Jamie Murnane

AC/DC's "T.N.T" is blaring through the speakers of the South Side's Fleetwood Roller Rink. It's 6:45 on a Wednesday and aside from a few children and their parents, the only people on the rink, skating under the disco ball, are a pack of badass women dressed in black. Most are tattooed, pierced and dyed. They're the South Side roller-derby league: The Wreckin' Rollers.

For the next three hours, the Wreckin' Rollers will practice their skating skills. It's when the rink closes to the public that the league's motto, "Derby deeds done dirt cheap," is put into effect, and the twenty-five (of a total forty) members who showed up for tonight's practice will run through bouts, using moves they learned from a wrestling coach.

League creator Betty Rumble talks about how the league formed while she takes periodic skate breaks. Rumble says she got the idea to start the league when she and many of the other members were turned away from joining the Windy City Rollers, the North Side league that was the first to bring derby back to Chicago, the city it originated in during the Great Depression.

"As I always say, `We may not be the first all-girl flat-track roller derby team in Chicago, but we're definitely the baddest,'" Rumble says before skating off with teammates Susie Switchblade, Racie Deecie, Jenny Cyde and Maddie Morgue (the league's licensed mortician).

After a minute back on the rink, Rumble takes a dive and comes to sit on a bench near the lockers. "Shit. I fell hard," she says, rubbing her already-bruised knee. "That's the second time in the last couple weeks. It's fun--makes you tougher." She laughs and goes back out unfazed.

(2005-05-10)

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