Jim Fitzpatrick

Who is Jim Fitzpatrick?

Jim Fitzpatrick is an author, photographer, portrait artist 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 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, 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 was used. Sets were used instead of the traditional periods. The best three out of five sets determined the winner of the game.