Ralph Valladares

Ralph Valladares (July 31, 1936 – November 13, 1998), often known as Ralphie Valladares, was a roller derby skater and coach.

Born in Guatemala, Valladares moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was twelve years old. He hoped to become a jockey, but his weight reached 115 pounds (52 kg), and he turned his attention to roller skating.[1] He joined the roller derby at the age of seventeen,[2] initially skating for the Los Angeles Braves.[1] He soon moved to the Miami Westerners and,[3] despite being the shortest male skater, he immediately became regarded as a star, leading the scoring.[4]

Valladares joined the rival Roller Games on its inception, in 1960, becoming a founder member of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds team.[5] He spent the next thirty years with the organization, and was involved in coaching, and also in setting up events in Japan and Australia.[6] He retired from skating in 1987,[5] but returned for the RollerGames television show.[6]

Valladares kept the same skates through the majority of his career. He noted that he once ran over them with his own car, and they also survived being frozen under 2 feet (0.61 m) of ice, following the evacuation of a venue in which he was competing.[5]

Outside roller derby, Valladares appeared as a shipping clerk in a 1980s television commercial for IBM.[5] He had previous acting experience as a skater in the Kansas City Bomber movie.[1] He married fellow roller derby skater Gloria "Honey" Sanchez twice, on both occasions on March 17. The couple had a daughter, Gina, who also skated with the Roller Games.[7]

Both of Valladares' marriages ended in divorce, although the couple remained close and spent much time together until Valladares' death.[8] He died in 1998 at home in Pico Rivera, California,[9] having suffered with liver cancer for some time.[8]

In 2004, Valladares was posthumously inducted into the Roller Derby Hall of Fame.[10] [11]