History

In 1935, during the worst times of the Depression era, a sports promoter named Leo Seltzer invented a spectacle he called Roller Derby. Originally intended to compete with then-popular dance marathons, the derby was a simulation of a cross-country roller skating race in which participants circled a track thousands of times to simulate covering the distance between Los Angeles and New York. Occasionally, massive collisions and crashes occurred as skaters tried to lap those who were ahead of them. Seltzer realised this was the most exciting part, and tweaked his game to maximise the carnage.

First Wave

Roller Derby achieved its first wave of televised popularity in the 1950s centring on the New York Chiefs with nationwide appearances on CBS and ABC. In 1958, Leo Seltzer's son Jerry moved the operation to the San Francisco Bay Area and established the most fabled team in the entire history of the sport, the longtime champions San Francisco Bay Bombers. A more theatrical imitation, called Roller Games, began with retired Derby skaters in 1961 in Los Angeles.

In 1973, high overhead costs and other factors led to the demise of Roller Derby. Star skaters continued to skate in the rival Roller Games, but within two years that company's circus-like approach doomed the attraction and fans deserted the arenas by the thousands. Several attempts were made in the late 1970s and 1980s to revive the sport, including an effort in cooperation with ESPN, without much success.

RollerGames Revival

In 1989, television producer David Sams teamed with Roller Games owner Bill Griffiths Sr. to create a modern version of the sport called RollerGames. Instead of a banked oval track, a figure eight track was used where one side heavily banked, and included obstacles such as the "Wall of Death" (which was located on the heavily banked side) and the "Jet Jump". As a tiebreaker, two skaters would skate around a pit full of alligators. The first skater to skate around the pit five times or to throw their opponent into the alligator pit was declared the winner. The show also included "halftime entertainment" by musical performers and commentary by Wally George. Main commentators for the show were former college basketball announcer Chuck Underwood and producer David Sams. Former Phoenix news reporter, Shelley Jamison, served as sideline reporter. RollerGames premiered in 95% of the country, and, though generally panned by critics, was well-received among teenagers.

The world famous Los Angeles T-Birds were one of the teams used for the show. Other teams were The Rockers, Hot Flash, The Violators, Bad Attitude, and The Maniacs. Many of the athletes that skated for Griffiths in the past were used for RollerGames. The show only lasted half a season before being cancelled due to lack of interest, poor production values, and the main production company going bankrupt. To this day, Griffiths regrets the decision of staging RollerGames.

RollerJam Revival

Between June 1998 and June 2000, Knoxville, Tennessee television impresarios Ross K. Bagwell Sr. and Stephen Land staged another revival known as RollerJam. Bagwell and Land recruited numerous stars from the Roller Derby of yesteryear, as well as newer stars from various athletic backgrounds, to skate in the six-team World Skating League (WSL). Jerry Seltzer, the son of the game's creator Leo Seltzer, was named RollerJam "commissioner". Games were televised out of "RollerJam Arena," situated on the grounds of Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Despite strong funding and a television deal with The Nashville Network (TNN, now known as Spike TV), this venture failed as well, probably due to a lack of consistency of how to present the product.

Today's Roller Derby

In the early 21st century, after two decades in relative obscurity, the sport began to experience a grassroots revival, particularly among women, with amateur leagues, forming in urban centres across the United States. The leagues, of which there are at least 30 nationwide, are thus far all-female, self-organised (many are non-profit organisations), and mostly compete on flat, not banked, tracks. Each league is locally-focused; teams in each league compete against each other, but rarely compete against teams from other cities. In mid-2005, representatives from various leagues began discussing how to facilitate interleague play. Skaters in these leagues use quad (traditional) roller skates, not inline skates.

There are also a few mixed-gender, professional, centrally-organised leagues that originated in the RollerGames era and continue to compete today. One is the National Roller Derby League (NRDL), which presently consists of teams that train and compete on banked tracks in the coastal cities of Southern California only. One of the NRDL teams, the L.A. Stars, is sometimes billed as the LA T'Birds, perhaps in an attempt to capitalise on the legacy of the LA T-Birds from RollerGames.

Another of these leagues is American Skating Roller Derby (ASRD), consisting of the (San Jose) Bay Bombers, Chicago Pioneers, New York Chiefs, and Brooklyn Red Devils.

A third league, the American Roller Derby League (ARDL), owned by Tim Patten, focuses on promoting the (San Francisco) Bay City Bombers, along with the New York Demons and two all-female teams in the San Francisco Bay area. The ARDL is sometimes promoted as the American Inline Roller Derby League when competing on inline skates.