| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Guatemalan Flyer Little Ralphie |
| Nationality | Guatemalan |
| Born | July 31, 1936 |
| Died | November 13, 1998 (aged 62) |
| Height | 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Roller derby |
| Team | Los Angeles Braves Miami Westerners Los Angeles Thunderbirds |
Ralph Valladares (July 31, 1936 – November 13, 1998), often known as Ralphie Valladares, was a roller derby skater and coach.
Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating counter-clockwise around a track. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly inside the United States.
Born in Guatemala, Valladares moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was twelve years old. He hoped to become a jockey, but his weight reached 115 pounds (52 kg), and he turned his attention to roller skating. [1] He joined the roller derby at the age of seventeen, [2] initially skating for the Los Angeles Braves. [1] He soon moved to the Miami Westerners and, [3] despite being the shortest male skater, he immediately became regarded as a star, leading the scoring. [4]
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, Honduras to the east, El Salvador to the southeast and the Pacific Ocean to the south. With an estimated population of around 16.6 million, it is the most populated country in Central America. Guatemala is a representative democracy; its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City.
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, and the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. The city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, and its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America.
A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.
Valladares joined the rival Roller Games on its inception, in 1960, becoming a founder member of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds team. [5] He spent the next thirty years with the organization, and was involved in coaching, and also in setting up events in Japan and Australia. [6] He retired from skating in 1987, [5] but returned for the RollerGames television show. [6]
Roller Games was the name of a sports entertainment spectacle created in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California as a rival to the Jerry Seltzer-owned Roller Derby league, which had enjoyed a monopoly on the sport of roller derby — and its name — since its inception in 1935. Roller Games provided a mostly televised, increasingly theatrical version of the sport. Roller Games and its flagship team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds) has endured several boom and bust cycles, including a roller derby attendance record in 1972, a major reorganization in 1975, appearances on ESPN in 1986, a TV series called RollerGames in 1989–1990, and a small number of untelevised exhibition matches in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, and the early and mid-2000s.
RollerGames is a U.S. television series that presented a theatrical version of the sport of roller derby for a national audience, and featured a number of skaters who had been in the Roller Games league (1961–1975), as well as younger participants. It was broadcast for one season (1989–1990). The series came from the combination of Roller Games owner William Griffiths, Sr. and the television production team of David Sams and Mike Miller.
Valladares kept the same skates through the majority of his career. He noted that he once ran over them with his own car, and they also survived being frozen under 2 feet (0.61 m) of ice, following the evacuation of a venue in which he was competing. [5]
Outside roller derby, Valladares appeared as a shipping clerk in a 1980s television commercial for IBM. [5] He had previous acting experience as a skater in the Kansas City Bomber movie. [1] He married fellow roller derby skater Gloria "Honey" Sanchez twice, on both occasions on March 17. The couple had a daughter, Gina, who also skated with the Roller Games. [7]
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924.
Kansas City Bomber is a 1972 American drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Jerrold Freedman and starring Raquel Welch.
Both of Valladares' marriages ended in divorce, although the couple remained close and spent much time together until Valladares' death. [8] He died in 1998 at home in Pico Rivera, California, [9] having suffered with liver cancer for some time. [8]
Pico Rivera is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is situated approximately 11 miles (18 km) southeast of downtown Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin, and on the southern edge of the area known as the San Gabriel Valley. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, as well as Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), are in close proximity. The 2010 census reported that the city has a population of 62,942.
In 2004, Valladares was posthumously inducted into the Roller Derby Hall of Fame. [10]
