Rose City Rollers Roller Derby
Don't miss Portland's champion roller derby team
John Patrick Pullen
Know Before You Go
The roller derby season runs nearly year-round; see www.rosecityrollers.com/schedule for complete schedule of events.
When did sports become about performance-enhancing drugs, player strikes, owner lockouts and everything other than the game? Don’t ask the Rose City Rollers; since 2004, they’ve been competing with old-fashioned gusto and intensity, all for the love of the game — the game of flat-track roller derby.
To them, image is secondary — winning is everything.
This all-female, all-volunteer-run league has battled its way to the top of Portland’s sports fandom in recent years, packing venues from the Memorial Coliseum, which accommodates thousands of fans, to the hangar at Oaks Amusement Park, where hundreds squeeze into an intense, intimate space to cheer on the passionate, padded gladiatrices.
Tickets are available online to see these fast, furious, stunning and bold hometown girls, with names (like “Juke Nukem,” “Scald Eagle” and “Pain Goodall”) as colorful as their hairstyles and body art. But to them, image is secondary — winning is everything. So pull up a seat along the track, and grab a beer or glass of wine from the concession stand, because this is how we roll in Portland.