers before we entered academia.  During the 1970s and early \u201880s, I worked as a professional puppeteer, and around the same time period, Bill pursued a career in the professional roller derby world.  I\u2019ve long enjoyed hearing Bill\u2019s inside stories from his roller derby years, and I\u2019ve often thought that these stories would be of interest to a wide audience.  Well, I am pleased to report that Bill\u2019s roller derby stories are included in Jim Fitzpatrick\u2019s new book titled Ad-Lib to the Blow Off!:  The True Story of Professional Roller Derby. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the chapters in Fitzpatrick\u2019s book is titled \u201cBill Hill: The Debater and the Skater.\u201d  This chapter traces Bill\u2019s involvement in roller derby, from watching roller derby on television with his father, to skating with the Chicago Pioneers and other teams, to working as a commentator for ESPN\u2019s coverage of roller derby.  This chapter is chockfull of stories from Bill\u2019s roller derby days.  I especially enjoyed the stories about how Bill entered the world of professional roller derby, including a story about hitchhiking to San Francisco so that he could participate in a roller derby training program.  The chapter concludes with a reflection from Bill about his skating career:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bill Hill, 1972<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, Roller Derby changed my life.  I have often said that I learned as much or more being on the road skating as I did in school.  I grew quickly when I joined Roller Derby; it was an experience and a prerequisite for getting along. \u2026 I constantly think about the places, the people, the feel of the track, the sounds of the audience.  Yes, I miss all the night drives, \u2026 I miss the bumps and the bruises, I miss the people, \u2026 I miss doing the TV.  It may sound strange, but nothing can replace those things because there is simply nothing else like life in Derby.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, Ad-Lib to the Blow Off! <\/em>is not just about Bill\u2019s connections to roller derby.  Jim Fitzpatrick covers the entire history of roller derby in his book. In writing this book, Jim turned to Bill for research and editorial help.  Bill also provided the foreword to the book.  I contacted Jim and asked him for more information about the book and Bill\u2019s role in making this book a reality.  Here is what Jim sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I fell in love with Roller Derby and the San Francisco Bay Bombers as a small boy in 1968 and had a childhood dream to become a professional skater. Fast forward a number of years and I was able to live out my dream which ended up lasting 36 years (in a variety of roles which included skater, referee, track crew member, trainer, assisting in promotion, coach\/general manager)! Things didn’t quite pan out as I had envisioned but it was a wild roller coaster ride that I would definitely take again if I had it to do over.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years I became a collector and historian of the sport and a little over a decade ago began writing my book in order to preserve its history before it was too late. I reached out to Bill Hill for his insights into his time as a professional skater, from rookie to one of the top player coaches. Bill also gave me valuable assistance with editing and organizing the book.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for my book, I feel one doesn’t need to be a fan of Roller Derby to enjoy it. It offers something(s) for a wide variety of audiences. The original Roller Derby\u2019s rich history began during the Great Depression and survived through three wars (WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War), as well as decades of radical changes in society. Just when Roller Derby reached its peak in popularity and its future looked bright, in the blink of an eye it shut down. For years the fans, participants, and media were led to believe the sport succumbed to the oil crisis and gas rationing of the early 70s. In reality, the actions of a member of the Chicago Outfit (Al Capone\u2019s Mob) were what actually led to the league\u2019s demise. Since then, countless attempts to revive the sport have come and gone. Many were poorly executed or run. A few were totally bizarre reinterpretations of the game involving huge money and major TV deals but stood absolutely no chance of succeeding since those in charge lacked the understanding of what made the original sport so successful. Many of the attempts “muddied the water” as to what the original Roller Derby was and tarnished its reputation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book also gives an unprecedented look inside the sport, from not only the business end but the skaters’ point of view. In order to do that, I had to shatter kayfabe (a term that was used in professional wrestling in which events were portrayed as \u201creal\u201d even though they were staged) and be the first to expose what really went on and how much of the sport was legitimate and how much was “set.” Numerous personal and touching insights are included which expose the hazards, hardships, and sacrifices skaters and personnel endured for the honor of being a part of Roller Derby. The allure of performing in an amazingly entertaining but extremely dangerous spectacle, in front of huge crowds and on television, was so powerful that most look back upon it as the best time in their life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnes & Noble Press published Ad-Lib to the Blow Off!<\/em>, and they have more information about the book on their website:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/ad-lib-to-the-blow-off-jim-fitzpatrick\/1139822756<\/a> Fitzpatrick includes the stories of many skaters in his book, and I enjoyed reading about these other skaters.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the skater\u2019s story that interests me the most is Bill\u2019s story.\u00a0 In a sense, this book captures a side of Bill that most of his professional colleagues at UNC Charlotte never saw during his long career as an administrator.\u00a0 I think of Bill\u2019s skater self as his alter-ego.\u00a0 In his role as a Senior Associate Dean, Bill represented the interests of the university and behaved as one would expect an upper-level university administrator to behave.\u00a0 However, having played ping pong with him many times, I saw another side of Bill\u2014a more rebellious, go-for-broke side.\u00a0 In a way, the multiple sides of Bill are like the multiple sides of Charlotte.\u00a0 The Chamber-of-Commerce side of Charlotte is all business, but the Storied Charlotte side of the city is far more interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bill Hill and I go way back.\u00a0 We arrived at UNC Charlotte\u00a0within two years\u00a0of each other.\u00a0 Bill came in 1982 as a communications studies professor and debate coach, and I came in 1984 as an English professor with a specialty in children\u2019s literature.\u00a0 Shortly after we met, we discovered that we both liked to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3043,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions\/3043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}