We Are Toronto Roller Derby

In January 2006, two teams formed independent of each other: the Toronto Terrors and the Smoke City Betties.

The Terrors were brought together by man-about-town Scootro P. Meat, whose goal was to get as many hot, sassy girls as possible to beat each other up in indecently short skirts. He and his friend Trevstopher, a former hockey player, established themselves as the girls’ coaches, along with Jeff and Sally Brabant, two world-class Pan-Am Artistic and Dance skaters. With their help, the 14 fearless roller girls quickly progressed from knock-kneed, wobbling colts to fast, smooth, and confident racers ready for the derby.

Meanwhile, RollerBug Skate Co., owned by Kandy Barr, attracted the attention of other rollergirls-to-be. She coordinated a meeting and the Smoke City Betties, Toronto’s Blue Collar Cheerleaders, began practicing the very next week.

The Terrors dreamed of derby domination, and opened their doors to the outside world. At 9 AM on a rainy Sunday in April, 60 girls lined up to try out, hoping against all hope to get in on this emerging sport. Most of them did – on that day, the Toronto Roller Derby league burst into flame! The Toronto Terrors dissolved, and from their footsteps rose ToRD: four full teams of ass-kickin’, hard-skatin’, never-take-no-for-an-answer roller rebels. The Chicks Ahoy!, a crew of sassy sailors; the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, a team of elite, highly trained assassins; the Death Track Dolls, the cutest living dead you’ll ever see on four wheels; and the Bay Street Bruisers, brutal bankers who mean business.

On August 19, 2006, the Smoke City Betties hosted Derby D-Day. D-Day was a day of scrimmages and drills between teams from Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal, and Buffalo, NY followed by a Betties vs. Hammer City Roller Girls (from neighbouring Hamilton) scrimmage. D-Day was designed to bring everyone together in the spirit of sisterhood and derby and that it did!

The week after D-Day, representatives from all five Toronto teams met and discussed reinventing a league that all teams could get behind, a league that allowed for each team to represent themselves, and govern the league as one. It was at this meeting that the ever-growing Betties split and the sixth team – the Gore-Gore Rollergirls, a burlesque troupe of undead vigilantes – was born.

With ToRD quickly expanding, a travel team emerged to showcase Toronto’s derby love across the nation. Reflecting a symbol of our city, they are known as CN Power – a grab bag of the finest derby skaters Toronto has to offer. Their mission is to travel Canada and the US to take on any league, in any city, to show them that Toronto Roller Derby is a force to be reckoned with!

Sadly, in 2009 ToRD lost two teams. As they moved up to the new home at The Hangar in Downsview Park, ToRD shed tears of farewell for the Bay Street Bruisers and the D-VAS. The ToRD spirit lived on strong in the remaining five teams, who jammed, smashed, and screamed their way through an amazing 2009 season!

In 2010, due to the rising popularity of the sport, the D-VAS were reborn when ToRD created a farm team to help ease the transition from Fresh Meat to house teams. At the end of 2010, CN Power made some changes as well, moving from a revolving roster to a fixed roster, selecting the best ToRD skaters to wear pink every 6 months.

Growing as the number of active skaters in ToRD rises, in mid-2011 the Bay Street Bruisers rose from the ashes of the past. The Bay Street Bruisers are ToRD’s B-team, and have risen to become the #1 B-team in Canada according to Flat Track Stats.