The promise that became Roller Derby Legacy.

At the center of this story is my grandmother, Loretta Behrens — born April 8, 1932 in the Bronx, New York City, one of six children, and known to roller derby fans as “Little Iodine.”

In 1949, Loretta and two friends traveled to the 9th Regiment Armory on Manhattan’s 14th Street to try out for what she thought was a speed-skating team. Instead she found the towering banked track of Roller Derby. She was clumsy on skates at first, but coach Silver Rich saw her potential and invited her to train for his new team, the Washington Jets.

She learned from the greats of the game and sharpened her craft against fierce rivals like Gerry Murray, who pushed her to elevate her whole game. An uncle gave her the nickname “Little Iodine,” and it stuck — perfectly fitting this larger-than-life New Yorker.

Loretta grew into a tough, no-nonsense skater, equally dangerous as a jammer or a blocker. Her leadership grew too: she was named Women’s Captain of the Eastern Panthers in 1953, captained the Westerners during their Texas home seasons (1956–58), and skated a memorable match race against Gerry Murray for the hometown Ravens that fans still watch today. In 1959 she skated for Hal Janowitz’s World Champion Westerners.

That September she married Phil Nass, a childhood friend from the Bronx, and settled in Southern California to raise a family.

After starting her family, Loretta returned to the track — skating again with the New York Bombers in the early 1960s, with the Chicago Hawks through 1965, and on a touring series in Japan in 1968.

Her contributions as a skater were later recognized with induction into the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame.

Loretta carried her commitment to the sport long after her competitive years. She saved photographs, programs, clippings, recordings, correspondence, memorabilia, and the stories of the people she knew. She also created an online tribute where former skaters and others from the roller derby family could preserve their experiences in their own voices — work that Roller Derby Legacy now carries forward.

Away from the track she built a full family life with Phil Nass, becoming a beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother — the matriarch whose love of family ran as deep as her love of the sport.

Today, more than 22 boxes of that history are being organized, digitized, researched, and shared through Roller Derby Legacy.

This project is not turning a fan’s collection into a website. It is continuing the preservation work of a woman who was a professional skater, a mentor, a Hall of Fame inductee, and a respected member of the roller derby family.

Loretta worked hard both to succeed in the sport and to keep its people and stories from being forgotten. Making her collection freely available to the world and the roller derby community is a way to honor that work. I believe she would be proud to see the history she protected becoming a living archive for families, skaters, researchers, fans, and future generations.