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Ralph Valladares - Wikipedia

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Ralph Valladares
Personal information
Nickname(s)	The Guatemalan Flyer Little Ralphie The Living Legend
Nationality	Guatemalan
Born	(1936-07-31)July 31, 1936
Died	November 13, 1998(1998-11-13) (aged 62)
Height	5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Sport
Sport	Roller derby
Team	Los Angeles Braves Miami Westerners Los Angeles Thunderbirds

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]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Lorette Behrens, "Ralph Valladares", Derby Memoirs
^ "Roller Derby Action Scheduled on Ventura County Fair Track", Press-Courier, August 16, 1987
^ "Westerners Nab Third Victory", Miami News, January 21, 1955
^ "Roller Derby Returns Here", Miami News, January 13, 1955
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Tom Johnson, "These Skates Have Been Through Hell", Milwaukee Sentinel, October 24, 1986
^ ^a ^b Andre Mouchard, "After a decade of dormancy, roller derby is poised to attempt one more comeback", Orange County Register, November 30, 1998
^ Robert Rogers, "Derby brings back the '70s", San Bernardino County Sun, October 19, 2007
^ ^a ^b "Cheap Seats", Spokesman-Review, November 19, 1998
^ "Obituaries: Ralphie Valladares; Starred With Roller Derby's T-Birds", Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1998
^ "Events and Inductees", Roller Derby Hall of Fame
^ Personally Ralphie was a very sweet down to earth man who was a loyal friend with an extremely good reputation. He had a keen quick sense of humor & was there for his friends. Never to be forgotten, Ralphie was a rare Soul, not to be replaced.

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