Fort Wayne Roller Derby celebrates 20 years with final home game

Fort Wayne Roller Derby turned its final home date of the season into a 20-year milestone at PSM Icehouse, pairing a bout with the Warrin’ Wrecking Dolls with a celebration of how far the league has come. The June 6 event also doubled as a fundraiser for Food Not Bombs, giving fans a reason to show up for the competition and the cause.

The league’s anniversary carries more weight than a round number. Fort Wayne Roller Derby traces its roots to October 2005, when it launched as the Fort Wayne Derby Girls with volunteers, passion, and a small turnout that grew only after the group took its recruiting to the streets. Other coverage has pegged the league’s history to 2006, but either way, the message in the rink was the same: this is a program that has lasted, adapted, and kept bringing new skaters into the fold.

That growth was part of the story on Saturday afternoon. Nicki Gunn, who skates as Merch Maven, said the league had enjoyed a strong year and seen plenty of new faces come out to learn the sport, a sign that the pipeline matters as much as the scoreboard. Fort Wayne Roller Derby now fields adults and juniors programs, and the league has used that structure to stay connected across age groups while building a larger base of skaters, volunteers, and supporters.

The home date was also built like a full-day derby event, not just a single game. Doors opened at 11 a.m., a juniors mashup rolled off at noon, and the adults followed at 2 p.m. Vendors lined the event with jewelry, candles, clothing, and baked goods, while a 50/50 raffle and silent auction helped push the fundraiser beyond the track. For a league that said it had only three home games in Fort Wayne this year, all at PSM Icehouse at 3869 Ice Way, the June 6 date carried the feel of a closing bell.

The opponent mattered too. Bringing in the Warrin’ Wrecking Dolls gave the crowd a matchup with outside flavor, the kind of trip that reminds a home league how it stacks up beyond its own zip code. Fort Wayne also said it has regional and local competition from places such as South Bend and Muncie, with teams traveling in from as far as Philadelphia, and an August training camp is next on the calendar as the league keeps building for the future. The home schedule is closed, but Fort Wayne Roller Derby made sure its final home game looked less like an ending than the start of its next decade.