Roller Derby: Pleasing the People

Hiawatha L. Harvell, black, 25, and like 12 million other Americans a fulltilt Roller Derby fanatic, prides himself on being the Bay area’s foremost hater of the San Francisco Bay Bombers.

“If you follow the Bombers out of town,” he says, “you’d see how dirty Charlie O’Connell and the others really are. You wouldn't root for them no how."

Hiawatha should know. When he's employed, he follows the Bay Bombers on every stop of their April to Sep temberhome tour, a circuit that in cludes Oakland, Stockton, Sacramento, San Jose, and goes as far as Reno. The economy being the way it is, Hiawatha is unemployed and can only afford the Sunday afternoon contests at Kezar Pavillion in Golden Gate Park. All seats, two bucks. They're all filled.

The evidence this Sunday doesn't yet confirm what Hiawatha says about Charlie-o. The 6'2", 190 lb. O'Connell is clearly leader of the pack, weaving, feinting, gracefully elbowing, pushing but checking clean, loving the contact and looking (at 35) the unparalleled skating star of Roller Derby he is.