The history of roller derby is a long and fascinating one. Since 1922, roller derby has been an athletic movement spearheaded by women. You might be surprised by these vintage images that capture roller derby throughout the years...

The History of Roller Skating

Roller skating originated in the 18th century as part of the performing arts—skates were used to simulate ice skating on stage during theater and musical performances. Early roller skates could only go in a straight line due to their primitive design.

Skating into Your Hearts

It wasn't until the mid-1800s that skating began to gain popularity beyond the stage. Skates were popularized after being used in ballet in opera of the late 1840s. Thanks to technological advancements like rubber whels and four-wheeled turning skates, roller skating became widespread between 1880 and 1910.... 

Growing in Popularity

During this time, roller skates were mass produced, and skating in rinks became a popular activity for people throughout Europe, Australia, and the Americas. It was around this time that specialized skates for figure skating and speed skating began to appear.

Skating Competition

The sport's growing popularity led to the formation of organized endurance races. In 1884, Victor W. Clough skated 100 miles over the course of ten hours through Geneseo, Illinois. The next year, 36 skaters competed for $500 in prize money in a six-day-long skating competition at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Bad Reputation

Endurance events continued to grow in popularity throughout the early 1900s. Races tended to feature amateur skaters as well as professionals who sometimes toured in troupes. However, events began to spiral out of control. Rowdiness, pushing, tripping, and shoving became commonplace in the speed roller skating community.

Disorderly Conduct

Due to its disorderly nature, speed roller skating was not considered a legitimate sport. This caused the International Skating Union of America to form in 1907 as a response, which lasted for two decades. The organization worked to establish rules, condemn rough play, and organize championship races.

Leo Seltzer's Influence

The term derby, or race event, was first coined as early as 1922 when a newspaper reported on the results of two multi-day "roller derby" events that had been held that year. However, it wasn't until a man named Leo Seltzer came along that the roller derby became a true sport.

The Derby

In 1929, as the Great Depression took hold of the nation, Seltzer figured out why attendance was dropping at his Oregon cinema chain. The struggling film publicist realized that dance marathons were awarding cash prices to out-of-work contestants, and spectators were drawn to these events over a trip to the movies.

Building the Industry

Seltzer began to hold his own dance marathons, dubbed "walkathons" due to the fact that contestants would usually just shuffle around for the duration of the contests. Seltzer's walkathons could last as long as 40 days with hundreds of unemployed contestants hoping to win cash prizes.

Walkathon

The walkathons were emceed by celebrities like Frankie Laine and Red Skelton, grossing $6 million in only three years. Seltzer's first commercial walkathon was held in Denver, Colorado. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois and began booking events at the Chicago Coliseum...

Transcontinental Roller Derby

In 1935, the novelty of walkathons had begun to fade. According to legend, Seltzer read a Literary Digest article stating that 93% of Americans roller skated at least once in their lives. Seltzer discussed the article with regular patrons at Ricketts, a restaurant in Chicago, and was challenged to come up with a sport that incorporated roller skating.

A Lifestyle

Seltzer wrote down his ideas on a tablecloth at the restaurant. He then decided to combine roller skating with six-day bicycle races, which were popular at the time. In August of 1935, Leo Seltzer organized the Transcontinental Roller Derby, which went on for more than a month.

Transcontinental Roller Derby

The first Transcontinental Roller Derby was held at the Chicago Coliseum. It was a simulation of a cross-country roller skating race in which 25 teams, each compromised of one man and one woman, circled a wooden, oval, banked track thousands of times.

Chicago Coliseum

The teams skated approximately 11.5 hours a day until they hit 3,000 miles, the distance between New York City and Los Angeles. Team standings were tracked with multicolored lights and their hypothetical progress across the U.S. on a large map.

A Major Success

Teams were disqualified from the competition if both members were off the track during skating times. 16 teams dropped out of the race due to exhaustion or injuries, but the remaining nine managed to complete the grueling endurance race. The winning team, Clarice Martin and Bernie McKay maintained the lead spot for the final 11 days of the event.

