Unacquainted with Stereotypes

Catherine Bacon

Bacon, a freshman biomedical engineering major from Tucson, takes an interest in hands-on to a different level. She plays a full-contact sport: roller derby. “Players race around the track,” she explains. “One, the jammer, earns points for passing members of the other team, while opposing players try to stop her.”

Bacon plays on the Hell Marys, a team in the Texas Rollergirls league, which holds bouts the fourth Sunday of every month in spring and summer. Players use made up names; hers is Luce Bandit. 

Today’s game doesn’t fit the old roller derby stereotype, she says. “For one thing, there’s a lengthy rule book. Mainly it’s about women getting to look good and play a strong sport at the same time. It’s more sport than spectacle. 

“Roller derby has helped me be more vocal than I used to be,” Bacon adds. “I used to be quiet, and now I’m better at talking to people. As an engineer you have to work with people, so that’s definitely a valuable skill. It has made me a more confident, more assertive person.” As she zips around the track, dodging falling bodies and flying elbows, that statement rings true.

Catherine Bacon holds the William D. Moore Endowed Friends of Alec Scholarship.