History of roller derby:

The sports entertainment style of Roller Derby has its roots in the Transcontinental Roller Derby that was started by film publicist Leo Seltzer in 1935. Pairs of skaters lapped around a track in 11 1/2 hours every day to try to skate the equivalent of the approximate distance between Los Angeles and New York City. Seltzer took his Transcontinental Roller Derby event to different cities and charged spectators admission. Eventually, the show turned into the sport of Roller Derby we know today, as new rules and strategies kept being added to Seltzer's Transcontinental Roller Derby.

The term roller derby dates at least as far back as 1922, when the Chicago Tribune used it to describe multi-day, flat-track roller skating races, similar to 24-hour banked-track championship races reported on by The New York Times in 1914. One of the Times reports calls the 1914 championships a revival of an "old-time" sport.

Promoter Leo Seltzer and sportswriter Damon Runyon are credited with modifying the endurance competitions of the 1930s by emphasizing the physical contact and thus the more spectacular aspects of the sport. Seltzer trademarked the name Roller Derby, reserving it for use by his traveling troupe of professional skaters. Roller Derby took root as an icon of popular culture as matches were held in numerous cities throughout the U.S., bouts which were broadcast on radio and, eventually, on television.

Rival organizations such as Roller Games came and went as the sport/spectacle endured several boom-and-bust cycles throughout the second half of the 20th century. The initial business model of roller derby finally collapsed in the mid-1970s, but the sport underwent several professional, on-and-off TV revivals which were initiated by veteran skaters, including a continuation of Roller Games under new management, a 10-year International Roller Skating League (IRSL), and the short-lived, TV-only spectacles RollerGames and RollerJam.

Attempts to bring the sport of Roller Derby back were not really much of a success until the early 21st century when Roller Derby teams, mostly women's teams, started forming in many North American cities.