A Portable Track

Following the success of the original event, Seltzer packed up camp and hit the road, taking the Transcontinental Roller Derby throughout the nation with a portable track that allegedly cost $20,000. Crowds averaging 10,000 people gathered to watch the race every day.

Maximizing Profit

Seltzer's new contest was billed as spanning the equivalent of 4,000 miles, the length of San Diego to New York City. By September, 3,000 people had joined the Transcontinental Roller Derby Association, each paying $2 at 1,600 rinks across the country. For years, it continued to grow in popularity.

Getting Rough 

After witnessing a match in Miami, a journalist named Damon Runyon encouraged Seltzer to capitalize on physical violence. Dangerous crashes and collisions only made the sport more exciting for spectators. Seltzer tentatively implemented a new set of rules...

Contact Sport

Runyon told Seltzer to maximize physical contact between players by permitting contestants to elbow, "whip," and slam one another into the outer rail of the track, as well as telling players to exaggerate hits and falls for the sake of the spectacle. Seltzer, who wanted to keep the sport honest, didn't like the idea, but he agreed to the experiment.

A Deadly Accident

Fans of the sport loved the shift to a more violent and theatrical Derby. Sadly, two years later, disaster struck. A terrible bus accident killed 21 members of a touring group of Roller Derby skaters near Salem, Illinois. Only a few survived the incident. The tragedy nearly put Seltzer out of business.

No More #1

Eventually, replacement skaters were signed to take over for the spots lost to those who had been killed in the accident, and the Roller Derby persevered. As a tribute to those who lost their lives, the number "1" was retired for all Roller Derby teams. The sport enjoyed a few more years before another event derailed its popularity...

World War II

Roller Derby was broadcast on the radio as early as 1939 and quickly grew in popularity as a spectator sport. Matches were held in 50 cities across the nation for more than five million spectators until the U.S. entered into World War II at the end of 1941, which put a halt to the sport's rapid ascent.

Was This the End?

Many skaters and spectators had to enlist in the armed forces, causing crowds to dwindle, and the remaining members of the league were reduced to a single team which skated mainly for soldiers' entertainment. Finally, the war drew to a close in 1945, and it was up to Seltzer to redeem its popularity.

First Attempts

The year after WWII came to an end, Seltzer tried to bring Roller Derby to New York's Polo Grounds, but his attempts failed due to 12 straight days of torrential rain. In 1948, Seltzer figured out how to breathe life back into the sport—by broadcasting it on the television.

Derby on CBS

Roller Derby debuted on New York television starting on November 29, 1948, when it began a 13-week run on CBS-TV. This was long before TVs were popular but ultimately saved Derby from extinction. Broadcasts could be seen in bars and storefront windows, and the medium made it seem as though the underwhelming crowds were actually packing venues from wall to wall.

Popular Once Again

Spectators soon turned out in droves for the sport, boosting crowds from the low hundreds to five- or seven-thousand at a time. In June 1949, Seltzer managed to secure an appearance at Madison Square Garden in front of 55,000 people over the course of five days.

The Golden Years

Seltzer paid skaters between $200 and $260 a week, opening franchise teams and forming the National Roller Derby League, or the NRDL. The NRDL consisted of six teams, and playoffs sold out Madison Square Garden for a week.

The NRDL 

The six teams that made up the NRDL were the New York Chiefs, the Brooklyn Red Devils, and Jersey Jolters, the Philadelphia Panthers, the Washington-Baltimore Jets, and the Chicago Westerns. The Red Devils had no official venue and were often cast as villains to add to the sport’s theatrics.

Spectator Sport

When the CBS contract expired in 1949, broadcasting was taken over by ABC and games began to be televised throughout the country until 1951. During this time, the NRDL grossed $2.5 million, with revenue having been bolstered by the Madison Square Garden appearances that blew through previous attendance records.

No More “Phony”

Even though the players wanted to skate “phony” with exaggerated hits and falls, Seltzer denied them, claiming that the public would soon grow bored of the fake drama. He then made it his mission to legitimize Roller Derby, encouraging the formation of junior leagues for kids and getting skaters to agree to a “no railing” rule.

