Devil Dan

James Gibbard/The New York Times

According to the New York Times, a forgotten character called Devil Dan planted the seeds for modern roller derby.

To be sure, the sport has remained in many ways about women’s empowerment. The women who built the first modern league on their own hard labor called their company Bad Girl Good Woman Productions. Their brand of roller derby found its audience by trading the unintentional kitsch of earlier incarnations for an appeal to the do-it-yourself generation. Modern skaters dress in costume, adopt stripper-type stage names and endure sexually suggestive penalties, but they also deliver real hits, mind the business end of their leagues and disassemble their skate tracks by hand at the end of each competition.

. . .

“There’s no other sport out there that’s specifically for women, that allows them to be sexy and aggressive at the same time,” said Audrey Butera, 36, who skates under the name Ali Mony for the Rhinestone Cowgirls in Austin.