Palm Springs
The National Roller Derby Hall of Fame & Museum closed in New York City in 2015, relocating to Palm Springs, California.

Many skaters from Roller Derby were in the IRSL, and some of the team names were the same as in Roller Derby. Initially the league was composed of the San Francisco Bay Bombers, the Midwest Pioneers, the Brooklyn Red Devils and the Manhattan Chiefs.

Probably the most famous roller derby player of all time, Bonnie Thunders has been featured in many mainstream publications and has been regularly called ‘the LeBron James of roller derby’.

Seltzer’s game continued throughout World War Two with two units. Roller Derby was first televised from the Polo Grounds in NYC back in 1946, but when the game was broadcast from New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory at the end of November, 1948, the sport finally captured the attention on the nation.

Leo Seltzer
Leo Seltzer, a Chicago-based sports promoter, is credited with inventing roller derby in the 1930s, in the midst of the Great Depression. The idea came to him after he read an article stating over ninety percent of Americans had roller-skated at least once.

Roller derby was born on Aug. 13, 1935, at the Chicago Coliseum. The story goes that Leo Seltzer, an event promoter who had cut his teeth on walkathons, was looking for something a little more exciting to draw Depression-era crowds.

America’s Roller Derby Team The Los Angeles Thunderbirds were ‘America’s team’ (along with the Bay Bombers) during the heyday of roller derby (the 60’s and early 70’s) and were the most popular and prolific international roller derby team in the history of the sport.

Roller Speedway ceased operations in 1952. In 1954, the Derby established the most fabled team in the history of the sport, the longtime champion San Francisco Bay Bombers. Stars on this team eventually included Charlie O’Connell, Joanie Weston, and Ann Calvello.

In the 1970s The indoor record for Roller Derby was set at 19,507 at Madison Square Garden in 1970. The outdoor record was set at the Oakland Coliseum on July 4, 1970, at 28,314 for a game between the Bay Bombers and the Northeast Braves. The following year that record was topped again with 34,418 for a Bomber game at the Coliseum.

The Pioneers skated in the Chicago area, the Jolters in Cincinnati, the Chiefs in New York, and, of course, the Bombers in Northern California.