First Suspension

In an attempt to display his commitment to the legitimization of Roller Derby, Seltzer suspended star skater Midge “Toughie” Brasuhn for allegedly pushing another skater into the track’s outer railing, even though the play had been faked by the other skater. Brasuhn was furious, but the rule remained.

Placing Bets

By the early 1950s, coaches were placing bets on the outcomes of matches, which Seltzer declared was another sign of legitimacy. However, Despite Seltzer’s best efforts, players engaged in a degree of staged theatrics for comic and dramatic effect well into the 1970s.

Popularity Dips

In 1951, Seltzer terminated his contract with ABC and negotiated a deal with General Motors to broadcast the games on NBC, but the deal fell through. Although a few independent stations continued to broadcast games, the loss of network broadcasting was devastating to Roller Derby, and fan interest soon plummeted.

Seltzer Moves West

Madison Square Garden no longer hosted matches, fan clubs fell apart, and Seltzer left the business in favor of pursuing real estate interests. He then moved westward to Los Angeles and took Roller Derby with him. In July 1953, Seltzer created the L.A. Braves, Derby’s first international team who embarked on a European tour.

Passing the Torch

By 1954, the Derby had established the San Francisco Bay Bombers, which became the most fabled team in the sport’s history. By 1958, Seltzer had grown tired of the struggles he faced with Derby behind the scenes as crowds dwindled once again. He handed the torch to his son, Jerry Seltzer, who stumbled upon success once again.

On the Road Again

In an attempt to advertise a San Francisco dealership’s new lot, the dealership got a TV station in Portland, Oregon to broadcast an unedited tape of a match. To his surprise, Jerry received hundreds of letters begging for Roller Derby to come to Portland, Oregon.

New Formula

Jerry and the Derby obliged, making an appearance before a whopping 9,000 fans in Portland. Jerry realized that he had discovered a new promotional formula and began syndicating videotapes of games to more independent stations and followed up with Derby appearances in the cities where the tapes were sent.

TV Exposure

By 1961, 40 stations carried Derby, and within the next few years, others began to snatch up broadcasting rights for their respective areas. Even though Jerry understood that TV exposure was essential to the sport’s revitalization, he didn’t want to repeat his father’s mistakes and used the medium exclusively to publicize live matches instead of serving as a source of revenue for the skater's salaries.

Changing the Rules

Jerry wanted to implement a handful of new rules. Under his reign, skaters were required to wear helmets for the first time, and jammers’ helmets were made easier to spot for the sake of TV-friendliness. Other developments in the 1960s included profit-sharing and annual contracts for skaters who had previously been holding day jobs to make ends meet.

New Heights

By the end of the 1960s, Roller Derby had reached new heights of popularity thanks to a 120-station television network. Fans came out to support teams by the thousands, once again regularly selling out arenas like Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, and Kiel Auditorium. In 1969, Derby viewership peaked with approximately 15 million viewers per week.

The 1970s

The largest-ever attendance record for a Derby event held at an indoor arena was set in 1971 when 19,507 people came out to Madison Square Garden. The following year, 50,118 people attended an interleague match between the Los Angeles Thunderbirds and the Midwest Pioneers in Comiskey Park in Chicago. Unfortunately, these numbers couldn’t be maintained…

Goodbye, Derby

In 1973, Jerry Seltzer shut down Roller Derby. A variety of factors caused Jerry to call it quits, including high overhead and gas shortages during the 1973 oil crisis, which made it impossible for teams to travel. Some star skaters were recruited for the Roller Games, but the league’s circus-like approach to Derby became the reason for its demise. Within a year, Roller Derby was done.

Revival Attempts

Throughout the 1970s until the 1990s, several attempts were made to revive the sport. The only one that saw minor success was the International Roller Skating League (IRSL), which ran for just over a decade from 1977 to 1987. The IRSL faced a constant battle for TV support as games like baseball and football grew in popularity. Eventually, contracts were dropped in favor of broadcasting the latter.

RollerGames

RollerGames was created in 1989 by two television producers. The show presented a theatrical version of the sport, featuring a steeply banked figure-eight track, an alligator pit, and a number of skaters who had both been in the previous Roller Games league as well as younger players. Although the show was extremely successful, it only lasted 13 weeks before being canceled.

