Fort Wayne Roller Derby (FWRD) is an open gender flat track

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played on an oval track by two teams of five skaters. It is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leaguesA Roller Derby league is synonymous with an individual club or team in other team sports, as ...

league based in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 census ...

. Founded in 2005 originally as Fort Wayne Derby Girls, the league currently consists of a women’s team and an open gender team that compete against teams from all over the United States and Canada. Fort Wayne Roller Derby is a member of the

Women's Flat Track Derby Association The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby. It sets the international standards for rankings, rules, and competition in the sport, and provides guidance and ...

(WFTDA).

History

FWDG was the first flat track roller derby league in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, founded in October 2005 by Danielle Nicolette (Abbott), who skates under the

derby name A derby name, roller derby name or skater name is a nickname used by a skater while playing or officiating roller derby. Derby names can be seen as an opportunity to adopt an alternative on-track persona. Many derby names are puns, and in some ...

"Little D Evil" and Tonya Vojtkofsky, who skated as "Minx", after they saw the Rat City Rollergirls in Seattle. The league played its first exhibition bout in May 2006, to a crowd of 1,200 fans. According to Amber Recker, the first skater to respond to Minx's call for a new team, "We kind of had to get butts in seats by playing up the fighting and more of the sexy aspect of it. As we've evolved... we're much more sports driven". FWDG first played a team from another league in January 2007, when it took on the Gem City Rollergirls, and, in the same month, it joined the

, (and was announced as a new member by the WFTDA in May 2007) and by the end of the year was ranked 29th in the WFTDA.Current WFTDA Rankings
, '' Derby News Network'', October 2007 In 2009, it formed a B team, scrapping its intraleague teams. In 2013, Fort Wayne hosted a WFTDA Division 1 Playoff at the

Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Allen County War Memorial Coliseum is a 13,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, near present-day Johnny Appleseed Park. It opened in 1952 with a construction cost of nearly $3 million. The Allen County Wa ...

. FWDG hosts the annual Spring Roll tournament, featuring women's, men's and junior roller derby games.

WFTDA competition

While Fort Wayne has hosted a WFTDA Playoff tournament they have yet to qualify to compete at one.

Rankings

In the community

The league also focuses on charitable fundraising, and had donated more than $26,000 to charities by June 2008, and $110,000 by September 2013.

References

{{Fort Wayne, Indiana Sports in Fort Wayne, Indiana Roller derby leagues established in 2005 Roller derby leagues in Indiana 2005 establishments in Indiana