Sports
Roller derby star Jean Porter was known for her speed and beauty – The Globe and Mail
Jean Porter relied on grace and speed to zip past larger roller derby opponents with such nicknames as Slugger, Toughie and Big Red.
The petite Ms. Porter, who has died at 90, was a dervish on the professional circuit’s banked wooden ovals. A moon-faced beauty with jet-black eyes and a flawless complexion, her photograph appeared in newspapers across the continent as well as in such magazines as Life, Collier’s, and Picture Post. Fans of the sport voted her Roller Derby Beauty Queen in 1955 and she was runner-up for the title in the following two seasons.
She portrayed herself as the ingénue in Roller Derby Girl, a five-minute film released in 1949 about a rookie skater in the burgeoning sport. The Paramount Pacemaker featurette, which promised “sock ‘em thrills & spills” in its billing, was screened along with cartoons and newsreels before main features at cinemas across North America. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1950.
The skater was a fan favourite in the sport as an undersized underdog who tried to avoid the elbows, knees and, sometimes, fists of rivals. At a top speed of 35 miles per hour (56 kilometres an hour), collisions were common, injuries a part of the job.
“You get a lot of elbows in the ribs,” she told the Vancouver Sun in 1959. “Pinching is the best trick but you have to watch that the referees don’t see you.”
In the unsubtle marketing of the era, Ms. Porter’s Mohawk-Oneida ancestry was promoted in programs. She was photographed wearing a feather in a headband. Newspaper accounts typically described accounts of her races with such words as “warpath,” “war whoops” and other racist tropes owing more to Hollywood fiction than her own proud heritage.
Jean Helen Porter was born on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario at Ohsweken, a village near Brantford, on Jan. 31, 1930, to the former Marjorie John and MacDonald (Mack) Porter. She was raised in Buffalo, N.Y., where her father was a mechanic and automobile spray painter while her mother was a homemaker and a sewer with Broadway Knitting Mills.
The infant girl spent her first few summers on the rodeo circuit, as her parents joined a country-and-western band led by her maternal grandfather, Thomas John, a sapper with the Canadian Expeditionary Force who was shot and wounded on the Western Front in the First World War. (The family later changed the spelling of their name to Johns.)
In 1946, the self-described tomboy, whose brothers played baseball and lacrosse, became enamoured with roller derby after her family watched a match in Buffalo. She had a successful tryout and was invited to join the circuit for training in Chattanooga, Tenn. Her mother, who at first disapproved of her daughter’s wishes but later became a convert, accompanied her, soon after leaving her in the care of a house mother who cooked and chaperoned underaged skaters.
After a few weeks of training, Ms. Porter took part in her first match at the North Side Coliseum in Fort Worth, Tex.
She learned to skate with her left arm behind her back, which helped her take deep breaths to ease the symptoms of asthma and allergies. She chewed gum to keep her mouth moist as the track’s green slate paint was churned into dust by skaters’ wheels. More importantly, in terms of self-preservation, she learned a valuable and venerable lesson, as she recounted in a memoir on a website run by the former skater Loretta (Little Iodine) Behrens. Said Ms. Porter: “‘Do unto others’ became a motto.”
Roller derby originated as a gruelling endurance event created by Leo Seltzer during the Depression. The writer Damon Runyon helped transform the exhibition into a sport by composing rules in which contact was allowed and points scored for passing other skaters. After a wartime lull, the fast-paced, thrill-a-minute showbiz sport with mixed co-ed teams became a phenomenon driven by exposure on the new medium of television. The razzle-dazzle of the spectacle lured to trackside such movie and television stars as Jimmy Durante, Eleanor Powell, Cary Grant, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Milton Berle.
The legal mayhem was occasionally interrupted by a resort to fisticuffs, as happened in a 1951 match in Boston when hometown favourite Ms. Porter, said to have an “atomic temper,” battled rival Annis (Big Red) Jensen. “While coasting round a corner in the sixth (period), Miss Jensen gave Miss Porter an elbow,” the Boston Globe reported. “Miss Porter retaliated with an elbow and a knee. Then fur began to fly. Some solid blows were landed before the referees pulled them apart. Both were fined $10.”
In a 1960 contest at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto, Ms. Porter and Judy McGuire engaged in a “fist-swinging, hair-pulling duel,” according to a report in The Globe and Mail.
At five-foot-three, 114-pounds (or four-foot-eleven½ and 103 pounds if you believe some of the ballyhoo), Ms. Porter relied on speed and guile to avoid the brutal ferocity employed by such rivals as Annabelle (Slugger) Kealey, Midge (Toughie) Brasuhn, and Ann Calvello, the Queen of Mean.