RollerJam

Between 1999 and 2001, another televised revival took place known as RollerJam. A number of stars from the original Roller Derby as well as newer stars from a variety of athletic backgrounds were recruited to skate in the six-team World Skating League. Jerry Seltzer was named the show’s “commissioner.”

The Fall of RollerJam

The show was televised from the “RollerJam Arena” in Universal Studios. Despite strong funding and four seasons of broadcasts on the network now known as Spike TV, fictionalized storylines and uncharismatic characters took precedence over actual skating, which did not go over well with fans, and RollerJam drew to an end.

Modern Roller Derby

The contemporary roller derby revival began in 2000, when Daniel Eduardo “Devil Dan” Policapro, a musician from Austin, Texas, recruited women to skate in a new version of roller derby—something he envisioned to be a rowdy, circus-like, rockabilly spectacle. However, Policapro and the women parted ways after a failed fundraiser, and the women self-organized as another group.

BGGW

Bad Girl Good Woman Productions was created in 2001 and ushered in a new generation of roller derby which was open to women only. Founders formed four teams and staged their first public match in Austin, Texas the following year. The BGGW then split in two: the Texas Rollergirls went for flat-track play while the BGGW became the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls who went on to skate banked-track roller derby.

Reality TV

By late 2005, the revival had begun in earnest, and 50 similar all-female leagues had come to fruition, which grew to 135 by the end of 2006. The sport’s rapid growth is attributed to the reality show Rollergirls, which followed the lives of real skaters from the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls faction of the sport.

Outside the U.S.

International leagues began to form that same year, and international competition soon followed. By the middle of 2009, there were 425 amateur leagues, including 79 in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, and Sweden.

Male Roller Derby

The all-female revival of roller derby led to the introduction of all-male teams with the Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA), which is currently the international governing organization for men’s flat-track roller derby. The group was founded in 2007 and has 65 leagues under its jurisdiction.

Other Leagues

Other leagues, mostly mixed-gender, do not compete in regular seasons, but rather schedule occasional special-event games for a handful of spectators. Team names generally pay homage to Roller Derby and Roller Games teams of the past. There are currently over 2,000 amateur leagues worldwide.

Punk Aesthetic

Primarily in the U.S., a punk aesthetic and third-wave feminist ethic is prominent among roller derby players. In 2009, the feature film Whip It was based on roller derby, introducing viewers to its rules and unique punk culture.

Gameplay

Roller derby consists of a series of short scrimmages, or jams, in which both teams designate a jammer with a star on their helmet and four blockers who skate counterclockwise around the track. The opposing team attempts to stop the opposing jammer while assisting their own jammer, essentially playing both defense and offense at the same time.

Roller Derby Positions

There are three positions in roller derby: jammer, blocker, and pivot. The jammer laps the opposing team members while the blockers create a wall to protect the jammer. The pivot is a blocker who can be designated as a jam during a jam as long as their helmets are transferred properly. Pivots, who wear a stripe on their helmets, can also act as a temporary captain for the team.

Strategies

The three main strategies of roller derby are ending the jam, passing the star, and penalty-killing. Ending the jam means that the lead jammer can call off the jam at any time, which controls the opposing team’s ability to score points.

Passing the Star

The jammer can “pass the star” or perform a “star pass” to the pivot by handing a helmet cover with the star to the pivot, which turns the pivot into the jammer. This is also sometimes referred to as “passing the panty” because helmet covers are sometimes known as “panties.”

Penalty-killing

Blockers adapt their play to a penalty situation while being captained by the pivot. For example, a team that is short-handed may have the pack skate faster to slow down scoring until the team returns to full strength.

Tactics

There are a number of tactics involved in roller derby including walling up,goating, running back or recycling, and bridging. Tactics are deliberate conceptual tasks in support of the strategy, which is a high-level plan to help the team outscore the opposition.

Overall Significance

According to scholars, roller derby defies heteronormativity and patriarchal standards, acting as a stage for female athletes to refute constraints placed on women by society. For close to a century, roller derby has been a source of entertainment for players and spectators alike.