Mike Oles III: The Blog
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Watching Whip it! with the Naptown Roller Girls
January 29, 2010
— amateur sports capital of the world, Bill Hudnut, culture, Drew Barrymore, Earth House, film, Flotation Walls, Naptown Roller Girls, peyton manning, Slothpop, sports, subsidies, tax breaks, Whip It!
- It was a fun scene at Earth House last night.
We screened Whip It! last night with the Naptown Roller Girls and had a big crowd. Afterwards, indie rock bands Slothpop and Columbus, OH based Flotation Walls played.
It is amazing how quickly the Roller Girls have emerged in Indianapolis as a popular sports team and cultural presence. There might not be a bigger success story this side of Peyton Manning when it comes to doing sports and culture the right way. It must be noted that the Roller Girls did it with out large sums of financial backing, wthout massive tax breaks and without public subsidies.
They created their own scene.
They draw sellout crowds to the Pepsi Colliseum at the State Fairgrounds and have even created a fun tailgating scene. Indianapolis still bills itself as the amateur sports capital of the world and the Naptown Roller Girls fit nicely into that tradition.
I don’t think former Mayor Bill Hudnut had roller derby in mind when he coined the term though.
