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Print This StoryJoanie Weston
From the 1969 Roller Derby Program Yearbook:
A generation ago all-America's sweetheart might have been young Liz Taylor. But for 20-million weekly U.S. viewers of Roller Derby (more than double that worldwide) the "now girl" of the "now generation" has got to be the Bay Bombers' Joan Weston.
At 5'10" and a well-distributed 150 lbs. it's no wonder the press has dubbed the Oakland distaff captain the skate-game's "Golden Girl."As a measure of her performance, Weston has perennially made the I.R.D.L. All-Star roster since 1956 -- an unmatched record.If fan popularity can be judged by volume of mail and gifts, then she is the "odds-on" favorite. Voted "Roller Derby Queen" four times, Joanie relinquished that honor to Margie Laszlo in '68.Weston did, however, receive the womens' Most Valuable Player award in '68, largely for her "operation bootstrap" program to develop a young, inexperienced squad into a unit that could hold its own. In five seasons she has produced three Rookies-of-the-Year and placed five skaters, other than herself, on the league's All-Star rosters.Weston joined Roller Derby in 1954 out of Mount St. Mary's College in Southern California, where she excelled as an all-around athlete.Her current hobbies include travel (an absolute necessity in the Derby's hectic world), collecting records (mostly Hawaiian), and her pet dog Malia -- named after the canoe with which she won Hawaii's 1962 outrigger championship.Weston died in May 1997 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a rare brain disease. She was 62.
At 5'10" and a well-distributed 150 lbs. it's no wonder the press has dubbed the Oakland distaff captain the skate-game's "Golden Girl."As a measure of her performance, Weston has perennially made the I.R.D.L. All-Star roster since 1956 -- an unmatched record.If fan popularity can be judged by volume of mail and gifts, then she is the "odds-on" favorite. Voted "Roller Derby Queen" four times, Joanie relinquished that honor to Margie Laszlo in '68.Weston did, however, receive the womens' Most Valuable Player award in '68, largely for her "operation bootstrap" program to develop a young, inexperienced squad into a unit that could hold its own. In five seasons she has produced three Rookies-of-the-Year and placed five skaters, other than herself, on the league's All-Star rosters.Weston joined Roller Derby in 1954 out of Mount St. Mary's College in Southern California, where she excelled as an all-around athlete.Her current hobbies include travel (an absolute necessity in the Derby's hectic world), collecting records (mostly Hawaiian), and her pet dog Malia -- named after the canoe with which she won Hawaii's 1962 outrigger championship.Weston died in May 1997 of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, a rare brain disease. She was 62.
