Jim Fitzpatrick (born April 15, 1959) is an author, sports photographer, and former athlete in the sport of roller derby. Fitzpatrick, born and raised in San Francisco, California, skated for the San Francisco Bay Bombers, of the International Roller Skating League (IRSL) Roller Derby, the 1977–1987 revival of the sport. Following a number of shoulder separation injuries, he became a league referee.

In 1980 he skated in an altered version of Roller Derby which combined Roller Derby rules with those of Roller Ball called Roller Superball. This series was held in Luna Park Arena in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 1987, he performed Roller Derby stunt skating in an MTV-aired music video for the song "Love Is Not a Game" by McAuley Schenker Group.

He returned to skating in 1993, competing on Team USA in the Roller Game World Cup, held in Tokyo, Japan. Roller Game (created in Japan), inspired by Roller Derby, was a male-only, full-contact, legit sport in which the athletes wore hockey pads and rules were strictly enforced. If one fought, they were ejected from the game. Other rule changes helped simplify the game. Only one team was on offense at a time and only one jammer (potential scorer) was used. Sets were used instead of the traditional periods. The best three out of five sets determined the winner of the game.

Fitzpatrick wrote and compiled the photo-rich coffee table book Roller Derby Classics… and more!, published by Trafford Publishing, a self-publishing and print on demand publishing company, in 2005 (ISBN 1-4120-6678-6). Noted derby queen Ann Calvello wrote the foreword of the book.

Fitzpatrick is married and has two children, and still resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently the ARSD (American Roller Skating Derby) trainer and the General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Bombers. On October 13, 2007, the Bombers won the ARSD Championships at Kezar Pavilion and Jim was voted 2007 General Manager of the Year.

On Thanksgiving Day in 2008 the SF Bay Bombers returned to KOFY TV20 - Cable 13 with a one-hour special. Dan Ferrari, Jim Fitzpatrick and Brad Wagner were listed as the Executive Producers for the show. On March 14, 2009 the SF Bay Bombers first game aired and was the highest rated show that day for the age group of 18 to 34 (refer to article below in external links). Ferrari, Fitzpatrick and Wagner are the Executive Producers for the games which will initially air once a month, leading up to a weekly showing.

Jim came in number 2 on the Top 10 Males' list for Movers and Shakers in the July edition of XR News (Roller Skating Magazine). (refer to the link below.)

On Sept 12, 2009 the San Francisco Bay Bombers won the 2008-2009 ARSD Championships at the Cow Palace arena. Fitzpatrick was voted 2008-2009 General Manager of the Year along with Georgia Hase.

Jim appears in the 2009 Roller Derby documentary, "Rolling Thunder" which is part of "The Roller Derby Chronicles", a three-disc DVD retrospective of the golden years of Roller Derby, by Video Service Corp. He was interviewed regarding his involvement in the SF Bay Bombers resurgance.

[edit] External links

• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20051105/ai_n15763985
• http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/03/roller_derby_ratings.php
• http://www.arsdbombers.com/
• http://issuu.com/xrnews/docs/july_09_pdf?mode=embed&layout=http%3A//skin.issuu.com/v/color/layout.xml&backgroundColor=080000&showFlipBtn=