Quick Facts
AriesBiography
Jim Fitzpatrick (born April 15, 1959) 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 (IRSL) Roller Derby, the 1977–1987 revival of the sport. Following a number of shoulder separation injuries, he became a league referee.
In 1979 one of Jim's photographs, which he took of pro wrestler Don Muraco fighting with Dean Ho at the Cow Palace for Roy Shires' wrestling promotion, was published in Wrestling World Magazine in the Special 1979 Edition. Ring Announcer and writer, Allan Bolte wrote the article entitled "Don Muraco: The Man Fans Love the Hate" which contained Jim's photo that appears on page 47.
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 (created in Japan), 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 (potential scorer) was used. Sets were used instead of the traditional periods. The best three out of five sets determined the winner of the game.
Fitzpatrick wrote and compiled the photo-rich coffee table book Roller Derby Classics… and more!, published by Trafford Publishing, a self-publishing and print on demand publishing company, in 2005 (ISBN 1-4120-6678-6). Noted derby queen Ann Calvello wrote the foreword of the book.
In 2007 Fitzpatrick published his second book "I Have a Chin! A Japanese Chin" by Trafford Publishing. It's a children's picture book about one of his dogs (ISBN 9781425113865).
He is currently the ARSD (American Roller Skating Derby) trainer and the General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Bombers. On October 13, 2007, the Bombers won the ARSD Championships at Kezar Pavilion and Jim was voted 2007 General Manager of the Year.
In 2008 he published his third book, "When I Shot Good & Bad Guys (Who wrestled at the Cow Palace)", through Arena Publishing, Inc. (Standard Copyright License). It's a photo book consisting of wrestling photos taken by Jim during the late 1970s while he worked as the staff photographer for former wrestling promoter Roy Shire's Big Time Wrestling.
On Thanksgiving Day in 2008 the SF Bay Bombers returned to KOFY TV20 - Cable 13 with a one-hour special. Dan Ferrari, Jim Fitzpatrick and Brad Wagner were listed as the Executive Producers for the show. On March 14, 2009 the SF Bay Bombers first game aired and was the highest rated show that day for the age group of 18 to 34 (refer to article below in external links). Ferrari, Fitzpatrick and Wagner are the Executive Producers for the games which will initially air once a month, leading up to a weekly showing.
Jim came in number 2 on the Top 10 Males' list for Movers and Shakers in the July edition of XR News (Roller Skating Magazine). (refer to the link below.)
On Sept 12, 2009 the San Francisco Bay Bombers won the 2008-2009 ARSD Championships at the Cow Palace arena. Fitzpatrick was voted 2008-2009 General Manager of the Year along with Georgia Hase.
Jim appears in the 2009 Roller Derby documentary, "Rolling Thunder" which is part of "The Roller Derby Chronicles", a three-disc DVD retrospective of the golden years of Roller Derby, by Video Service Corp. He was interviewed regarding his involvement in the SF Bay Bombers resurgence.
Jim was interviewed on an episode of ABC7's Emmy award-winning public affairs show, "Beyond the Headlines" by the host, Cheryl Jennings. The program aired in November 2010.
On February 5, 2011 Jim held his first art exhibition at the LC Gallery located in the Westfield Mall in Downtown San Francisco.
On March 19, 2011 the San Francisco Bay Bombers won the 2010-2011 ARSD Championships at Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. Fitzpatrick was voted 2010-2011 General Manager of the Year.
In April 2011 Fitzpatrick became one of a growing number of former professional athlete who joined the Butkus Foundations' Steroid Education campaign, "I Play Clean". The non profit campaign, founded by NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus, focuses on tackling the issue of steroids among high school athletes.
On April 7, 2012 Fitzpatrick held his second art exhibition. It was held at ManCave Memorabilia in San Mateo, CA. Jim displayed some of his works of boxing legend Mike Tyson. Tyson was also on hand, making a scheduled autograph appearance. It was their second time meeting and Fitzpatrick presented Tyson with a portrait he had drawn of Tyson and his family.
In March 2013 Fitzpatrick was one of several artists included in the ebook "Best of Activism in Art - I" by Sarah S. Vati. Along with his biography, several of Jim's drawings were included in the book (ISBN 9781301850259).
On May 15 Jim was one of 60 artists featured in Art Tour International's ATIM's Top 60 Contemporary Artist of 2014. He also received honorable mention for one of his works.
In 2015 he was again selected as one of 60 artists featured in Art Tour International's ATIM's Top 60 Contemporary Artist of 2015 and later in the year, on Oct, 15, 2015, Jim was interviewed for a segment, via Italy, of ATIM's "Heart 2 Art" series by Viviana Puello, the Art Director of Art Tour International Magazine.
Jim was interviewed for TV by Mark Baker of "Game On" regarding his team's long time woman's captain, Lali O and Roller Derby. The show, which aired on Nov 19th, 2015, is a bi-weekly, Comcast Hometown Network program that's aired in the San Francisco Bay Area and focuses on female athletes.
On April 30, 2016 in Pacifica, CA Jim made his debut in Gold Rush Pro Wrestling as Mr. Goldsworth, a butler for pro wrestler Alexander G. Bernard.
On September 12, 2016 some of Jim's old pro wrestling Super 8mm footage he had shot at the Cow Palace during Roy Shire's Big Time Wrestling shows in the late '70's was published (with credits) in a WWE video, "I Did It My Way: The Pat Patterson Story" (WWE Hall of Famer)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp03sbfWhjY
Jim is mentioned twice in the autobiography (on page 82 and page 208 regarding his efforts to revive the traditional sport of Roller Derby), "The Last 'True' Roller Derby A Memoir". written by former professional skater Larry Smith.
In November of 2016 some of Jim's wrestling photos, taken back in the late 1970's at the famed Cow Palace, along with an interview with him are included in Rock Rims' book "When It Was Big Time: A One Hundred Year History Of Northern California Professional Wrestling" http://whenitwasbigtime.blogspot.com/
Fitzpatrick is married and has two children, and still resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.