Concussions were common, as were cuts and bruises, not to mention broken bones, including legs, arms, fingers and even vertebrae. Sometimes, skaters were poleaxed into the guardrails surrounding the track. The unlucky caught a wheel in the treacherous gap separating the track from the out-of-bounds infield.
In a 17-year career, mostly spent as a jammer, a skater who attempts to lap the other team, Ms. Porter skated for such teams as the Jersey Jolters and Los Angeles Thunderbirds. She also wore the uniforms of the Chiefs, Ravens, and Braves.
Ms. Porter’s naturally demure character served her well in a sport where those who defied traditional notions of femininity were more often portrayed as villains.
“Because of my being Indian, you had to be good, and never draw attention to ourselves,” she once said.
Ms. Porter married Jolters teammate Don (Jughead) Lewis in Buffalo in 1949. They had a daughter and later separated. She retained her maiden name as a competitor.
After leaving the circuit, she worked as a stone setter for a Buffalo jeweller for 19 years. She was a long-time volunteer as a bingo runner and served on the board of directors of the Fort Erie (Ont.) Native Friendship Centre, where she was also known for baking scones and fry bread, while her strawberry shortcake was a popular treat at the centre’s annual mid-winter powwow.
Ms. Porter died on Sept. 8 at St. Catharines (Ont.) General Hospital, about three weeks after abdominal surgery. She leaves common-law husband Roger Werner and a sister, Faye. She was predeceased by a daughter, Linda Dale Lewis, who died of a blood disorder as a teenager in 1969. She was also predeceased by a sister, Carol; as well as brothers Raymond, a U.S. Army veteran of the Second World War; Carmen, a U.S. Air Force veteran of the Korean War; and Orval, known as Brownie, who was posthumously inducted into the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame in St. Catharines in 2001.
Ms. Porter, who was a six-time roller derby all-star, was inducted into the National Roller Derby Hall of Fame and Museum, now based in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2007.
Her lone movie role is often incorrectly attributed to a contemporary Hollywood actress of the same name, a reflection perhaps of the ordinary life she lived away from the hullabaloo of the roller derby track.
Sports
Brad Treliving on Mitch Marner's injury status: "In all likelihood, it is a minor injury, but we want to be respectful of it" – Maple Leafs Hot Stove
At the NHL GM Meetings, Brad Treliving spoke to TSN’s Geno Reda about the status of Mitch Marner’s ankle injury, his options in net, and his first trade deadline as manager of the team.
When you hear high-ankle sprain, there is a bit of trepidation that it could be a lingering issue. Are you concerned about it at all?
Treliving: In all likelihood, it is a minor injury, but we want to be respectful of it. We have some time now. Mitch has been off the ice in the last couple of days, but we will ramp him up this week and take it day by day to see how he is feeling. Hopefully, he will be back sooner than later.
There was a scare with Ilya Samsonov when he went down during practice, but he is okay and still playing. How important is it for you as the GM to know who your number-one goalie is before the postseason?
Treliving: The good news is that we have two goalies who are really capable. Interesting situations for both. We know the season Ilya has had. The way he has bounced back and played recently gives us great confidence in him. And we know what Joe (Woll) is capable of.
Joe has gone through an injury and come back from it. Now, it is just a matter of him getting into the net. You try to balance both of those things with the fact that these are really important games. The points are important.
Sammy is going well right now. We have enough games down the stretch where both goalies are going to get into the net. That question will answer itself as we get closer to the playoffs.
We have to qualify first, but we feel confident in both goaltenders. Hopefully, both will be healthy when we get there. We are confident in both guys.
You made the comment, “We did all we thought we could do,” after the trade deadline. You inherited a lot of the roster and cap situation. How much longer do you think it will be before you can feel as though it is “your” team and you are heading into a postseason with a team you were able to put together?
Treliving: I have had an opportunity to do those things from day one. We have made some changes. We made some additions.
Through the deadline, there are three factors: there is the availability of players, those that fit, and the cost of those players. What kind of impact are they going to have on your team?
We’re excited about the things we did and the players we added at the deadline. We want to manage both the immediate right now but also the assets that we do have remaining. At the same time, what was the true availability of certain players?
We will continue to work on it. The deadline has passed. We are focused on finishing the regular season and getting into the playoffs. We will continue to work to make this team better throughout the summer and go from there.
It looks like the team is locked into the third-place spot in the Atlantic Division. That would mean either Florida or Boston in the first round. Do you feel the team is more ready to face either of them this time around?
Treliving: We are not going to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have to secure a spot first. That is goal number one. We have a lot of difficult games down the stretch. Once we can secure a spot, we’ll start focusing on who we are playing.
