I am Richard Hurton. Well, that’s my current derby name, at least.
I first heard about the resurgence of roller derby around 2003 via the Comedy Central show Insomniac with Dave Attell. I honestly didn’t think much of it. Looked like fun, but there wasn’t any roller derby in my town so I promptly forgot about it.
Then in 2006 my partner and I moved to the MidWest. She had reconnected with a highschool friend (thanks, Facebook) who conveniently lived at the half way point for the cross country move. I only mention this friend, because she was gung ho for roller derby, and was a skater on her local team. It got my partner excited to learn more about roller derby. Unfortunately, the small town we moved to didn’t have roller derby… so after a short while, I forgot all about it… again.
In 2009 we found ourselves moving again. This time to Salt Lake City. Prior to moving I had made contact with a person in SLC via LiveJournal (oh how I miss LiveJournal). She and her partner just happened to be the announcers for the local roller derby team (Salt City Derby Girls). Through them we finally made it to our first derby bout! A little late to the party, but at least we made it.
We went to a few more bouts, but 2009 was a tumultuous year for roller derby in Salt Lake City. The local league split. Out of that split emerged Wasatch Roller Derby (WRD). Alongside WRD a recreational league started, The Red Rockettes. By coincidence one of the founders of the rec league happened to be one of the first people we met in Salt Lake City.
In 2010/2011 my partner decided that she would give recreational roller derby a go. I, in full support of my partner, volunteered to NSO. And thus began our deep dive into roller derby.
My original roller derby name was Unkle Sammich. Later, I decided to complement my partner’s derby name, Liz Tailher; so I changed my derby name to Richard Hurton. If you still don’t get the connection, google “Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton”.
In 2012 I started researching derby leagues around the world. I wanted to get a better idea of how many leagues played under the different rulesets. That research eventually resulted in this website.
–Richard Hurton