It sounds cliche, but it is the truth. Every team is a great team — certainly in our division. Boston and Florida are great teams, and you look at Tampa. Detroit has had some struggles recently, but they’ve had a heck of a year.
The division is deep as it is throughout the conference. We are not focused on who a potential matchup could be. Number one, we are focused on getting there. Number two, it’s about getting our game to the highest level we can get to. Once we get there, we will play who we play and go from there.
Sports
Canada's Team Homan down Norway for fourth straight win at women's worlds – TSN
SYDNEY, N.S. — Canada’s Rachel Homan continued to roll at the women’s world curling championship with a 9-4 win Monday over Norway’s Marianne Roervik.
Homan improved to 4-0 after Canada’s lone game of the day at Centre 200.
Tuesday will be an important day for Homan, vice Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes because they face two undefeated countries.
Homan takes on Italy’s Stefania Constantini (4-0) in the morning and defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland (5-0) at night.
“They’re two phenomenal teams and we know we will have to bring the same, or more, tomorrow,” Homan said. “I know they’re going to bring their A games, and we’re going to have to do the same.”
Norway shook hands when Homan hit for three points in the eighth end Monday.
After blanking the third, Homan’s shot stone on the button had opposing stones above and below in the fourth. Canada’s sweepers Miskew and Wilkes dragged Homan’s draw and curled it to the four-foot rings for another deuce and a 4-1 lead.
“Really well swept,” the skip said. “Tracy’s reading the line really good and called a good one there. Definitely a huge shot we needed to make sure we scored because it was looking like a steal for a while there.
“We’re all making a ton of big shots. It’s been going really good this week and hopefully it can continue.”
Norway countered with its first deuce of the game in the fifth end to trail 4-3.
Kristin Skaslien, who throws fourth stones for Roervik, navigated guards for a takeout at the back of the rings. A measurement on second stones confirmed Norway’s two points.
But Canada tightened its grip in the sixth end with Homan’s triple takeout to lie three with her first stone.
Skaslien’s shooter rolling wide left the Canadian skip a draw for a 6-3 lead.
Canada curled 92 per cent as a team in the game, led by Homan’s 94 per cent.
“(She’s) working really hard and it’s showing,” Miskew said. “The difference this year is we’re all throwing the rock very similar so she knows exactly how she has to throw her stones and trust what we tell her to make every shot.
“She’ll make anything out there.”
Homan opened the championship with a 7-6 victory over Sweden, a 7-4 defeat of Denmark, and a 10-6 win over the United States.
Norway (2-3) bounced back in Monday’s evening draw with a 11-5 victory in nine ends over Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz (1-4).
Italy downed Tabitha Peterson of the U.S. 10-3 on Monday afternoon to drop the latter to 2-3.
South Korea’s Eunji Gim (3-1) was a 9-4 winner over Japan’s Miyu Ueno.
Estonia’s Liisa Turman (1-4) went an extra end for a 10-7 win over New Zealand’s Jessica Smith (1-4), but lost 10-9 to Demark (4-1) in the evening draw when Madeleine Dupont counted three in the 10th end.
Tirinzoni stayed unbeaten with an 8-7 decision over Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz in the morning draw. Switzerland then won its fifth straight by beating Japan (1-4) 10-3 in eight ends in the evening draw. Tirinzoni scored three in the sixth end to go up 7-2, then added another three in the eighth to seal the deal.
Tirinzoni and teammate Alina Paetz, who throws fourth stones for the Swiss, are looking to become the first women to win five consecutive world championships.
The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 women’s world championship after Tirinzoni was victorious in 2019. Tirinzoni went on to build a run of titles in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
After dropping three straight, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg got into the win column with a quick, six-end 8-2 decision over New Zealand in the morning. She improved to 2-3 in the evening with a six-end 8-1 win over Scotland’s Rebecca Morrison, who slipped to 1-4. Scotland lost 9-2 to Denmark in seven ends earlier in the day.
The top six teams in the 13-country championship advance to the playoff round. Ties for the playoffs will be solved by head-to-head results.
The top two teams from round-robin play get byes to Saturday’s semifinals. The third-place team will play the sixth and fourth will play fifth in the qualifying-round games that morning.
The winners of the qualifying-round games advance to the semifinals. The semifinal losers will play for the bronze medal Sunday morning. The winners meet for the gold Sunday evening.
Homan won the 2017 world championship in Beijing with Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle. Jennifer Jones skipped the last Canadian team to win it in 2018 in North Bay, Ont.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2024.
Sports
Flames’ Wolf gets welcome-to-the-NHL moment from Capitals’ Ovechkin – Sportsnet.ca
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